Recent Announcements

Call for Submissions for an Edited Collection

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 collection’s 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.

Arabic Literature Now:

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.

Waïl S. Hassan
Associate Professor
Program in Comparative and World Literature
Center for African Studies
Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Mailing address:
Program in Comparative and World Literature
3080 Foreign Languages Building
707 South Mathews Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801

Appel à communications

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.

La réflexion pourra privilégier les axes suivants:

• L'articulation conceptuelle et méthodologique des différents « niveaux » de la traduction culturelle : discursif, institutionnel, intraculturel et interculturel, etc.
• Les défis que pose la notion de traduction intraculturelle aux histoires nationales des littératures.
• La comparaison des formes et fonctions des traductions produites au sein de pratiques comme l'histoire, la philosophie et la littérature, en particulier au 19e siècle européen, lorsque les jeunes cultures émergentes ont un recours massif aux traductions.
• L'interaction entre les instances de traduction qui assument des rôles de médiateurs interculturels : traducteurs, éditeurs, revues, etc.
• Les 'tactiques' déployées par les traductions, lorsqu'elles se produisent dans des espaces à fort coefficient ethnique ou politique, comme en Europe l'Irlande (anglais, gaélique) ou l'Espagne (castillan, catalan, basque), ainsi que dans la plupart des espaces colonisés ou anciennement colonisés.
• La cartographie des réseaux de traductions (éditeurs, genres, traducteurs) couvrant des cultures qui partagent la même langue : ainsi, la Belgique, la Suisse, le Québec, la France, à côté de l'Autriche et l'Allemagne, etc.

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.

Reine Meylaerts (Reine.Meylaerts@arts.kuleuven.be)
Lieven D'hulst (Lieven.Dhulst@kuleuven-kortrijk.be)
Francis Mus (Francis.Mus@arts.kuleuven.be)
Karen Vandemeulebroucke (Karen.Vandemeulebroucke@kuleuven-kortrijk.be)

Blijde-Inkomststraat 21
3000 Leuven
Belgique

Call for papers

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:

• The conceptual and methodological articulation of different 'levels' of cultural translation: discursive, institutional, intracultural, intercultural etc.
• The challenges to national literary histories raised by the notion of intracultural translation.
• The comparison of forms and functions of translations within such discourses as history, philosophy and literature, in particular during the 19th century in Europe, when young, emerging cultures massively turned to translations.
• The interaction between agents of translation that take on the role of intercultural mediators: translators, editors, magazines etc.
• The tactics deployed by translations when they are produced in spaces with a strong political or ethnic coefficient? like Ireland (English, Gaelic) or Spain (Castilian, Catalan, Basque) as well as in most of the colonised or formerly colonised spaces.
• The cartography of networks of translations (publishers, genres, translators) covering cultures that share the same language: Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec, France or Austria, Germany etc.

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.

Reine Meylaerts (Reine.Meylaerts@arts.kuleuven.be)
Lieven D'hulst (Lieven.Dhulst@kuleuven-kortrijk.be)
Francis Mus (Francis.Mus@arts.kuleuven.be)
Karen Vandemeulebroucke (Karen.Vandemeulebroucke@kuleuven-kortrijk.be)

Blijde-Inkomststraat 21
3000 Leuven
Belgium

Call for Papers: PHILOSOPHY AS LITERATURE

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.

Here are only some of the possible topics:

