Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

["Karey" <karey AT kareyperkins.com>]

Hi all –

 

Regarding the Walker Pecy session at SAMLA:  I received some e-mails indicating interest and ideas, but only one abstract for a paper – deadline is May 31, so if you’re interested, let me know, or we’ll have to cancel the session!  : (    I’d like to see Percy at SAMLA!

 

More information and orginal e-mail is below – the topic is flexible, just about Percy “today”!  If interested, send it to me at my home address:  karey1 AT charter.net  

 

Karey

 

 

 

Percy fellows:

 

 I will be chairing a session at the annual convention of the South

 Atlantic Modern Language Association (see topic below).  Am seeking

 papers on the  topic: "Walker Percy Today" -  that topic should be broad enough to

 fit many different Percy interests.  I think Percy is relevant today -

 but somehow is not included in college curricula as much as he should

 be!   Just e-mail a one-page abstract to me at karey1 AT charter.net   by May 31. 

 The SAMLA website is  http://www.samla.org  <http://www.samla.org/

 <http://www.samla.org/  (or http://samla.gsu.edu

 <http://samla.gsu.edu/<http://samla.gsu.edu/ ) with the conference

 information - November 9-11, 2007, in Atlanta, at the Renaissance

 Hotel downtown.

 

 I would love to see some of you at the conference, at the session, or

 giving your paper for the session!  We've conversed over the years,

 and though I have been silent lately (attempting to diligently finish

 a dissertationbefore I pontificate on a listserv.), hopefully, we'll

 be able to reconnect and meet!

 

 Karey Perkins

 Senior Professor of English, DeVry University Alpharetta, Georgia

 

 Topic:  Walker Percy, an honorary memory of SAMLA, is sometimes

 Considered "merely" a topical writer and, in the 17 years since his

 death, seems to have faded from the literary landscape.  College

 literature courses, even those on southern literature, only

 infrequently include Percy's writing.  How is Percy relevant to us

 today?  Does his study of symbol and language have anything to offer

 linguists, philosophers, or anthropologists today?  Are his dystopian

 science fiction novels, his social satires, and his social parodies

 out-of-date - or was he a prescient visionary, still current today and

 in the future?  Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the

 similarities between the psychology of Lancelot and a modern day

 terrorist;  Love in the Ruins as a description of the chaos and racial

 divide in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina; the Knotheads and the

 LEFTPAPAS forecasting the political divide in America today; More's

 lapsometer in Love in the Ruins and patient medication in The Second

 Coming echoing the popularity of Prozac and other anti-depressants

 today. One-page abstracts sent to Karey Perkins at karey1 AT charter.net  

 by May 31, 2007.  Complete papers should be no more than ten pages or

 20 minutes to read.