The 18th SELGYC Symposium, co-ordinated by Dr Rafael Alemany Ferrer, will be held in the University of Alicante on 9th, 10th and 11th September 2010.
Deadline for registration and paper proposals: 31st December 2009. Please find attached to this message the call for papers and registration form.
Objet d'observation, mais aussi projection de l'imaginaire, l'Autre en littérature reste un terrain composite, conjuguant objectivité et fantasme, illusion et décryptage du réel.
On se proposera d'examiner comment le Théâtre, genre à la fois textuel et scénique, s'empare de cet imaginaire de l'altérité et l'exhibe, selon les modalités qui lui sont propres, renouvelant ou aggravant des stéréotypes préexistants, ou au contraire recréant de nouvelles figures ou figurations de l'Autre dans un sens essentiellement novateur.
Comment se joue la représentation de l'Autre au théâtre, de quelles codifications, de quels topoi fait-elle usage ? A quelles conventions, à quelle axiologie sa conception répond-elle ? Sa place dans la dramaturgie est-elle centrale ou accessoire ? Qui est l'Autre (pour le dramaturge, pour son public) ? Nous esquisserons ici quelques pistes de recherche :
Au sein d'une sphère sociale ou d'un milieu familial donnés, l'Autre peut être le voyageur, l'étranger, qui, pénétrant dans cet espace, tranche sur les autres personnages par son costume et son langage, ses manières et ses valeurs. Pôle d'attraction-répulsion, cette figure dérange, suscite le rire ou le mépris, plus rarement la fascination de ses partenaires dramatiques. Les exemples depuis l'Antiquité sont multiples; dans la comédie classique, l'Autre est le provincial, ou encore le non initié, celui qui n'a pas intégré les codes de la mondanité, celui qui se trouve, à la faveur de sa fortune ou d'un déguisement, propulsé dans une classe supérieure à sa classe d'origine. A d'autres époques de l'histoire du théâtre (nous pensons notamment à celle du Naturalisme) l'êtranger peut être le déclencheur de l'action, provoquer une mise en cause des relations existant entre les autres personnages; on évoquera alors le cas du Bote aus der Fremde ou de l'intrus.
L'Autre au théâtre est aussi l'image construite ou reconstruite du pays étranger et de ses coutumes. En ce sens l'évocation de l'Autre recoupe celle de l'Ailleurs, fictif ou fantaisiste, cadre-prétexte d'une action lointaine, ou au contraire conception élaborée, conduisant à une vision idéalisée ou dépréciée du peuple voisin, de ses dirigeants et de leurs valeurs.
Dans la tradition du théâtre historique censé représenter des événements réels survenus à l'étranger, la vision dramaturgique porte d'ordinaire sur les gouvernants de la nation: la reprèsentation historico-politique de l'Autre est sans doute plus significative quand elle porte sur une période presque contemporaine du dramaturge: Le Massacre à Paris de Marlowe, qui évoque la Saint Barthélémy, propose une image féroce et machiavélique de Catherine de Médicis. Le Schisme d'Angleterre de Calderón diabolise aussi Ann Boleyn, responsable de l'instauration de l'anglicanisme.
On évoquera enfin les traductions et adaptations des æuvres étrangàres, soit qu'il y ait maintien de la localisation initiale (comme par exemple dans Le Cid de Corneille), ou au contraire déplacement, "relocalisation" dans le pays du dramaturge (pièces démarquées de l'étranger).
Dans tous les cas se pose la question de l'idéalisation ou du dénigrement, de la "neutralité" réelle ou prétendue.
Les propositions de communication sont à envoyer par courriel avant le 15 Janvier 2010 à Catherine Dumas cathe.dumas@wanadoo.fr ou à Karl Zieger Karl.Zieger@wanadoo.fr, en "pièce attachée" mentionnant le nom, le rattachement académique, le titre de l'intervention proposée et une brève description d'une dizaine de lignes de celle-ci.
Le Comité scientifique qui choisira les propositions à retenir est composé de: Yves Chevrel (Paris IV), Anne Ducrey (Paris IV), Sylvie Humbert-Mougin (Tours), Didier Plassard (Montpellier III), Manfred Schmeling (Université de la Sarre, Saarbrücken), Monique Dubar, Catherine Dumas, Claude Jamain, Joëlle Prungnaud (Lille III), Chris Rauseo, Véronique Sternberg, Karl Zieger (Valenciennes).