• The employment of literary categories (genre, tropes, narrative, plot, point of view, etc.) in the production of philosophical texts
• The genres of philosophical writing (dialogue, treatise, meditation, journal article, etc) and their significance for the content of those writings; how exactly the adoption of a certain genre shapes the philosophizing in question
• Philosophical styles: styles of writing / styles of philosophizing; "the anatomy of the philosophical style" (Berel Lang)
• The variety of literary practices in the history of philosophy
• The philosophers' rhetoric; philosophy of rhetoric / rhetoric of philosophy
• Canons and canonization in the history of philosophy
• Author/authorship/authority in the production of philosophical texts; author's "voice"; the use of personae, masks, masquerades;
• Philosophy as expression of the self (philosophy and autobiography)
• The art of the "literary philosophers" (Plato, Augustine, Giordano Bruno, Vico, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Unamuno, Benjamin, Sartre, Camus, Cioran, etc)
• Recent philosophizing on the relationship philosophy-literature (contributions dedicated to the work of Jacques Derrida, Richard Rorty, Paul Ricoeur, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Theodor Adorno, Stanley Cavell, Alexander Nehamas, Slavoj Zizek, Jean-Luc Nancy, Berel Lang, Iris Murdoch, Simon Critchley, etc)
• Literary theorists/historians on the relationship philosophy-literature (contributions dedicated to the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Rene Wellek, Wolfgang Iser, Hayden White, Giuseppe Mazzotta, Umberto Eco, etc)

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

We look forward to your submissions!

Sincerely,

Costica Bradatan
Guest Editor - "The European Legacy"
Assistant Professor of Honors - Texas Tech University
http://www.webpages.ttu.edu/cbradata
info@acla.org

CALL FOR PAPERS

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.

Here are only some of the possible topics:

• (Philosophical) texts in/and their (cultural) contexts
• Lost in translation
• The traffic of philosophical ideas between Eastern & Western Europe
• Centrality and marginality in the European philosophical culture/discourse
• Canon(s) and canonization in the European philosophical culture
• Specifically East-European philosophical topics
• Making philosophical sense of (disastrous) historical experiences
• The (quite) bearable lightness of being East-European
• (Eastern) Europe as a laboratory of ideas
• Genealogies, contaminations & disseminations of ideas
• Philosophy and politics in Eastern Europe (before and after the collapse of Communism)
• Philosophy & civil society in Eastern Europe
• The tragic (East-European) fate of some (Western) philosophical ideas
• The European project, philosophically speaking
• "Le plombier polonais," philosophically speaking

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!

Sincerely,

Costica Bradatan
Guest Editor - ANGELAKI
Assistant Professor of Honors - Texas Tech University
http://www.webpages.ttu.edu/cbradata

NEOHELICON

Acta Comparationis Litterarum Universarum

CALL FOR PAPERS
SPECIAL NUMBER
POETICS OF THE PARATEXT (No. 1, 2010)

Guest Editor: R.-L. Etienne Barnett

The "paratext," here defined as any textual accompaniment exterior to the text proper and yet intrinsically bound to it (prefaces, prologues, prolegomena, forewords, codas, authorial appendices, marginal notes, didascalia and other scripturally-conjoined paraphernalia) constitute the focus of this special number. Priority will be accorded to papers exploring the theoretical consequences and/or poetic operations of paratextual "objects" within the plexus of a work or series of works. Priorities notwithstanding, all contributions focused upon the paratextual dimension of literary inquiry will be considered.

Manuscripts in English, French, German or Italian, not to exceed twenty-five (25) double-spaced pages, are welcome. Requirements: Papers, prepared in accordance with MLA guidelines and accompanied by an abstract in English, are to be submitted in the form of a Word document (attachment) to Dr. R.-L. Etienne Barnett (RLEBarnett@UofA.edu) with a copy to Dr. Péter Hajdu (neohelicon@iti.mta.hu).

Deadline for manuscript submission: July 1, 2009.

Appel à communications

« Identités en construction »

Colloque international
Liège, du 16 au 18 octobre 2008

Objectifs

Les identités : thème débattu dans les dernières décennies du siècle précédent. Cette mode est à replacer dans le contexte d'une critique de l'humanisme et de sa vision universaliste de l'homme. Le discours poststructuraliste, qui articulait cette critique, a fini par obtenir une position très influente, parfois même presque hégémonique, dans plusieurs disciplines des sciences humaines à l'époque. Rétrospectivement, la fin du XXe siècle peut donc apparaître comme le moment de l'affirmation des particularismes, des différences et des identités « positives » - sexuelles, ethniques, culturelles, postcoloniales... Ce changement radical de paradigme se traduisit d'ailleurs par la création d'une nouvelle « anti-discipline » - celle des cultural studies.

