CONFERENCE Cerpanac
Revisiting Slave Narratives
CALL FOR PAPERS
April 4 & 5, 2003
Paul Valéry University, Montpellier III (France)
The narratives of Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass or Mary Prince, to
name but a few, have now become classics. But over the past two decades,
a good number of novels have been published that echo the original slave
narratives, both narratologically and thematically speaking. The aim of
the conference is not to examine once more the 18th & 19th century
narratives. Even if the historical & generic reference is necessary, it
will rather focus on the new versions as such. What were the choices
made by the late 20th century writers when they revisited the original
texts with fictionalised versions, historical novels,
pseudo-autobiographies, etc. ? Why did they adopt this architecture? How
did they reappropriate or distort it ? What can be said of the generic
tension between the original model and its rewritten versions ?
A few names might serve as a starting point although not as a limit :
Fred DíAguiar, Dionne Brand, Patrick Chamoiseau, Beryl Gilroy, Charles
Johnson, Toni Morrison, Caryl Phillips, Simone Schwarz-Bart, John Alfred
Williams, Sherley Ann WilliamsÖ
This conference can be of interest to all those working in the Caribbean
field, anglophone or francophone, as well as the African and
African-American field.
Please submit your proposals (half a page) by September 15, 2002 to:
Judith Misrahi-Barak
By email: <[log in to unmask]>
Or by post:
Département díEtudes Anglophones
Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier III
Route de Mende
34199 Montpellier cedex 5
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