The Academic Circle for Comparative Literature together with the BULGARIAN AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION has organized an International Conference
hosted by the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" on 30 and 31 October 2009
In 2009 we celebrate the bicentennial of E. A. Poe and mark 160 years since his death. His life and literary legacy have never stopped to attract generations of readers, scholars and writers. Many authors in various arts have taken their inspiration from his works. Legends about his life and death, interspersed with enigmas, are still afloat today, which seems to be one of the reasons why Poe's personality and creations have fallen victim to slight and underestimation time and again.
Having lived and worked far away from the European literary canon, this powerful reformer of literature fell within the margins of his native literary canon; nevertheless he crossed many other borders. The most universal of the American nineteenth-century writers, he has been recreated by the European imagination of Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Manet, Conan Doyle, Doré, Debussy, including also the Bulgarian one of Teodor Trayanov, Debelyanov, Georgi Mihaylov, etc. "Poe is thus, in every sense, a writer of limits," writes Tzvetan Todorov; therefore "his production is necessarily marginal. Fortunately, in every age there are readers who prefer the margins to the center."
The participation fee is 30 lv. for Bulgarian participants and 30 € for participants from abroad. The collected funds will be invested in the preparation and publishing of a conference volume.
The presentations shall not exceed 20 minutes. Please, send your paper proposal including a title and an abstract up to 1800 characters in Bulgarian, English or French no later than 15 April 2009 to the chief coordinator Assoc. Prof. Ognyan Kovachev on e-mail address: poe_conference_2009@ymail.com or snail mail:
Department of Slavic Philology
Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
Tzar Osvoboditel 15 Blvd.
Sofia 1504, Bulgaria.
Organizing Committee:
Assoc. Prof. Ognyan Kovachev, Assoc. Prof. Madeleine Danova, Prof. Nikolay Aretov, Assoc. Prof. Julia Stefanova, Assoc. Prof. Roumiana L. Stantcheva (President of ACCL).
L' AALC convoque associées, professeurs, chercheurs et étudiants à participer des IX Journées de Littérature Comparée, qui auront lieu dans la Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Universidad Nacional del Litoral.
Comme d'habitude dans les Journées de l'AALC, il y aura de séances plénières et semi plénières tenues par des comparatistes argentins et étrangers spécialement invités, de panels et séances simultanées de lecture et discussion des communications.
Jusqu'à aujourd'hui on a proposé les Colloques suivants autogérés par des spécialistes invités à fin de créer des espaces de communication sur l'état de la question et les débats sur des topiques spécifiques :
Coordinateur: Dr. Raul Antelo (Universidad de Santa Caterina, Brasil) Ancien président de l'ABRALIC.
Coordinateur: Dr. Jorge Dubatti (Universidad de Buenos Aires) Ancien Vice-président de l'AALC, Directeur du Centro de Investigación en Literatura Comparada et du Centro de Investigación en Historia y Teoría Teatral.
Coordinatrice: Dra. Susana Romano Sued (Universidad de Córdoba - CONICET).
Coordinatrice: Prof. Zulma Palermo: (Universidad de Salta) Ancienne Vice-présidente de l'AALC.
Coordinadora: Dra. María Rosa Lojo (Universidad de Buenos Aires - CONICET).
Coordinateur: Dr. Sandro Abate (Universidad Nacional del Sur - CONICET)
Présentation des travaux:
Résumés: la date limite pour la réception des résumés est le 15 avril 2009. Caractéristiques : jusqu'à 15 lignes. Consigner titre, thématique, prénom et nom du ou des auteurs, téléphone, email.
On recevra par courriel à : aalcresumenes@gmail.com
Espace Jeunes:
On organisera un "espace jeunes". Étudiants chercheurs en formation, stagiaires des chaires ou des projets de recherche, devront présenter outre le résumé avec les caractéristiques explicitées plus haut, un résumé étendu de deux pages où l'on consignera le nom du professeur qui a guidé le développement du travail.
Travaux complets: Date de présentation: jusqu'au 30 juin.
Caractéristiques: travail inédit d'une longueur de 8 (huit) pages pour une lecture maximum de 20 minutes, 1.5 interligne, papier format A 4, Word Windows ou compatible, police 12 Times New Roman. Les notes seront incluses en fin de travail (endnotes). Au début de la communication ne signaler que titre, auteur/s et appartenance institutionnelle. Ne pas numéroter les pages et éviter macros. On devra envoyer la version digitale à : aalcresumenes@gmail.com
On acceptera de travaux en espagnol, anglais, italien, français et portugais.
Publication des Journées:
Les travaux présentés en temps voulu et en bonne et due forme seront édités en version numérique (CD), avec ISBN attribué et seront à disposition pendant les Journées. La présentation des auteurs sera une version finale, publiée telle qu'elle sera parvenue.
