Debates on the theoretical have dominated the discourse on humanities for a few decades now. The surge of anti-humanism from the 60s of the last century had already given way to the hermeneutics of the ‘post’ in the 80s, and the cult of the postmodern has launched us into the era of absolute deterritorialization of theory itself. As Baudrillard wrote in Symbolic Exchange, “…any theory can from now on be exchanged against any other according to variable exchange rates but without any longer being invested anywhere…” In the wake of such theoretical aporia, the conference is an attempt to (re)think the implications of the term ‘post’ in current theoretical parlance. Is there a politics always/already embedded in the ‘post’? Do we need the ‘post’ any more? Did we, in the first place, need it at all? Is it possible to counter essentialism with the ‘post’ prefix? These are some of the questions the conference intends to raise and explore by examining the ‘post’-marked terms in the theoretical market. The purpose is to look at the ‘post’-marked terms, such as poststructuralism, postcolonialism, postcommunism, postfeminism, post-Marxism, postmodernism, post-Holocaust and (m)any other possible ‘post’, both theoretically and textually vis-à-vis the arts, cinema, literature, history, geography, anthropology, culture and area-studies, etcetera.

Application forms with 300-word abstracts for 20-minute papers should reach postlodz2010@gmail.com by 22nd August 2010.

Acceptance of paper proposals will be notified by 29th August 2010. Full papers should reach postlodz2010@gmail.com by 22nd October 2010. Formatting instructions and style guidelines will be send along with acceptance of paper proposals.

Conference fee: 350 PLN to cover attendance at all sessions, conference materials, refreshments, lunches and conference banquet. The cost of accommodation is not included in the conference fee. Accommodation at The University of Łódź Training and Conference Centre (approximately 140 PLN per night) can be arranged by the organizers for willing participants. Those interested in booking accommodation at the Conference Centre should choose the relevant option in the application form.

The conference fee should be deposited by 30th September 2010 at the following account:

Recipient Address: Uniwersytet Łódzki (The University of Lodz), Narutowicza 65

Bank: Bank PKO SA, II Oddział w Łodzi (2nd Branch in Lodz)

Account Number: 87 1240 3028 1111 0010 2942 9504