Bien que la critique poststructuraliste de l'humanisme ait entre-temps perdu une bonne partie de son urgence, sinon de sa pertinence, elle a laissé des traces indélébiles dans la réflexion sur ce que « nous » sommes en tant qu'êtres humains, et surtout, elle continue à nous donner beaucoup à penser. Son héritage nous confronte à toute une série de questions fascinantes. Parmi ces questions : comment faut-il définir le concept d'« identité » ? Comment est-ce que les identités se constituent ? A quoi (à quel(s) discours) est-ce qu'un individu ou un groupe s'identifie et pour quelles raisons le fait-il ? Le sujet est-il « colonisé » par les discours auxquels il s'identifie ou dispose-t-il d'une marge de manœuvre par rapport à eux ? Peut-il résister aux pressions des discours hégémoniques ? Toute référence à une vision universaliste de l'homme doit-elle dorénavant être tenue pour suspecte et/ou sans objet ? Quelles sont les leçons politiques (démocratiques) à tirer de cette réflexion?

Un groupe de chercheurs de l'Université de Liège (Belgique), issus de plusieurs disciplines des sciences humaines - sémiotique, théorie littéraire, linguistique, communication, sociologie, anthropologie -, s'adresse à tout intellectuel susceptible de se sentir interpellé par le sujet tel qu'il a été esquissé ci-dessus. Le colloque « Identités en construction » ayant pour premier but d'encourager la réflexion théorique interdisciplinaire autour des concepts « identités » / « identification », le comité scientifique privilégiera les contributions visant à approfondir cette réflexion de fond. Les études de cas ne seront retenues que si elles contribuent à élucider un problème théorique.

Appel à communications

Les auteurs sont invités à soumettre, pour le 1er février 2008, un résumé de 2500 caractères, comprenant le titre et, le cas échéant, une bibliographie.

Les propositions seront sélectionnées par un comité scientifique.

Calendrier

dés aujourd'hui : signaler son intention de soumettre une proposition de communication (résumé)

le 1er février 2008 : date limite d'envoi des résumés.

le 1er avril 2008 : notification aux auteurs des résumés retenus.

Comité scientifique
Nico Carpentier (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Marc Delrez (Université de Liège)
Lieven D'hulst (KULeuven)
Jason Glynos (Université d'Essex)
Bernard Lamizet (Université de Lyon II)
Marco Martiniello (Université de Liège)
Anneleen Masschelein (KULeuven)
Mireille Tabah (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Comité organisateur
Marc Jacquemain, marc.jacquemain@ulg.ac.be
Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, jmklinkenberg@ulg.ac.be
Gautier Pirotte, gautier.pirotte@ulg.ac.be
Laurence Rosier, lrosier@ulb.ac.be
Christine Servais, christine.servais@ulg.ac.be
Erik Spinoy, erik.spinoy@ulg.ac.be
Joseph Vromans, jvromans@ulg.ac.be

Conférenciers pléniers (confirmés)
Nico Carpentier (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Jean-Marie Gauthier (Université de Liège)
Édouard Delruelle (Université de Liège)
David Howarth (Université d'Essex)
Jason Glynos (Université d'Essex)
Bernard Lamizet (Université de Lyon II)
Marco Martiniello (Université de Liège)
Gautier Pirotte (Université de Liège)
Bernard Stiegler (Centre Pompidou, Paris)

Modalités pratiques

Langues: Les langues du colloque seront le français et l'anglais. Afin de faciliter la communication, les conférenciers sont priés de fournir une traduction de leur résumé et une présentation powerpoint dans celle des deux langues qu'ils n'utiliseront pas pour leur conférence.

