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CFP: Critical Perspectives on Indo-Caribbean Women’s Literature (Deadline May 31, 2010)
Editors:
Mariam Pirbhai (Assistant Professor, Department of English, Wilfrid Laurier University)
Joy Mahabir (Assistant Professor, Department of English, State University of New York)
Submissions are invited for an edited collection of scholarly essays on Indo-Caribbean women’s literature. This is the first collection to focus specifically on the literature produced by Indo-Caribbean women, and it aims to offer critical and theoretical perspectives on novels, short-fiction, poetry, autobiography and memoir.
In the field of Caribbean Studies, scholarship has been devoted mainly to male Indo-Caribbean writers or has explored Indo-Caribbean culture from multi-disciplinary perspectives. The emergence of several Indo-Caribbean women writers in the late twentieth century opened up a vibrant field of literary production that significantly transformed Caribbean and Indo-Caribbean Studies. This period ushered in the publication of full-length poetry collections by writers such as Mahadai Das and Ramabai Espinet as well as the publication of first novels by writers including Lakshmi Persaud, Jan Shinebourne and Shani Mootoo. Since the publication of these pioneering works, Indo-Caribbean women writers from Trinidad, Guyana, the diaspora and other parts of the Caribbean region have come to produce a significant body of writing, providing new conceptualizations of Caribbean and diasporic cultural forms and literary aesthetics. This collection will examine the continued development of Indo-Caribbean women’s writing as a flourishing genre in Caribbean and Indo-Caribbean literature.
Contributors are invited to explore the literature produced by individual authors including but not limited to Lakshmi Persaud, Mahadai Das, Ramabai Espinet, Shani Mootoo, Jan Shinebourne, Oonya Kempadoo, Peggy Mohan, Ismene Krishnadath, Ryhaan Shah, Narmala Shewcharan, Rajandaye Ramkissoon-Chen, Lelawattee Manoo-Rahming.
Areas of inquiry may include:
- Memoir/Autobiographical Writing
- Plantation Labor/Indentureship
- French-Caribbean Identities
- Dutch-Caribbean Identities
- Minority Identities in Caribbean (Belize, Cuba, St Vincent, St. Lucia etc.)
- Kala Pani Poetics
- Dougla Poetics
- Creolization
- Indo-Caribbean Women in the Diaspora (Canada, US, Europe)
- Representations of Chutney, Soca, Calypso, Dancehall
- Representations of Ramleela, Hosay, Phagwah, Matikor, Carnival
- Socio-religious practices
- Representations of visual culture / cultural artifacts (Bollywood films, jewelry, traditional dress, etc.)
- Caribbean-India Journeys
- Gender and Sexuality
- Queer Identities
- Feminist Politics and Poetics
- Ethnicity and Nationalism
- Class and Class Struggle
Submission guidelines:
Contributors are asked to send a 300-500 word abstract, working title, contact information and a brief biographical statement in an MS Word attachment to the editors (mpirbhai@wlu.ca and mahabij@sunysuffolk.edu) on or before May 31, 2010.
Norwich Papers
Call for papers for issue 18, “Written Out: Translating Exclusion”
The Editorial Board of Norwich Papers 2010 is pleased to announce its call for contributions for issue 18, which will focus on questions of exclusion in translation studies. We encourage those of greater and lesser experience to contribute, and are looking for an interesting, innovative and international engagement with the many possible interpretations of this theme. Possible questions addressed could include, but are by no means limited to:
♦ To what extent is it acceptable for a translator to exclude elements of the source text?
♦ To what extent is the translator compelled to exclude when transferring the source text into the target language and culture?
♦ Is translation itself an exclusive discipline? Are certain methods of translation excluded from the discipline?
♦ Are translators ever excluded from the world of eminent writers and academics? Why?
♦ Are certain genres of translated work excluded from publication? Why?
♦ When might a translator be forced to exclude in order to publish a work, and what is the translator’s approach to this issue?
♦ What strategies might the translator adopt when translating a text that was censored or edited, e.g. for social, political or economic reasons, in order to be published in the source language, or which clearly speaks as much through what it fails to say as through what it does say?
And we are especially keen to hear from those working on:
♦ Translation from or into lesser known languages and cultures.
♦ Translation that engages with minority perspectives, including but not limited to: gender, race, religion, politics, age
♦ Translation for a specified and/or exclusive audience
We are confident that many who work in the field of translation will find something within this theme that speaks to them, and we look forward to reading your submissions, which should be received before 30 March 2010. Before sending your submission to us, please refer to our style notes.
We are pleased to offer a free copy of issue 18 to all whose contributions we are able to publish. We hope that this issue of Norwich Papers will have something to interest all of you.