Postérieurement aux Journées, une publication spéciale imprimée sera réalisée sous le cachet éditorial du Centro de Publicaciones de la UNL, établie sous les soins d'un Comité scientifique national et international contenant, outre les conférences plénières et semi plénières, une sélection des communications lues lors des séances.
Tarifs: Les réglements pourront se faire:
Jusqu'au 30 juin
Expositeurs Non associés: $130
Expositeurs associés: $100
Postérieurement et jusqu'au jour du congrès:
Expositeurs Non associés: $180
Expositeurs associés: $150
Assistants: $100
Étudiants: $50
Information générale:
aalcomparada@gmail.com
Adresse postale:
Prof. Adriana Crolla
Centro de Estudios Comparados
Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias.
Ciudad Universitaria.
Santa Fe. 3000
ARGENTINA
Information pour le règlement du payement de la cotisation sociétaire et payement anticipé de l'inscription aux Journées
On prie les associés de bien vouloir payer la cotisation 2008 de $ 50 avant le 15 décembre de cette année au moyen d'un dépôt de ladite somme qui, comme vous le savez, recouvre aussi bien les inscriptions annuelles à l'ICLA/AILC (International Comparative Literature Association, Association Internationale de Littérature Comparée) (5 dollars) que de l'AALC.
Postérieurement à cette date-là on fera le payement annuel à l'ICLA et y seront inclus les associés qui, le 15 décembre auraient réglé leurs cotisations.
La cotisation sociétaire de l'année 2009, de $ 50 pourra être abonnée préalablement ou au moment des Journées. Les sommes dues peuvent être déposées via bancaire à
CBU 1910340655134005292521.
Tipo de cuenta: Caja de Ahorro - Titular: Silvia Zenarruza -CUIL: 27-10680883-5
CUENTA CAJA DE AHORRO 052925/2
BANCO CREDICOOP SUCURSAL 340 - Santa Fe - Argentina
Il est absolument obligatoire d'envoyer le ticket du re¸u du dépôt scanné à: sclement@gigared.com avec le nom de l'associé qui le réalise.
Nouveaux associés: Il est possible de s'associer à l'AALC en faisant parvenir une fiche dûment remplie qui sera mise à la considération de la Commission Directive.
Revue Confluencias
Dans le but d'éditer à nouveau la publication de l'AALC, Confluencias, nous prions tous les intéressés dans la diffusion de leur activité dans la discipline de la Littérature Comparée, de nous faire parvenir les informations pertinentes jusqu'au 1er mars 2009 (cours, congrés, publications, programmes, etc.) Veuillez incorporer seulement ce qui a été réalisé dès le mois d'août 2007 à nos jours. Nous pensons en particulier aux nouveaux centres comparatistes récemment formés, aux enseignants de LC en tant que discipline enseignée et à tous les associés en général.
ASOCIACION ARGENTINA DE LITERATURA COMPARADA (AALC).
Comisión Directiva:
Presidente: Adriana Crolla (Universidad Nacional del Litoral)
Vicepresidente: Adriana Massa (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba)
Comisión Organizadora de las IX JORNADAS DE LITERATURA COMPARADA
Coordinadora General: Adriana Crolla
Subcoordinadores: Analía Gerbaudo - Silvia Calosso - Oscar Vallejos
Secretaria de Actas: Ariela Borgogno
Secretaria Operativa: Susana Ibáñez
Tesorera: Silvia Zenarruza de Clément
The (In)Visibility of War in Literature and the Media
Research Centre for Communication and Culture
Lisbon
7 - 9 May 2009
Call for Papers
The conference wishes to address the visibility of war in the media and in literature in the 20th and 21st centuries. Either as a visible or a latent event, as a singular experience or as invisible discourse, war has shaped the social construction of modernity and influenced cultural and political production. The discourse of war as mediation is indeed a site of contention, where the narrative of the nation clashes with the individual rights and exerts pressure upon the subject of the narrative/reporting, thus affecting the substance of narration. This primal event, as modernist rhetoric claimed, was on the one hand aesthetically inspirational and culturally productive, and on the other ravaging and destructive. In fact, war is deeply intertwined with representation. On the one hand, as an exceptionally violent event, war challenges the work of representation. On the other, the work of representation is structurally supported by conflict and antagonism.
Focussing on the visuality of war, on the one hand, and on its discursive dimensions on the other, the conference wishes to address both the visible and the hidden discourses of war and the pervasiveness of this rhetoric in non-warring situations, such as the economy, the media or politics. It also aims to address the ways in which war affects, constrains and constructs subjectivity, be it the collective subjectivity of nationhood, or the individuality of warriors, victims, reporters and artists.