Site web du colloque:
http://www.id2008.ulg.ac.be

Adresse du secrétariat scientifique:
Colloque « Identités en construction »
à l'att. de Mme M. Licata
Université de Liège, bât. A2
Place Cockerill, 3-5
B-4000 Liège, Belgique
tél +32 3665392
fax : +32 4 3665721
id2008@misc.ulg.ac.be

Call for Papers

"Identities under Construction"

International Multidisciplinary Conference
University of Liège, 16-18 October 2008

Objectives

Identities, collective and otherwise, have been a source of ardent debates all through the last decades of the defunct century. This state of affairs must be seen against the backdrop of a consistent critique of humanism and its universalist vision of 'man'. The poststructuralist discourse, which articulated this critique, succeeded in obtaining an extremely influential, sometimes even hegemonic position in various disciplines of the humanities at the time. In retrospect, the end of the 20th century now appears as the hour of affirmation of any number of particularisms, differences and 'positive' (sexual, ethnic, cultural, postcolonial,...) identities. This era then provided a context for an important paradigmatic shift, which also found expression in the creation of the 'anti-discipline' of cultural studies.

Although the poststructuralist critique of humanism has by now lost a good deal of its urgency and potency, it has left indelible traces in the reflection on who and what 'we' are as human beings, and it is far from having exhausted its potential for intellectual stimulation. Its heritage confronts us with a wide range of fascinating questions, which include: How is the concept of identity to be defined? How do identities come into being? What - which discourse(s) - does an individual or group identify with, and on what grounds does he or she do so? Is the subject colonized by the discourses identified with or is he/she capable of maintaining a degree of independence from them? Can one resist the pressures of hegemonic discourses? Has all reference to a universalist vision of man become suspect and/or lost its relevance? What are the political (democratic) conclusions to be drawn from this reflection?

This call is issued by a group of researchers working at the University of Liège (Belgium) in various disciplines linked to the humanities - semiotics, literary theory, linguistics, communication studies, sociology, anthropology - and is meant for every intellectual susceptible of feeling interpellated by the subject as outlined above. Since the primary aim of the Identities under Construction Conference is to encourage an interdisciplinary theoretical reflection on the concepts of identity and identification, the scientific committee will privilege contributions focusing on theoretical aspects of the question. Case studies will be taken into consideration as long as they are used to illustrate or buttress a theoretical statement.

Call for Papers

Authors are invited to submit, by 1 February 2008, a 2500-character abstract including a title and (if necessary) a bibliography. The abstracts will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee.

Schedule

As of now, please declare your intention of submitting an abstract, which should reach the Conference secretariat no later than 1 February 2008. Notifications of acceptance will be delivered to authors by 1 April 2008.

Scientific Committee
Nico Carpentier (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Marc Delrez (Université de Liège)
Lieven D'hulst (KULeuven)
Jason Glynos (University of Essex)
Bernard Lamizet (Université de Lyon II)
Marco Martiniello (Université de Liège)
Anneleen Masschelein (KULeuven)
Mireille Tabah (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Organising Committee
Marc Jacquemain, marc.jacquemain@ulg.ac.be
Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, jmklinkenberg@ulg.ac.be
Gautier Pirotte, gautier.pirotte@ulg.ac.be
Laurence Rosier, lrosier@ulb.ac.be
Christine Servais, christine.servais@ulg.ac.be
Erik Spinoy, erik.spinoy@ulg.ac.be
Joseph Vromans, jvromans@ulg.ac.be

Keynote speakers (confirmed)
Nico Carpentier (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Jean-Marie Gauthier (Université de Liège)
Édouard Delruelle (Université de Liège)
David Howarth (Université d'Essex)
Jason Glynos (Université d'Essex)
Bernard Lamizet (Université de Lyon II)
Marco Martiniello (Université de Liège)
Gautier Pirotte (Université de Liège)
Bernard Stiegler (Centre Pompidou, Paris)

Practical Arrangements

Languages: the official languages of the Conference will be French and English. For communication purposes, Powerpoint presentations should be given in the other conference language than that used in the paper.