Should you wish to purchase any past issues of Norwich Papers we would always be happy to supply you with these, please see our website for further details.
With best wishes,
The Editorial Board
www.uea.ac.uk/lit/norwich+papers
DEVELOPMENT & INEQUALITY IN THE CONTEMPORARY CARIBBEAN
Proposed conference panel to be submitted to the
SOCIETY FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES Annual Conference
University of Bristol 9th-10th April, 2010.
Panel Convenors: Kate Quinn (ISA) and David Howard (University of Edinburgh)
Panel Proposal:
Caribbean societies have not escaped the effects of the global financial crisis. Circumstances of territorial and demographic scale, insularity and enduring relations of dependency make the region particularly exposed to the economic, political and social effects of the international downturn. Across the region, governments face a combination of decreasing investment, tax revenue, exports, remittances and income from tourism, matched by increased indebtedness. Many Caribbean countries ‘are now the most indebted in the world’ (Clegg 2009).
The political and social consequences of the current economic situation are manifold. Within the last couple of years, many Caribbean societies have witnessed civil protests over everyday living conditions: food riots in Haiti led to the resignation of the prime minister, while general strikes and demonstrations over low wages and the high price of basic commodities in Guadeloupe and Martinique exposed deep racialised and class disparities in the French Caribbean territories.
This panel will explore the many implications for the Caribbean (economic, political, social and cultural) of the current economic crisis, examining the responses of governments and citizens alike. We welcome papers from across the Caribbean, from pan-Caribbean and comparative perspectives, and on the experiences of both independent and non-independent states. As David Jessop has argued, ‘the global recession… may well force the region to confront the unresolved contradictions of its historic commitment to social provision and equity with its apparently universal commitment to growth, the market, and the desire to consume... In short, the economic crisis highlights the need to resolve the contradictions of nationalism, small economies, social commitment, open markets… and a regional economic integration process in which regional governance or authority is lacking’ (Jessop 2009).
Papers from across the humanities and social sciences are welcomed.
DEADLINE: Please submit 200-word abstracts for paper proposals to kate.quinn@sas.ac.uk and david.howard@ed.ac.uk by 15th December, 2009. Please include affiliation and contact details.
For information on the SLAS conference see http://www.bris.ac.uk/hispanic/slas2010
INDO-CARIBBEAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE 2010
Centre for Caribbean Studies,
University of Warwick
1st-2nd of July 2010
To mark the foundation of the Indo-Caribbean Studies Association, the Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick is hosting its second interdisciplinary conference on Indo-Caribbean Literature and Culture.
Indentureship propelled over half-a-million Indians across the kala pani to take root all over the world, negotiating new physical and figurative spaces for themselves and their descendants. The contribution of this widely-distributed Indian population to global culture and literature is substantial, and is particularly pronounced in the case of the Caribbean. Encompassing art, music, cuisine, religion, and more, the Indian presence is indelibly inscribed on the social, cultural, political and physical landscape of the region; emerging from their fascinating history is a wealth of creative writing and scholarly works.
The flourishing of Indo-Caribbean literature and creativity over the past twenty years, exemplified by the renown of V. S. Naipaul and reinforced by the work of critically acclaimed authors such as Cyril Dabydeen, Mahadai Das, Ramabai Espinet, Roy Heath, Ismith Khan, Shiva Naipaul, Sam Selvon, and many more, has served to draw critical focus towards the unique and diverse elements of Indian life in the Caribbean and elsewhere. The postcolonial intersections of Indo-Caribbean experience provide a generative platform for critical and theoretical discourses, incorporating hybridity, hyphenated identities, neo-colonialism, eco-criticism, coolitude, cross-cultural transfer, gender construction and beyond.
This event welcomes papers across the theoretical spectrum of Indo-Caribbean studies, and aims to investigate new avenues of research in the field. What impact have recent developments in postcolonial cultural theory had on our understanding of Indo-Caribbean experience? Conversely, what distinctive contribution does Indo-Caribbean literature make to a broader understanding of postcolonial cultures?
Topics for consideration might include but are not limited to:
Negotiation of Indo-Caribbean identities
Memory, migration and exile
Indian women in the Caribbean
Politics and labour
Gender and sexuality
Religion and ritual
Ecology and environment
Language
Survival and revival of visual arts
Submissions: Proposals are invited from established and new scholars, including postgraduate researchers. 300-word abstracts should be sent to L.Gramaglia@warwick.ac.uk and should arrive by 21st December 2009. Acceptance will be notified by 1st February 2010.
To register for the conference please contact M.R.Tumbridge@warwick.ac.uk or Joseph.Jackson@warwick.ac.uk.