Deadline for submissions: December 15, 2008
Please send a 200-word abstract and a short vita to cultureandconflict@fch.lisboa.ucp.pt
Nella duplice accezione di studio e di difesa dell'ambiente, l'ecologia à insieme una disciplina e un'istanza ideologica. Entrambi gli aspetti, elaborati alla fine dell'epoca moderna, hanno avuto pieno sviluppo nell'età contemporanea. È soprattutto nel Novecento, infatti, che la tematica ecologica diviene pervasiva, interessando i diversi ambiti della cultura. Tra questi, anche la letteratura, che assimila però l'ecologia in forme peculiari, fortemente condizionate dall'eredità che i secoli passati hanno trasmesso alla cultura attuale.
Lungo i percorsi delle culture europee ed extraeuropee, l'ecologia letteraria si esercita nei confronti e nelle opposizioni: tra l'uomo e la natura, o tra questa e la cultura (dicotomie presenti anche nella letteratura premoderna); tra l'ambiente e ciò che lo minaccia, tra i ritmi lentissimi della storia biologica e geologica e quelli tumultuosi della storia umana (argomenti più caratteristici della letteratura e del pensiero moderni e contemporanei).
Finora, è probabile che la letteratura abbia influito sulla nascita di una moderna sensibilità ecologica più di quanto questa non sia stata in grado di ricambiare in termini di sostanza tematica. Tuttavia, scrittori come Don De Lillo, specialmente in White Noise ('Rumore bianco', 1985) e Underworld (1997), e Ian McEwan, che ha annunciato di aver messo in cantiere un romanzo di ispirazione ambientalista, possono contribuire all'apertura di un importante credito simbolico nei confronti dell'ecologia. Del resto, se la critica letteraria aspira a dare della realtà e delle sue trasformazioni una lettura problematica, alla luce dei fenomeni contemporanei il suo incontro con l'ecologia appare necessario e urgente.
Perciò la rivista «Comparison» intende dedicare un numero monografico alla relazione tra ecologia e letteratura, estendendo fin dove possibile l'indagine ad altri ambiti dell'immaginario. Lo scopo è offrire un quadro ampio e autenticamente comparativo dei problemi teorici e delle espressioni artistiche legati all'argomento. Sul piano teorico, le linee di ricerca possono implicare:
Per quanto riguarda autori, opere e momenti della civiltà letteraria, tra gli argomenti di rilievo vi sono:
Coloro che intendono partecipare al numero monografico di «Comparison» con un proprio contributo originale, possono inviare alla redazione un abstract che non superi le 1500 battute entro il 31 dicembre 2008. La consegna dei saggi è fissata per il 30 settembre 2009. Gli abstract e i relativi contributi devono essere spediti per posta elettronica a Michael Jakob (michael.jakob@cuepe.unige.ch) e a Niccoló Scaffai (scaffai@unisi.it).
In the double meaning of environment's study and defence, ecology is at the same time a cultural subject and an ideological appeal. Both these points of view, set at the end of modern age, completely developed in the contemporary years. Actually, just in the XXth century the ecological matter becomes widespread, in many different cultural fields. Among these, literature assimilates ecology in particular ways, strongly influenced by the heritage that past centuries transmitted to the present culture.
Throughout the lines of European and extra-European cultures, the literary ecology consists in comparisons and conflicts: between man and nature, nature and culture (oppositions already effective in pre-modern literature), environment and what threatens it, biological and geological very slow time and impetuous human history's rhythm (modern and contemporary literature and thought's proper subjects).
Up till now, literature influenced the modern ecological sensibility but possibly, on the contrary, ecology doesn't return as for thematic strength. Nevertheless, writers like Don De Lillo (especially in his novels White Noise, 1985, and Underworld, 1997) and Ian McEwan (who has recently announced he's working on a novel based on ecological subjects) can contribute to increase the ecology's symbolic value. Since the literary criticism aspires to give a deep interpretation of reality and its developments, the encounter with ecology is urgent and necessary by the light of the contemporary phenomena in nature and society.
