A one-day postgraduate conference hosted by the Joint Faculty of Arts,
Humanities, and Social Science Research Theme, Minorities Identities: Rights
and Representations
26 November 2011
Shorelines and Shadows: Literary Representations of Queer and Postcolonial
Mythical Beings
'The Tragedy of the Mermaid'
is not that she must leave her home
but that she must cast off her flesh.
- Shara McCallum
Given the increasing diversity of peoples within nations and the plurality
of postmodern histories, this conference seeks to interrogate the issues at
stake in defining gendered, national, and sexual identities suggested by
mythological beings, such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, mermaids,
spirits, jablesses, gods, and obscured historical figures. We suggest that
the liminality and taxonomical uncertainties posed by such figures may help
to mobilise suppressed historical narratives and undo the silences that
surround minority subjectivities. This conference addresses the ways in
which their psychological, social, political, cultural, and aesthetic
functions have been re/interpreted and employed.
Keynote Speaker: Jamaican writer and academic, Kei Miller
Topics may include (without being limited to):
Listening to other/ed desires
Representing collective trauma
Transgressing and challenging borders and categorizations
Contesting receivedı histories and epistemologies
Personifying nature and natural disasters
Utopian and dystopian imaginaries
Colonial legacies, Neo-colonialism, and Cultural Imperialism
Abstracts of no more than 250 words for papers of 20 minutes should be
submitted to: Rebecca Ashworth and Lotti Mealing [log in to unmask]
Please include a brief biog-sketch (not more than 50 words) including
institutional affiliation and area of research.
Deadline for receipt of abstracts: Monday 15 August 2011
Successful contributors will be notified by 1 September 2011.
Conference fee: £30 (Postgraduate students: £20)
Registration details to follow.
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