8th Congress of Polish Canadianists, 25-27 September 2019, Université de Lodz / Le 8ème Congrès des Canadianistes Polonais, 25-27 septembre 2019, University of Łódź
Over its 150 years as Confederation, Canada has undergone numerous political, social and cultural changes. It owes its current form of government and international position to certain political visions – or revisions – that can be traced back at least to the ideas of the Fathers of Confederation. Likewise, Canada’s present cultural formation can be said to spring from visionary practices of particular writers and artists, or to have been impeded by reactionary notions of others. One of the goals of this conference is to examine the ideas that became the foundations of the Canadian political and cultural present. It is equally stimulating, we argue, to consider those visions which, for one reason or another, were never actualized; to think on revolutions – whether in the political or the aesthetic sphere, or both – which either failed, or never progressed beyond the conceptual. What would present-day Canada and its artistic-literary scene look like if even a fraction of these (re)visions, revolutions or changes had been put into practice? And – from our own vantage point, in the here and now – what is the future of Canada and its culture? Will it be a modern, liberal state, or will it allow its imagination to be swayed by conservative values? Will the hard-won multiculturalist ethos of diversity endure in the arts?
In the hope of facilitating the development of new frameworks and invigorating the discussion of projected, unrealized or embodied Canadian futures as well as their representations in literature, film and other media, the organizers of the 8th Congress of the Polish Association for Canadian Studies cordially invite scholars working across various disciplines, as well as writers and artists, to submit paper and panel proposals which consider these and related questions within the broad field which we have indicated. Interdisciplinary perspectives are certainly encouraged; we also welcome abstract submissions from postgraduate students.