Kategorie: Call for Papers

Swiss Association for North American Studies (SANAS) Biannual Conference, Nov. 2 and 3, 2018, Lausanne

North American Studies have always had an intense but ambivalent relationship to genre, as these narrative patterns have participated in nationalist processes as well as in narratives of resistance. Emerging at the beginning of the twentieth century from concerns about naturalism and realism, American literary scholarship after WWII avoided the politicized post-war atmosphere by making the ‘romance’ the quintessential American novel genre, while cinematic genres such as the musical or the Western contributed to amplifying the mythic dimension of American self-definition. Since then, American Studies scholars have pioneered influential work on melodrama, the American Gothic, the jeremiad and other genres. Concurrently, Canadian literature’s prominent nation-building narratives were framed as documentary tales of regionalism, historical novels and social realism before evolving into dystopian and postmodern fiction, most famously by Margaret Atwood. Thus, among the recurring questions posed by genre is the conflicted relationship between literature/art and ist social, historical, and cultural context. Terms such as ‘the political unconscious’ (Jameson), ‘cultural work’ (Tompkins), ‘narrative mode’ (Williams) and ‘performative’ (Austin, Turner) have been centrally determining, over the years, to help us understand how genres work and what they do. This conference therefore seeks to explore what roles genre plays in American and Canadian nation-building and counter-narratives, and how it evolves nowadays.

While the cultural concept of genre has been crucial in creating North American national literatures and identities, it shows equal potential for resistance, subversion and transformation of these constructed national characters. Thus, how does genre reconcile this seemingly contradictory potential for creating narratives of nationbuilding as well as counter-culture? How do feminist, queer, Indigenous, Latino/a, African-American/Canadian and Asian-American/Canadian writers use, appropriate, and subvert specific genres to resist and protest social injustices. How do they use genre to imagine alternative models or redeem social injustice? With Prof. Linda Williams (UC Berkeley) and Prof. Ronald Schleifer (University of Oklahoma), both experts on the role of genre in North American studies as our keynote speakers, this conference proposes to be a space for a renewed discussion about what genre has meant for North American studies as well as American and Canadian culture, and what its future might be.

See the full Call for Papers here.

Deadline for proposals: April 30, 2018.

Guest editor: Eva Darias-Beautell, University of La Laguna, Spain

It is now commonly accepted that Canadian literature has become a global literature, implying that any understanding of textual localities is traversed by vectors that exceed, complicate and extend the nation in physical, historical, and cultural ways. But the gaze is seldom reversed and little attention has been paid to the role of international scholarship in the current transformation and development of the field.

How are Canadian texts read and circulated beyond the national borders? What is the place of Canadian literature in the institutional spaces of universities outside Canada? How do those transnational contexts negotiate the relationship between texts and readers? Are there defining differences in the ways non-Canadian scholars approach CanLit? How does transnational scholarship influence, challenge, enrich and rescale Canadian literary production?

This special issue invites scholars of Canadian literature from around the globe to engage critically with any aspect of Canadian literary production, dissemination, or reception. Essays should implicitly bring to view the two-way direction of reading and writing Canadian literature globally, demonstrating the porosity of transnational scholarship as well as advancing innovative perspectives that may contribute to the rescaling of the field.

Deadline for submissions: May 15, 2018.

17th Biennial Conference of the Association of Italian Canadian Writers (AICW), University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, June 7 – 9, 2018

The Association of Italian Canadian Writers (AICW), in collaboration with Italian Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Winnipeg, is accepting proposals for its 17th Biennial Conference to be held at the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba on June 7 – 9, 2018. The conference invites academic papers, literary readings (poetry, prose or plays) and artistic works in Italian-Canadian literature and culture that engage with themes of heritage, passages and appreciation. Writers and artists, academics and researchers from all disciplines are encouraged to submit proposals to present new (or posthumous) creative or critical works in Italian, English or French. Graduate students and emerging writers are encouraged to participate.

For more information, please view the full call for invitations here.

Deadline for Proposals: Feb. 16, 2018. 

Hosted by the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies, the 29^th Canadian Military History Colloquium will be held at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, from 4-5 May, 2018.

Conference organizers invite submissions on all periods of Canadian military history and war and society, but especially on 1918, the last year of fighting on the Western Front. Proposals are welcome from all scholars including students, faculty and independent researchers.

Keynote Speaker will be Elizabeth Greenhalgh, University of New South Wales, Canberra, author of The French Army and the First World (2014), Foch in Command: The Forging of a First World War General (2011), and Victory Through Coalition: Britain and France during the First World War (2005).

For further information, please click here.

Deadline for Proposals: Feb. 5, 2018.

86^e congrès annuel de l’Acfas, les 9 et 10 mai, 2018, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
Saguenay, Québec, Canada

Selon une vision courante de l’histoire récente du Québec, une classe « patronale  » anglophone unilingue y dirigeait une classe ouvrière francophone sous-payée. Certains aspects de ce modèle cadrent bel et bien avec le passé, surtout dans certaines « villes de compagnie », ou villes industrielles planifiées, de la province. En effet, à compter du milieu des années 1800, des anglophones ont planifié et établi plusieurs collectivités dans toute la province, dont Arvida, Shawinigan Falls, Asbestos et Témiscaming. L’élite de ces endroits vivait souvent dans de chics « quartiers des Anglais » et fréquentait rarement ses voisins principalement francophones.

Toutefois, en examinant de plus près ces lieux ainsi que d’autres villes de compagnie, on s’aperçoit que la trame narrative de la dominance des anglophones manque de nuance. En fait, des anglophones de toutes les classes étaient présents dans ces communautés dès leurs débuts. Plusieurs francophones dirigeaient des industries importantes comme, par exemple, la grande usine de papier de Chicoutimi. Enfin, lorsqu’on regarde les anciennes villes de compagnie aujourd’hui, on s’aperçoit que les inégalités économiques d’autrefois se sont résorbées, voire inversées. Par exemple, les quelque 1 550 anglophones qui habitent Saguenay aujourd’hui présentent un taux de chômage plus élevé que les francophones et de faibles indicateurs de vitalité communautaire.

Notre colloque, intitulé « Le „boss anglais“ et les villes de compagnie : Les Québécois d’expression anglaise et l’économie industrielle d’hier et d’aujourd’hui » nous emmène à Saguenay, agglomération dont la croissance a reposé en partie sur ce modèle d’aménagement. Deux importantes villes d’entreprise planifiées y ont été établies : celle de Kénogami, implantée par la Price Brothers en 1910, et celle d’Arvida, construite par l’Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) en 1926. Cette dernière, qui a longtemps été dotée de la plus grande aluminerie du monde, fait l’objet d’une campagne de promotion en vue d’une éventuelle inscription au patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO.

Les présentations porteront sur les mythes et réalités concernant les villes d’entreprise québécoises, les conséquences de cet héritage et son l’influence sur les relations ethnolinguistiques au Québec à l’heure actuelle, ainsi que les réalités d’aujourd’hui dans ces collectivités. Nous planifions également une visite commentée d’Arvida et de Kénogami et une table ronde à laquelle prendront part des leaders communautaires anglophones de la région.

Ce colloque multidisciplinaire abordera les questions démographiques, socioéconomiques, historiques, culturelles et autres liées à l’implication de la communauté d’expression anglaise au Québec dans l’économie industrielle.

Deadline for Proposals: Jan. 18, 2018.