Veiled Visions: The (Re)generation of Image in Literary, Literal, and Liminal Veils (Northeast Modern Language Association)
Pittsburgh, PA
Organization: Northeast Modern Language Association
Event: Northeast Modern Language Association
Veiling obscures, but also reveals. It holds symbolic and aesthetic power that spans centuries—from antiquity through the medieval and Victorian periods to its contemporary expressions in visual culture and social media—framing visibility itself and shaping how identity is hidden, controlled, or disclosed. In traditions like bridal veiling, for example, revealing the face marks a ritual threshold and passage from girlhood to womanhood. To veil is not only to conceal, but to shape what others are allowed to see—and what they are left to imagine. It shrouds, but also frames; withholds, but also invites interpretation. A veil becomes a surface for projection: when visibility is withheld, meaning is generated in its place. These tensions give veiling its interpretive depth, sustaining its power to provoke, unsettle, and reframe. This panel explores how veiling—literal, symbolic, or strategic—acts as a catalyst for (re)generation across different modes of identity, image-making, and cultural expression.
How do veils operate as sites of becoming, where identities are reshaped and meanings reimagined? How does veiling give rise to new forms of identity, power, and meaning—across practices such as concealment, ritual, visual culture, performance, and literary representation? And what happens when unveiling occurs—when the illusion breaks or is replaced by another?
We welcome papers that examine the generative work of veils across temporal, cultural, and symbolic dimensions, especially those that address:
- Veils as liminal media—thresholds of identity, image, or transformation
- The sustaining or reworking of myths, ideologies, and aesthetic legacies through veiling
- Unveiling as rupture or revelation—renewal through exposure or erasure
- Strategic veiling in literature, performance, art, or political resistance
- The ethics and politics of visibility, invisibility, and selective concealment
- Shifting representations and symbolic uses of veils across literary periods and movements
Please submit a 250-300 word abstract to https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21777 by October 15th, 2025 to be considered for this panel.
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21777
Kristin Mlay-Kuhns