Conference Website:
http://www.id2008.ulg.ac.be

Conference Secretariat:
Identities under Construction Conference
Ms. M. Licata
Université de Liège, bât. A2
Place Cockerill, 3-5
B-4000 Liège, Belgium
tel. +32 3665392
fax : +32 4 3665721
id2008@misc.ulg.ac.be

Call for papers

Interdisciplinary Conference
Ethnicity: Theory and Practice in the 21st Century
The University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
September 26 - 28 2008
Abstract deadline - February 29 2008

The organizers invite scholars from around the world to attend this conference, which will be held at the University of Lethbridge in beautiful southern Alberta, Canada. The goal of this conference is to explore issues intersecting identity theories and pedagogical approaches concerning ethnicity. We encourage researchers and teachers from the Arts and the Sciences to send us proposals.

The keynote speaker for this event is Professor Nasrin Rahimieh, Maseeh Chair and Director of Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Centre for Persian Studies and Culture and Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.

Suggestions for areas of discussions are (but not limited to):

• Ethnicity-based and race-based stereotyping
• Human rights and ethnic diversity
• Transnational citizenship: fact and fiction
• Multicultural ideals and reality
• Ethnic representations: films, literature, and other mediums
• Comparative analysis: ethnic acceptance in international context
• Ethnicity and the body
• Space/place and ethnicity
• Teaching ethnically
• Gendered ethnicities
• Ethnicity and life writing

Because we aim to encourage discussions amongst the conference speakers, papers should be limited to 15 minutes in length. Accepted participants should inform the organizers about media requirements such as DVD, slide projection, and other equipments.

Please send abstract for paper proposals (300 words) and direct all enquiries to

Maria N. Ng
The Department of English
The University of Lethbridge
maria.ng@uleth.ca

or

Michelle T. Helstein
Kinesiology and Physical Education
The University of Lethbridge
helsmt@uleth.ca

The organizers prefer an electronic copy of the abstract. Accepted participants will be notified at the end of March or beginning of April 2008.

CALL FOR PAPERS
Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies

Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies is inviting submissions for its forthcoming issues. We encourage contributions from both Taiwan and international communities addressing our special topics; articles on other aspects of literature and culture are also welcome. If your manuscript is intended as a special topic submission, please so indicate. All correspondence should be addressed to Editor, Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University, 162 Hoping East Road, Section 1, Taipei 106, Taiwan. [e-mail: concentric.lit@deps.ntnu.edu.tw]

Forthcoming Special Topics

Vol. 34 No. 2: Asia and the Other (September 2008)
a special issue in conjunction with the
international conference on "Asia and the Other"

Deadline for Submissions: April 25, 2008

The year 1984 witnessed the taking place of a pioneering conference entitled "Europe and Its Others." With the publication of Edward W. Said's Orientalism only a few years apart, the conference organized by the University of Essex engaged in discussions heralded in Said's monumental work and presented some of the most groundbreaking writings in the then emerging field of "postcolonial theory," with the participation of numerous thought-provoking scholars, Said himself included. Now, two decades later, Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies invites proposals for a special issue on "Asia and the Other," in conjunction with the international conference on the same topic, organized by the Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University, to solicit input on Asia's positioning in light of the question of the other.

Presenting a similar-sounding theme with slight revision to the Essex conference, we would like to examine whether or not the idiom of the self/other demarcation is still relevant in the context of Asia. If yes, relevant in what ways? Is the present-day Asia still imagined in the same fashion as the Orient once was? Does the rising economic force of Asia grant Asian countries the "Occidentalist" optics through which they represent their others as Orientalists did them? Without fixed conceptual presumptions, "Asia and the Other" is interested not only in Asia's relations with "its" others, but also in Asia's relations with "the Other/other" as an ethical, political, epistemo- logical, or ontological problematic. "Asia and the Other" seeks to revisit issues taken up by earlier postcolonialist theorists with a different geo- political focus; reexamine and update theoretical apparatuses often adopted in the discussions of the self/other issue, employing the realities of Asia, past and present, as examples; and stimulate conversations regarding the tensions or mutual productivity in cross-cultural, cross-national encounters.

We welcome proposals from various disciplines, including (but not limited to) anthropology, art history and theory, cultural studies, film and media studies, gender studies, geography, history, linguistics, literary studies, performance studies, philosophy, political science, religion studies, and sociology. We are particularly interested in submissions that not only provide historically-grounded reflections, but also boldly reassess predominant theoretical concerns in their specific fields.

