Fantasy & the Fantastic Session (Standing Session, In-Person) (PAMLA 2025 Conference)
San Francisco, CA
Organization: Pacific and Ancient Modern Language Association (PAMLA)
Event: PAMLA 2025 Conference
Fantasy and the supernatural, broadly defined, shape many of the most popular contemporary narratives and universes—from Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones, from World of Warcraft to The Witcher, from classical and medieval tales of monsters and dragons to the worlds of N.K. Jemisin, Terry Pratchett, Tracy Deonn, Nnedi Okorafor, and Ursula K. Le Guin. As a genre, fantasy engages with questions of rhetoric, identity, and power in multiple ways, across multiple media, subgenres, and cultural traditions; the enchantment of fantastic and supernatural narratives has cast a persistent and global spell. For this session, we welcome proposals related to the PAMLA 2025 conference theme, "Palimpsests: Memory and Oblivion," as well as proposals not related to the theme, which explore any aspect of the fantastic.
Kristin Noone