That's the reason why the «Comparison» review intends to dedicate a monographic issue to the relationship between ecology and literature, extending the research as wide as possible to other artistic fields. The review aims to offer a large, really comparative panorama of theoretical points and artistic creations about the subject. On the theoretical side, many aspects could be studied, such as:
Regarding the authors, the works and the periods in literary history, among the most important subjects there are:
Who wants to take part in the issue of «Comparison» writing an essay about literature and ecology, could send to the editors an abstract not exceeding 1500 strokes, no later than 31 December 2008. The deadline for the essays' delivery is 30 september 2009. Abstracts and essays must be sent by e-mail to Michael Jakob (michael.jakob@cuepe.unige.ch) and Niccoló Scaffai (scaffai@unisi.it)
In a brief essay published in Parallax shortly after the 11th of September 2001, Homi K. Bhabha refutes the reductionism of the clash of civilizations explanation for the attacks in New York and Washington, DC, and the downed plane in a Pennsylvania field offered by too many commentators: [T]he decision to implement and administer terror, whether it is done in the name of god or the state, is a political decision, not a civilizational or cultural practice. Even as Bhabha makes this significant distinction, his comments point toward another question, necessarily subsequent to the events themselves: How have the political events of that September day, as well as their aftermath, affected cultural practice?
This edited collection, tentatively entitled From Solidarity to Schism: 9/11 and After in Fiction and Film from Outside the United States, seeks to address that question through discussions of novels, short stories, and movies from wide-ranging geographical sites of cultural production. That is, the collections focus is on how writers and filmmakers from outside the US represent September the 11th and any of the far-reaching events that came about because of the attacks that day. Do these fictions and films, as cultural practices, inaugurate new narrative or formal devices in their efforts to represent the attacks and/or their fallout? What manner of critique is offered, if any? Have these fictions and films ushered in a new aesthetics of terror and its consequences?
This collection will be an important supplement to the US-centered cultural and critical production addressing 9/11, providing researchers and teachers alike with resources and contexts that will allow them to broaden their own examinations of related works.
Please send all inquiries and abstracts of no more than 500 words (or full drafts of between 4000-6000 words) to the editor, Cara Cilano, at cilanoc@uncw.edu by 20 August 2008. Complete essays chosen from the abstracts will be due by 1 November 2008. While the fictions and films may be in any language, the essays themselves should be in English, as should any citations of primary and secondary sources.
Between Area Studies and the New Comparatism
A Special issue of Comparative Literature Studies
Edited by Amal Amireh and Waïl S. Hassan
Interest in Arabic literature in the United States has been sparked by Naguib Mahfouz's winning of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988, by multiculturalism, and by postcolonial studies, particularly Edward Said's critical legacy. But in recent years, this interest has intensified because of the two Gulf wars, 9/11, and the on-going "War on terror." Studying Arabic literature in the American academy and beyond cannot be abstracted from a context of Middle East politics and is taking place in the shadow of a "clash of civilization" ideology that posits the Arab and Muslim worlds as the dangerous other of western civilization.
As editors of a special issue of Comparative Literature Studies devoted to Arabic literature, we are seeking papers that take into account the complex contexts in which Arabic literature is being studied outside the Arab world at this historical juncture. Among the questions we are interested in are the following: What is the status of Arabic literary studies today? Has Arabic studies freed itself from the legacy of Orientalism? What is the impact of postcolonial theory on Arabic literary studies? What is the place of Arabic literature in the new articulations of comparative literature (from Gayatri Spivak's Death of a Discipline to Haun Saussy's Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization) and world literature (e.g. Franco Moretti, David Damrosch, Pascale Casanova)? What roles have postcolonial theory, feminist theory, translation theory, and reception theory played, or can play, in such articulations? What are the points of contact between Arabic literature and those of Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Australia? How do issues of gender, sexuality, war, nationalism, globalization, and human rights figure in Arabic literature today? What are the pedagogical implications and challenges of the current interest in Arabic literature and culture?
We invite articles that reflect on these and related questions in connection with Arabic-language texts written in the Arab world and elsewhere as well as texts by Arab writers of Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Portuguese, and Spanish expression.
The issue is scheduled to appear in late 2010. Completed papers will need to be submitted no later than 30 January 2009. 500-word proposals and brief CV are due by 30 September 2008 to Amal Amireh aamireh@gmu.edu and Waïl S. Hassan whassan@uiuc.edu. Contributions should conform to CLS style, and be between 6000 and 10,000 words.
LA TRADUCTION DANS LES CULTURES PLURILINGUES
L'équipe de recherche sur la traduction et l'unité de recherche « Relations littéraires et identités post/nationales » de la K.U.Leuven organisent un colloque international intitulé « La traduction dans les cultures plurilingues » les 20, 21 et 22 mai 2009 à Leuven, Belgique.