Vol. 35 No. 1: Affect

Date of Publication: March 2009
Deadline for Submissions: October 20, 2008

In psychology "affect" can mean both stimulus and response, action and reaction, our power both to "affect" and "be affected by" others. Deleuze/Guattari see affect, Brian Massumi notes, as "a prepersonal intensity corresponding to the passage from one experiential state of the body to another. . . ." Within the Deleuzian framework of a transcendental empiricism, of forces and intensities but also mathematical lines and series, of multiplicities, disjunctions, simulacra and virtual surfaces, "affect" has a connection to theories of subjectivity, to aesthetics and the arts, to becoming-other (perhaps becoming-posthuman). E.W. Holland connects it back to Freud/Lacan but also to Benjamin, to those shockingly "modern" mechanical forces that Benjamin notes in his Baudelaire essay, forces which in the 21st century have been further dehumanized, molecularized and atomized, mathematized (as in random flows of information) and virtualized on the Baudrillardian self-reflecting surface of postmodern society.

In this special issue on "Affect," Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies invites articles that explore and reassess theories of affect and their engagement with any number of areas within literary/cultural studies. We are particularly interested in such questions as: What might be the role of affect in Foucauldian, postcolonial and globalization theories? In gender and ethnic studies? In media and cinema studies? What connections exist between and among affect, the body, and the non-human world? What are the possible relations between affect, specifically used by Deleuzians as an alternative to more traditional terms like "feeling" and "emotion," and those irrational modalities of mood, feeling, emotion, passion and sensibility that go beyond the expressive vocabulary of the western tradition? Deleuzian theory may seem in one sense deterritorialized, free of rigidified, hegemonic modes of thinking, but is it also still "western"? Non-Deleuzian and also Asian approaches to affect are encouraged. We welcome papers grounded in a wide variety of disciplines, as well as those not specifically concerned with "affect"-the latter will be considered for our general section on literary and cultural criticism.

Manuscript Submission Guidelines

1. Manuscripts should be submitted in English. Please send the manuscript, an abstract (about 300 words), a list of keywords, and a vita as Word-attachments to concentric.lit@deps.ntnu.edu.tw. Alternatively, please mail us two hard copies and an IBM-compatible diskette copy. Concentric will acknowledge receipt of the submission but will not return it after review.
2. Manuscripts should be prepared according to the latest edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Except for footnotes in single space, manuscripts must be double-spaced, typeset in 12-point Times New Roman.
3. To facilitate the Journal's anonymous refereeing process, there must be no indication of personal identity or institutional affiliation in the manuscript proper. The name and institution of the author should appear on a separate title page or in the vita. The author may cite his/her previous works, but only in the third person.
4. The Journal will not consider for publication manuscripts being simultaneously submitted elsewhere.
5. If the paper has been published or submitted elsewhere in a language other than English, please make available two copies of the non-English version. Concentric may not consider submissions already available in other languages.
6. One copy of the Journal and fifteen off-prints of the article will be provided to the author(s) on publication.
7. It is the Journal's policy to require assignment of copyrights form by all authors.

CALL FOR BOOK PROPOSALS
APPEL A SOUMISSION DE PROJETS DE LIVRES

Prof. Marc Maufort (University of Brussels), the Editor of PIE-Peter Lang's "New Comparative Poetics" and "Dramaturgies" book series, is seeking proposals for monographs or collections of critical essays from the ICLA membership at large, in French or in English. While approximately 40 titles have now been published in the two series since their launch in 2001 (more information about these titles can be found on www.peterlang.com), the Editor would welcome proposals emphasizing a non-Eurocentric perspective. Comparative drama studies would be of particular interest at this point as well.

