Sharing Places
Searching for common ground in a world of continuing exclusion
EACLALS Triennial Conference, Malta, 21-26 March, 2005
CALL FOR PAPERS
Malta, the venue of the next EACLALS Triennial Conference, is not only a very
attractive destination but also one that is, by virtue of its location halfway
between Europe and Africa, highly suggestive of the unending dynamics of
colonialism, 'post'-colonialism, and neo-colonialism. The Malta Conference
should therefore prove an ideal opportunity for revisiting such familiar issues
as: the clash of civilisations brought about by colonialism, which forcibly
linked disparate geographies under the aegis of imperial regimes; the
affirmations of territoriality which often go by the name of post-colonialism,
no matter how much these rely on implicit protocols of exclusion; and the
contemporary emergence of an explicit neo-colonial ('new world') order, in
which the uneven distribution of resources across the globe is justified in the
name of self-righteous cultural affiliations of diverse denominations.
On the other hand, in a more hopeful mood, Malta and its complex history may
also serve as an objective correlative for the utopian ideal of acknowledging a
shared zone of mutual responsibility where all human subjects may be considered
as partial insiders to the project of conceiving a common future.
The Conference theme, 'Sharing Places', thus strikes at the heart of
contemporary experience while also allowing for the development of
long-standing debates within 'post'-colonial studies. Such a theme has numerous
potential ramifications, which will be explored in a number of thematic
sections dedicated to the following topics:
- Frantz Fanon and the pitfalls of national consciousness
- The sea and the erosion of cultural identity
- Immigration as a challenge to the law of privilege (ie, etymologically,
'private law')
- Writing Europe (from an African or otherwise 'external' perspective)
- From translation to bilingualism, or towards the sharing of mental space
- Multidisciplinarity and the future of post-colonial theory
- Feminism, patriarchy, and the limitations of gendered space
- History as a collective site, historiography as a corrective swipe
The organizers also welcome contributions relevant to the main Conference theme
that may not seem to fit into the subsections outlined above. Abstracts of no
more than 200 words for 20-minute papers should be submitted no later than 15
September, 2004. All correspondence should be addressed to the Conference
chair, Dr. Stella Borg Barthet, [log in to unmask] . For further
information as well as for all matters concerning registration or
accommodation, please consult the Conference webpage which will soon be
accessible at this address: http://www.um.edu.mt/noticeboard/eaclalsmain.html
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