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Aktuelles Call for Papers Veranstaltungen

CfP: Comparing Canada(s) – Comparer le(s) Canada(s)

Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (Canada), March 3 – 4, 2017

From Hugh MacLennan’s Two Solitudes (1945) to La revue acadienne’s ironic suggestions of Chiac as a tool to „prendre ces deux solitudes-là pis en faire une seule solitude“ („Le Chiac est la solution“), the image of Canada as a country of two peoples or communities – English and French (or, more specifically, English and Québécois) – has become a commonplace. Recent scholarship has questioned the applicability of this image, as „the old epics of identity“ (Simon 2006, 8) are increasingly unable to represent the current multicultural and polyglot reality of Montreal and Toronto, historically the Francophone and Anglophone literary centres of Canada. In fact, Catherine Leclerc (2010) has argued, the two languages interact, „cohabit“ much of contemporary Canadian literature and occasionally blend to the extent that the very notion of a „primary“ language for a given text begins to blur. As the model of „Two [geographically specific] Solitudes“ begins to crumble, an equally dreary tension emerges, this time between the image of Canada as an officially bilingual-bicultural state and the more progessive ideal of Canada as a „varied, rich cultural mosaic“ („Canada’s Enthnocultural Portrait: The Changing Mosaic“). One could read this as a step towards greater diversity, and away from nationalism tout court, or simply as a reiteration of the Canadian n ational narrative, now a fortress rendered even more impenetrable by virute of its seemingly open gates and attractive welcome mat.

E.D. Blodgett’s article „Canadian Literature Is Comparative Literature“ (1988) notes that while Canada is home to a diverse range of literature – English and French, but also other, less grequently studied settler literatures (German, Icelandic, Ukranian, Gaelic et al.), as well as a wide range of Indigenous literatures – there are few scholars who „compare the Canadian literatures,“ and that most of these focus on only one point of comparison, namely „the relationship between the anglophone and francophone literatures of Canada, Comparative Canadian Literautre in the official sense“ (905). In light of the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, the organizing committee invites contributions exploring Canada – or Canadas – in all the term’s varied meanings.

A few questions to consider:

  • How might we bridge the gap between the „Two Solitudes“ of Canadian literature? In what ways does translation between the two official languages, as well as other languages, contribute (or not) to bridging this gap and other cultural and linguistic gaps in Canada?
  • How can the language of multiculturalism/interculturalism/hybridity inform Canadian scholarship? What critiques or complications of this frame emerge in Canadian contexts?
  • How do diasporic or minority literatures fit into the broader field of „Canadian literature“? How does the presence of these other traditions (Indigenous, Black, queer, immigrant, et al.) complicate our understanding of „Canada“ and „Canadian literature“?
  • How do settler and immigrant literatures in Canada relate to their parent literary traditions (e.g. Chinese Canadian literature to Chinese literature(s) in Asia)?
  • What is the significance of environmental themes, ecological criticism, and the notion of landscape in Canadian literature(s)? How does „nature“ fit into these questions of language? How do these literatures figure the interplay between „nature“ and „indigeneity“?
  • What is the place of other solitudes – literatures that do not fit (or do not fit easily) into the paradigm of „anglophone“ and „francophone“ literatures? What is there to be said of the East and West geopolitical divide, a reframing of Canadian solitudes?
  • How might we centre Indigenous experiences and consider Canada as Kanata? What is the relationship between Indigenous literatures and communities and the culture(s) of settler colonialism in Canada? How do Indigenous literatures work with/against, inside/outside of „Canada“? The organizing committee especially welcomes submissions discussing works in Indigenous languages.
  • Where and how do Canadian ltierary and cultural productions fit in an international context?
  • How has Canadian critical and theoretical writing been received or applied, and how might it be applied, beyond Canada? The organizers welcome sumbissions working with Canadian theoretical work in classical, medieval, or early modern contexts.

Artistic sumbissions that explore these themes and discuss or problematise these or related questions are also welcomed.

The organizers invite joint proposals for panels/roundtables as well as proposals for individual talks. They also encourage proposals for alternative and creative presentations that include a description of length and format. Proposals should be a maximum of 150 words (this limit is for the purposes of funding applications for the conference) and may be accompanied by a longer description of around 250 words. Individual talks sould be approximalety 20 minutes in duration and altogether, panels/roundtables should not exceed 90 minutes. If you are participating in a roundtable, please be prepared to speak for no more than 10 minutes in order to facilitate discussion. The organizers also request that you include a biographical statement of no more than 50 words. Please submit your abstract by 11:59pm on October 14, 2016.

For submission, please visit the conference’s website.