Writing under Socialism Past and Present: A Comparative Approach
Call for Papers
Papers are invited for an international symposium entitled Writing under
Socialism to be held at the University of Nottingham on 11-12 July 2008.
Using a comparative approach that crosses disciplines and continents, this
conference asks for a re-evaluation of the position of writing under
socialist states past and present using new material, theories and
methodologies that have come to light since 1989. We invite contributions
from researchers working on literary production in China, Cuba, the GDR,
the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, in order to initiate a dialogue
between researchers working in very different fields.
In contrast with literary production under capitalist regimes, writers
living under socialism have had to negotiate a role for themselves and
their writing within an institutional framework defined by a specific
political and ideological value-system and entirely administered by the
state. Whilst socialist regimes tend to place a high value on literary
practice, they also find it a source of potential subversion, and it is
the nature of this contradiction that has attracted the attention of
numerous researchers in the past.
However, writing under socialism involves more than the traditional
dichotomy of mind versus power and instead includes complex relationships
between the different actors, institutions and policies that together form
the context of literary production in a given state. By asking for fresh
perspectives on writing in a range of socialist countries, this conference
aims to draw out some of the commonalities and differences in these
complex relationships, which we envisage will both cross national
boundaries and highlight their continued importance.
Of particular interest is the opportunity to bring together research into
post-Cold-War socialist states, in which writers are still living the
experience of socialism after the historical caesura of 1989, and post-
Cold-War analyses of states which collapsed in 1989, allowing access to
previously restricted material.
Possible areas for discussion include, but are not restricted to:
Interaction of writers with Party functionaries.
Role of publishers, periodicals, booksellers and literary critics and
Writers’ Unions as mediators between the state, writer and reader.
Methods of censorship and control
Socialist cultural policy in theory and in practice and definition of
writer/intellectual under socialism.
Role and success of mass cultural movements in literary production and
consumption.
Writing outside of the state apparatus: underground and unofficial
literary movements.
Theoretical approaches to the study of writing under socialism.
Papers focusing on writing under any socialist state are welcome,
including, but not restricted to: Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, GDR, Cuba,
Nicaragua and China.
Professor Michel Hockx (SOAS) will give the keynote address
entitled: “Print Culture and the New Media in Post-Socialist China”.
The language of the conference will be English. Publication of selected
papers is envisaged.
Please send abstracts of no more that 200 words to Sara Jones
([log in to unmask]) and Meesha Nehru ([log in to unmask]) by 1
February 2008.
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