CFP/ Panel: BRISMES 2014. Deadline: 26th October 2013.
Travelling Literature, World Literature:
The Eastern Journey from Local to Global.
Papers are invited to participate in a panel for the BRISMES (British
Society for Middle East Studies) Conference due June 2014 in Sussex
around the theme ?The Middle East in Global Perspective?.
To view the 'Middle' (as well as 'Near', or 'Far') East in the world
is to consider simultaneously the connections between the linked nodal
points of towns and centres within the Middle East that define it as a
cohesive region, and its own connections with ?other? regions that
locate it in a global cultural dialogue. Departing from an interest in
world literature and world history, this panel will discuss the fluid
and integral concept of travel as genre, structure, motif or canon in
the encounters of the diverse cultures and lingua francas of the
Middle East. Rihla or safar accounts have been for various reasons
some of the earliest, most circulated, and most sustained prose
narratives. The region?s often multilingual readers and writers
created ?canons? of travel narratives which intersected over centuries
of reciprocal reading, translation, reappropriation and
reinterpretation. Questions the panel hopes to pose include: Can we
speak of a consistent core concept of the rihla-safar in Middle
Eastern literatures and belles-lettres from early times to the
present? How did travel writing segue into the rise of ?modernity? and
modern prose forms? How did travellers construct an integrated
ecumenical world view for their multi-lingual and multi-cultural
audiences, and how might they have also resisted the exclusionary,
hegemonic identities propagated by local or foreign rulers and states?
Papers dealing with all, minor and major, languages, cultures and
religions of Middle, Near and Far East within the context of travel
and inter-influence are welcome. Those working on the relation between
India and the 'Middle' East are particularly welcome. Please send an
abstract of maximum 250 words to [log in to unmask] by 26th October.
--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
|