September 29 – October 1, 2022, Düsseldorf
Deadline: June 30, 2022
Participation both depends on and produces agency. Therefore, it is always embedded in power structures and power remains unequally distributed. Though empires are long gone, neo-colonial structures of domination continue to exploit the so-called Global South, to privilege Eurocentric knowledge traditions over non-Eurocentric knowledge, and to exclude racialized subjects or people and communities from erstwhile colonized countries from power positions. For decades, postcolonial subjects have worked against imperial forms of oppression. They continuously labor to create space for local and hitherto marginalized world views and experiences. Processes of (self-)translation produce spaces of articulation and enable participation. Particularly in migratory contexts, knowledge and experience travel and are translated (or not), allowing for self-assertive and dynamic participation. Through complex practices of translation as well as a multiplicity of other strategies, postcolonial subjects reclaim their right to participate in diverse fields of global exchange such as economy, politics or discourse.
Although postcolonial literatures facilitate discursive and social participation of marginalized groups, the very access to literature also is subject to regulative forces such as the publishing industry, raising far-reaching questions concerning the rights and possibilities of participation in the literary field. Not only do books have to be considered marketable to enter the global literary field, but authorship as a form of participation in the broader literary and public sphere is entangled in normative structures. In this regard, factors such as race, class, sex, gender, and sexuality are highly influential: Only recently, Bernardine Evaristo became the first black woman to win the renowned Booker Prize. As she shared the prize with Margaret Atwood, a white male BBC journalist referred to the winners as “Margaret Atwood and another author”. Evidently, participation in the global literary market is marked by central institutions of the field, such as media, editors and publishing houses, which are often located in the Global North. Digital cultures and alternative forms of publishing offer platforms for participation from postcolonial cultures.