La prise de conscience récente du caractère plurilingue des cultures anciennes et contemporaines incite à revenir sur les découpages disciplinaires traditionnellement fondés sur la langue. Ainsi, la pratique complexe appelée 'littérature' ne peut plus être appréhendée à part entière (aurait-elle jamais dû l'être ?) moyennant ce critère, le cas échéant assorti d'autres critères comme l'espace ou la nation. À côté des traces laissées par les constructions nationales dans la description d'espaces plurilingues comme le Canada, la Belgique, les Caraïbes, la Suisse, l'Espagne etc., il convient d'examiner les procédures d'occultation de la diversité au sein de cultures dites monolingues, ainsi que les formatages artificiels ou fallacieux que des institutions comme la Francophonie ou le Commonwealth ont pu imposer aux littératures régionales, urbaines, îliennes ou autres.
La mise en cause des repères linguistiques, spatiaux ou nationaux grâce auxquels se constituent et se distinguent les littératures oblige tout naturellement à reconsidérer la nature des relations qui nouent les littératures entre elles : comment remplacer les distinctions familières entre 'source' et 'cible' ou entre 'importation' et 'exportation' ? Comment décrire, corrélativement, les relations multilatérales complexes entre des littératures majeures et mineures qui partagent le même espace ou entre des littératures mineures qui relèvent d'espaces distincts ? Est-ce que les études de traduction offrent des concepts et des méthodes aptes à analyser les nouvelles cartographies littéraires, à repenser les relations littéraires dans des cultures plurilingues où les notions de frontière (linguistique) et d'espace (national) sont aujourd'hui mises à mal ? Peuvent-elles, veulent-elles, dépasser des distinctions sur lesquelles elles ont en partie édifié leur raison d'être ? Il s'agira dès lors de rendre explicites des présupposés traductologiques, mais également des choix de corpus de traductions, voire d'un métalangage traductologique fondé sur un binarisme inadéquat. Ainsi, la notion même de 'traduction', s'adjoignant l'épithète 'culturelle', cherche à étendre sa signification au-delà de sa portée intertextuelle et interlinguale. Faut-il, pour autant, et par analogie avec des traductions inter- et intralinguales (Jakobson), distinguer des traductions inter- et intraculturelles ? Et comment celles-ci se distinguent-elles d'autres opérations de 'transfert culturel' ?
Le colloque s'ouvre à l'ensemble de ces questions historiographiques et traductologiques, abordées de préférence à partir d'études de cas concrets puisés dans des littératures européennes et non-européennes. Il focalisera plus précisément la période qui va de la naissance des idéologies monolingues au 19e siècle à leur mise en cause radicale au cours du 20e siècle.
Les propositions de communication (de 300 mots environ, en français ou en anglais) ainsi qu'un bref CV devront parvenir aux organisateurs avant le 31 octobre 2008. Les communications et les discussions se tiendront en français et en anglais.
TRANSLATION IN MULTILINGUAL CULTURES
The research group "Translation" and the research unit "Literary relations and post/national identities" of the KULeuven organise an international colloquium on "Translation in multilingual cultures", May 20th, 21st and 22nd 2009 in Leuven, Belgium.
The recent understanding of the multilingual character of past and present cultures asks for a reconsideration of disciplinary boundaries that are traditionally language-bound. The complex practice called 'literature' can no longer be fully apprehended (if it ever could) in linguistic isolation, or within constricting frameworks like 'space' or 'nation'. Beyond relatively familiar critical examinations of the national paradigm in the description of multilingual spaces like Canada, Belgium, the Caribbean Islands, Switzerland, Spain etc., it is now also necessary to examine how disciplinary procedures routinely obscure diversity within so-called monolingual cultures, as well as the artificial or fallacious formations that institutions like the Francophonie or the Commonwealth have imposed on regional, urban, island or other literatures.
The questioning of linguistic, spatial or national boundaries in relation to which separate literatures are constructed, urges us to rethink the nature of the relationships between literatures: how to replace the familiar distinctions between 'source' and 'target' or between 'import' and 'export'? How do we accordingly describe the complex multilateral relations between major and minor literatures sharing the same territory, or between minor literatures belonging to different spaces? Does Translation Studies offer appropriate concepts and methods to analyse the new literary cartographies, to rethink literary relations in multilingual cultures where the notions of (linguistic) frontier and of (national) space are actually questioned? Is Translation Studies prepared to transgress the distinctions on which it has built part of its raison d'être? We need to make explicit the discipline's presuppositions, but also the rationale behind the choice of translation corpora, and (re)assess the translational meta-language based on inadequate, reductive, binary distinctions. Thus, the concept of 'translation' itself, complemented with the epithet 'cultural', seeks to broaden its signification, until now restricted to an intertextual and interlingual scope. But is it necessary - by analogy with inter- and intralingual translations (Jakobson) - to distinguish between inter- and intracultural translations? And how do the latter differ from other operations of 'cultural transfer'?
