Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 10:50:10 -0700
Subject: CFP: Rethinking "the Commonwealth" and Postcoloniality


Second International Conference of the United States Association 
for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies
$
CALL FOR        April 26-28, 2002       PAPERS
$
Santa Clara University, California 
(40 miles south of San Francisco; one mile from San Jose airport)

"Rethinking Commonwealth/Postcolonial Literatures: 
Cartographies and Topographies, Past and Present"

Amitav Ghosh's novel, The Glass Palace, was recently named a finalist
for the Commonwealth Writers Prize.  In asking that it be withdrawn from
the competition Ghosh objected that "this phrase anchors an area of
contemporary writing not within the realities of the present day, nor
within the possibilities of the future, but rather within a disputed
aspect of the past.  In this it is completely unlike any other literary
term (would it not surprise us, for instance, if that familiar category
'English literature' were to be renamed 'the literature of the Norman
Conquest'?)."  This novelist's objections demonstrate that the notion of
"commonwealth" can be called into question and its implications should
be explored as the world's global geo-political economy further expands
into the new century.  If by "commonwealth literature and language
studies" we also include, as is sometimes done, not only materials in
English from current members of the British Commonwealth (Canadian,
Australian, Anglophone Africa, etc.) but also in French, Spanish,
Portuguese (Chinese? Kikuyu?, etc.), what are the boundaries of this
expanding field of research?  Papers dealing in some way with aspects of
this topic are encouraged, but so too are others that may not seem
immediately implicated in the question.  Thus:

$	Multifocal approaches to the study of language and literature:
commonwealth, multiethnic, postcolonial, and transnational perspectives 
g --Commonwealths: global-regional reconfigurations and transformations
at the turn of the century  g --The impact of technology on postcolonial
literatures (Santa Clara University is in the heart of Silicon Valley) 
g  *Questions of local or national languages in the creation of "new"
literatures  g  *"Maps" (personal, national, philosophical)  g 
*Close readings of individual works or sequences in one or several
authors' writings  g  *Cross-cultural comparative analyses of texts;
US culture and ethnic American literatures  g  *Pedagogical issues,
either undergraduate or graduate  g  *Proposed panels and roundtables
on topics of mutual interest  g  *Film  g  *Creative readings by
authors

	Deadline for applications: October 15
	300 word abstracts should be sent to: John C. Hawley, Dept. of
English, 500 El Camino, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara CA 95053.   
English departmental FAX: 408 554 4837
email: jhawley-AT-scu.edu  The conference has the support of San Jose
State University, and others.

Membership in the USACLALS is $25, or $10 for students, adjuncts, and
retired professors.  Please send name, affiliation and fees for
membership to Terri Hassler, Bryant College, 1150 Douglas Pike Rd,
Smithfield, RI 02917.  And see http://web.bryant.edu/~usaclals/


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