So which part was tongue-in-cheek?
For anyone who wants to browse the schedule for the last convention, it can be found here:
http://www.uiowa.edu/~mmla/2005program.html
Some pretty ridiculous stuff. Most of it is twisted, marxist, homosexual, antiwestern, and of little interest to anyone who actually likes to read literature.
Give me Turabian any day.
Here's a slice of last December's program, taken more or less at random, to give the flavor of the event. I have had the ill fortune to attend numerous MLA conventions, so I have seen it first hand. It wasn't this way until the cultural revolution of the 1960,s but it has gone down hill ever since then.
8:30-11:45 a.m. (Henry VIII)
Topic: Memory and American Masculinity
Session A
8:30-10:00 a.m. (Henry VIII)
Coordinator: Nicholas Petzak, Case Western Reserve Univ.
1. “Brown Man’s Burden: Resisting American Colonial Masculinity in Maximo Kalaw’s The Filipino Rebel and Manuel Arguilla’s The Strongest Man,” by Jeremy C. de Chavez, The National Univ. of Singapore
2. “Always Already in Crisis: Masculinities and Technology in the Silent Film Era,” by Nicholas Petzak and Ehren Pflugfelder, Case Western Reserve Univ.
3. “Resisting the Myth of the Self-Made Man: Fraternal Organizations in American Literature and Culture,” by John N. Allen, Univ. of Wisconsin-Waukesha
Session B
10:15-11:45 a.m. (Henry VIII)
Coordinator: Chalet Sidel, Case Western Reserve Univ.
4. “‘The Apparatus’: Reconstructing the American Male in Don DeLillo’s Libra,” by Damion Clark, Univ. of Maryland
5. “‘Mother Nature does not play by the rules of Political Correctness’: Larry Summers and the Battle Against Feminization in the Academy,” by Chalet Seidel, Case Western Reserve Univ. and Jamie McDaniel, Case Western Reserve Univ.
6. “‘The Friction Felt Good’: Representations of Gay and Straight Men’s Relationships in Details during the 1990s,” by Margo Miller, Northwestern Univ.
8. Women's Caucus for the Modern Languages/Midwest II-A
8:30-11:45 a.m. (Café Rouge)
Topic: Women in Rock: Reading and Writing
Coordinator: Patricia S. Rudden, New York City College of Technology/CUNY
Session A
8:30-10:00 a.m. (Café Rouge)
1. “Under the Covers with Melissa Etheridge,” by Ellen Lansky, Inver Hills Community College
2. “Björk and Bataille: ‘Hyperballad,’” by Sean Shannon, Univ. of Toledo
3. “‘Something’s Missing and I Don’t Know Why’: The Overlooked Connection Between Emily Dickinson’s Poem #84 and Madonna’s ‘Bad Girl’ Short Film,” by Chris Bell, The Nottingham Trent Univ.
4. “Laura Nyro: Songwriter in the Studio,” by Thomas L. Wilmeth, Concordia Univ.
Session B
10:15-11:45 a.m. (Café Rouge)
5. “‘Not a Pretty Girl’ but an Active Girl: Feminist Discourse and Ani DiFranco,” by Tonya Hassell and Kimberly Guy, Univ. of North Carolina at Greensboro
6. “Joni Mitchell Reading American Culture,” by Sharon L. Barnes, Univ. of Toledo
7. “Gospel Visions in the Blues: Aretha Franklin as Songwriter,” by Heather Stur, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison
8. “A Freedom Never Brewed: Laura Nyro’s ‘Sweet Blindness’ and Its Sources,” by Patricia S. Rudden, New York City College of Technology
-“I’m told the morning panels tend to be ill-attended, as are the night panels, and most of the afternoon panels, as well,” Lewis-Kraus writes.-
Well, of course! The depressed fools are all out drinking!