The colloquium is open to the totality of these historiographical and translational questions, preferably tackled by means of case studies dealing with European and non-European literatures. It focuses on the period ranging from the birth of monolingual ideologies in the 19th century to their radical questioning during the 20th century.
Papers are invited which develop one or more of the following perspectives:
Proposals of 300 words approximately (English or French) and a short CV should be submitted to the organizers before October 31st 2008. Papers and discussions will be held in English and French.
Like novelists, historians or columnists, philosophers, too, are writers. They make sophisticated use of language, and employ - whether deliberately or not - specific rhetorical and stylistic devices, as well as certain repertoires of metaphors, images and symbols. As writers, philosophers also have to adjust their writing to specific audiences, tailor it to serve specific purposes, and strategically choose one genre over another, with all its rules, protocols, and constraints. In short, it is crucial for philosophers - if they are to persuade readers - to advance their ideas following certain aesthetic rules, rhetorical procedures and strategies of persuasion. This has led some authors to speak of "the literariness of philosophical texts" (Berel Lang) as something indistinguishable from the philosophical substance and relevance of those texts.
A writer's relationship to language, writing and weaving of narratives in general is always complex. For, if we are to believe Heidegger, although "man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, ...in fact language remains the master of man." Therefore, it might well be the case that - as often happen with writers - philosophers, too, go through some peculiar experiences: sometimes, for example, they become so completely seduced by language that they almost lose themselves in the act of writing and come to utter whatever language compels them to; some other times, they become so deeply caught up in their own discourse that it becomes difficult for them to separate from it: on such occasions they are not very different from those novelists who end up becoming characters in the narratives they are weaving.
The implication is that a work of philosophy might well be seen as a work of (literary) art, as an autonomous world, for whose creation the author's personal vision, imagination, playfulness and inventiveness play a major role. In other words, according to this view, "The Critique of Pure Reason" is, in a fundamental way, much closer to "Hamlet" or "The Brothers Karamazov" than to, say, "On the Origin of Species."
With this in mind, some scholars of philosophy have been in a position to say that philosophy is nothing other than literature. Others, more cautious, have allowed philosophy to be literature only to some degree or under circumstances. Then, there are, of course, those for whom philosophy does not have anything to do with literature.
We invite submissions dealing with the multifaceted relationship between philosophy and literature, some aspects of which have been pointed to above. Interdisciplinary approaches (combining, for example, philosophy, literary theory and intellectual history) are particularly encouraged.
SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES:
Deadline for submissions: January 1, 2009
Length: 6000 words
All articles and reviews submitted to "The European Legacy" undergo peer-review. Manuscripts and Notes, typed double-spaced, should be submitted to the Guest Editor as e-mail attachments, using WordPerfect or Microsoft Word. The author's full address should be supplied as a footnote to the title page. Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition.
You can submit your contributions to: bradatan@hotmail.com Please allow at least 4-6 months for the review process and editorial decisions. Receipt of materials will be confirmed by email
Unless otherwise noted in this Call for Papers, the Instructions for Authors on the journal's webpage are adopted for this issue:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=1084-8770&linktype=44
Over the last several years European Union has welcomed a number of new member countries, most of which used to belong to the "Eastern bloc." While, thanks to the influence of mass-media, tourism, immigration, etc., Western Europe has come to acquire some general geographic knowledge about these countries, relatively little is known about what happens there in terms of production of knowledge and cultural artifacts, in terms of intellectual debates and marketplace of ideas. Although all of them are now part of the same "European family," there is comparatively little knowledge in the countries of the Western Europe about the cultural physiognomy of the East-European newcomers.
The intellectual traffic between East and West within Europe seems to be most often one-way traffic: it is as if ideas and intelligence can only move eastwards, as though from East westwards almost nothing (intellectually valid) is to be expected or desired. As such, the face of the "new Europe" that the West most often sees is that of "le plombier polonais."
The originality of thinkers such as Slavoj Zizek, Julia Kristeva, Tzvetan Todorov, Jan Patocka, Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran or Leszek Kolakowski, who have at different times made a significant contribution to the shaping of the Western intellectual discourse, is somehow taken for granted, and the character of the world they have come from is passed over in silence. These people come from nowhere - out of nothing. No significant attention is being paid to their complex backgrounds, to the specificity of their cultural origins, to the unique blend of intellectual challenges and ethical concerns that shaped their thinking, strengthened their personalities and, in the end, made them who they are.