For inquiries and submissions, please contact Marc Maufort at mmaufort@ulb.ac.be

Le Prof. Marc Maufort (Université Libre de Bruxelles), le Directeur des collections « Dramaturgies » et « Nouvelle Poétique Comparatiste » aux éditions PIE Peter Lang, est en quête de propositions de monographies ou d'anthologies critiques émanant des membres de l'AILC. Une quarantaine de titres ont été publiés dans les deux collections depuis leur lancement en 2001 (de plus amples informations à propos de ces titres est disponible sur le site www.peterlang.com). Le Directeur de collection aimerait recevoir des propositions mettant en avant une perspective non-eurocentrique. Des études comparatistes sur le théâtre seraient également d'un intérêt tout particulier à ce stade.

Pour toute information ou soumission, prière de contacter Marc Maufort (mmaufort@ulb.ac.be)

DRAMATURGIES : TEXTES, CULTURES ET REPRESENTATIONS
DRAMATURGIES : TEXTS, CULTURES, AND PERFORMANCES

This series presents innovative research work in the dramaturgies of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, primarily in the anglophone and francophone worlds. Its main purpose is to re-assess the complex relationship between textual studies, cultural and/or performance aspects at the dawn of this new multicultural millennium. The series offers discussions of the link between drama and multiculturalism (studies of "minority" playwrights - ethnic, Aboriginal, gay, and lesbian), reconsiderations of established playwrights in the light of contemporary critical theories, studies of the interface between theatre practice and textual analysis, studies of marginalized theatrical practices (circus, vaudeville etc.), explorations of emerging postcolonial drama, research into new modes of dramatic expressions and comparative or theoretical drama studies.

Cette série présente des travaux de recherche innovateurs dans le domaine des dramaturgies du XXe et du XXIe siècles, principalement dans les civilisations anglophones et francophones. Son objectif essentiel est de ré-examiner la relation complexe entre études de textes, aspects culturels et/ou performatifs à l'aube d'un millénaire multiculturel. La collection offre des analyses du lien entre textes dramatiques et multiculturalisme (études de dramaturges issus de minorités diverses, ethniques, aborigènes et sexuelles), de nouvelles approches de dramaturges confirmés à la lumière des théories critiques contemporaines, des études de l'interface entre pratique théâtrale et analyse textuelle, des études de formes théâtrales marginales (cirque, vaudeville, etc.), des monographies relatives au théâtre postcolonial ainsi qu'aux nouveaux modes d'expression dramatique. Elle aborde également le domaine du théâtre comparé et de la théorie théâtrale.

NOUVELLE POETIQUE COMPARATISTE
NEW COMPARATIVE POETICS

This series publishes contributions which explore new territory in the ever-evolving field of comparative literature. Its monographs, written in English or in French, typically deal with the interaction between various authors, literary genres and societies or cultures, if necessary drawing on literary theory. The term "comparative" is not restricted to the study of different national literatures. It also refers to comparative studies within a single linguistic culture, e.g. in a multicultural society or a postcolonial country. The series seeks to re-assess the complex relationship between margin and center, emphasizing, whenever possible, a non-Eurocentric perspective.

Cette collection publie des travaux ouvrant de nouveaux horizons dans le domaine sans cesse en évolution de la littérature comparée. Ses monographies, rédigées en anglais ou en français, traitent de préférence de l'interaction entre différents auteurs, genres littéraires et sociétés ou cultures, en faisant appel, le cas échéant, à la théorie de la littérature. Le terme «comparatiste» n'est pas limité à l'étude de différentes littératures nationales. Il s'applique également aux études comparatistes effectuées dans les limites d'une seule culture linguistique, par exemple dans une société multiculturelle ou postcoloniale. La collection tente donc de redéfinir la relation complexe entre centre et périphérie, en adoptant, dans la mesure du possible, une perspective non-eurocentrique.

1st Bi-annual EAM Conference

An announcement for the first bi-annual conference of the European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies (EAM) is available in French and English in Adobe pdf format.

New Turkish Comparative Literature Association (TUCLA)

The ICLA is pleased to announce the inclusion of the new Turkish Comparative Literature Association into its membership. Established in February of 2007, the association has developed through collaboration with Eskisehir Osmangazi University, in the ancient city of Eskisehir. The ICLA looks forward to a lengthy and productive relationship with the new Turkish Association.