CALL FOR PAPERS

?Through me many long dumb voices?:
Performing Identities in American Literature

Department of English Studies, University of Durham
September 10th 2011




Performing Identities in American Literature seeks to explore the ways  
in which American identity is defined, enacted and contested in texts  
from the sixteenth century up to the present day.  Tapping into the  
influential, yet highly contradictory visions of identity which have  
dominated the modern field of American Studies, in which  
multiculturalist and pluralist critiques of a unified national  
sensibility are set against the ?indifference to difference? of an  
increasing cosmopolitanism (Michaels, 2004), the event invites fresh  
discussion of the identities contained and performed beneath the  
umbrella term ?democracy?.  By expanding a consideration of the  
performative beyond the more obviously dramatic aspects of text, we  
aim to provide a forum for debating the role played by the theatrical  
dimensions of the imaginary within American literary identities,  
highlighting the staging of belonging and exclusion that has shaped  
writers? responses for more than four centuries.

In the interest of broadening the scope of discussion, we invite  
abstract submissions for papers of between 20 and 40 minutes in  
length.  Presentations are welcomed in a variety of formats, from  
single and joint papers to lecture performances and works-in-progress.  
  Topics may include, but are by no means limited to:

?        Patriotism and anti-patriotism: narratives of belonging and exclusion
?        Migration, immigration and inward expatriation
?        Propaganda and nationalism/exceptionalism
?        Staging the past: re-writing history as literature
?        Issues of authenticity: difficulties inherent in enacting  
race/class/nation
?        ?Textualising? the body and bodily experience
?        Metatextuality and self-reflexive performativity
?        The evolving identity and cultural mythology of the American writer
?        Multiplicity and cosmopolitanism: new directions for American  
literature


Please submit your name, institutional affiliation and abstract of up  
to 300 words to [log in to unmask] by the deadline of July  
31st 2011.

Further information and updates can be found at the symposium website:  
PerformingAmerica.blogspot.com



-- 
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.