The special issue we are proposing addresses precisely this situation in an attempt to bridge this gap of intellectual communication between Eastern and Western Europe. Its plan is to map out the complex intellectual landscape, the major intellectual debates and their historical origins, as well as the current marketplace of philosophical ideas in the countries of the Eastern Europe. This issue aims at offering insights into the recent (or not so recent) history of "the East-European mind" and its many facets, as well as into what takes place philosophically right now in these places. It also seeks to point to the specific contributions that East-European thinkers might have to the shaping of a new, more comprehensive European intellectual project.
More importantly, this special issue will pay special attention to what connects these countries, giving them as it does a certain "family resemblance." One important thing that these East-European newcomers to the EU have in common - despite their many cultural, linguistic, political and social differences - is the fact that all of them shared, not long ago, the same historical failure: the failure of the Communist project of Soviet inspiration. Whether you are in Prague or Budapest, Riga or Bucharest, Sofia or Warsaw, you cannot help noticing the traces of this major historical event: they are everywhere, in the public discourse as well as in the private conversations, in the ways people articulate their thoughts, in the language itself. For people living in Eastern Europe simple words such as "freedom," "human rights," "Communism," "capitalism," "left" and "right," "poverty" and "inequality" mean something different from what they do for someone who has been living in Western Europe. Much of what happens intellectually and philosophically in these places is deeply marked by the haunting memory of this historical failure of grand proportions, with its accompanying sense of immense collective suffering, frustration and bitterness.
That being said, it might be precisely this failure, frustration and bitterness, that place the East-Europeans - somehow paradoxically - in a philosophically interesting and potentially creative position. It is exactly the point that Václav Havel made in a speech in 1990. For him, the failed Soviet system left behind "a legacy of countless dead, an infinite spectrum of human suffering, profound economic decline, and above all enormous human humiliation. [...] At the same time, however unintentionally, ... it has given us something positive: a special capacity to look, from time to time, somewhat further than someone who has not undergone this bitter experience. A person who cannot move and live a normal life because he is pinned under a boulder has more time to think about his hopes than someone who is not trapped in this way. [...] We too can offer something to you: our experience and the knowledge that has come from it."
The philosophizing that takes place in Eastern Europe is highly relevant today not only because it has gained some privileged access to the topics of historical failure and frailty, collective suffering and trauma, but also because it comes to bear a special relationship with the notions of hope and political renewal, ethical openness and the reinvention of the human.
We invite submissions dealing with the history and the current state of philosophy and the philosophically minded disciplines in the countries of the Eastern Europe, some aspects of which have been pointed to above. Interdisciplinary approaches (combining, for example, philosophy, critical theory and intellectual history) are particularly encouraged.
Please note that - in the spirit of ANGELAKI, a journal of "theoretical humanities" - we use throughout the term "philosophy" in a broad (Continental and interdisciplinary) sense.
Geographically, for the sake of convenience, this issue attempts to cover philosophical developments in countries that used to belong to the "Eastern bloc" and are now part of the European Union (Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland, the Baltic countries, Romania, etc.) or will join the EU in a foreseeable future (Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, etc.). Needless to say, as always, these are just approximations.
SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES:
Deadline for submissions: May 1, 2009
Length: 5000-7000 words
Authors should keep in mind that they are writing for an academic, but non-specialist (and largely Western) readership. Therefore, references to specifically East-European developments, institutions, figures, etc. should be further clarified in end-notes as appropriate.
All submissions should be in English. Notwithstanding the fact that some authors use this language as their second language, it is their responsibility to make sure that their submissions are written in publishable English.
Apart from essays, we also invite proposals for a small number of book reviews - on the theme of the issue - and translations of (short) philosophical texts by major East-European philosophers. Interested authors should approach the Guest Editor with a short proposal offering a brief description of the book/translation in question & explaining their relevance for this special issue of ANGELAKI. However, the Guest Editor's initial approval of the book review/translation proposals should not be taken as a guarantee that their book reviews/translations will be accepted for inclusion in the special issue.
All materials submitted to ANGELAKI undergo peer-review. Manuscripts and Notes, typed double-spaced, should be submitted to the Guest Editor as e-mail attachments, using Microsoft Word. The author's full address should be supplied as a footnote to the title page. Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the MLA Citation Style: http://www.mla.org/
You can submit your contributions to: bradatan@hotmail.com (with "For the Angelaki issue" in the subject line). Please allow at least 4-6 months for the review process and editorial decisions. Receipt of materials will be confirmed by email in a matter of days.
Unless otherwise stated in this Call for Papers, the Instructions for Authors on the journal's webpage are adopted for this issue:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp
We look forward to your submissions!