UPDATE: 6th Wenshan Conference on English and American Literature: Situated Knowledges (Taiwan) (11/15/05; 3/11/06)

full name / name of organization: 
Brian David Phillips
contact email: 

My apologies, there was a typographical error in the due date for abstracts in the previous CFP for the Wenshan Conference. The correct date for abstrats is Nov. 15, 2005. The conference date is March 11, 2006.

The correct CFP is as follows:

The 6th Wenshan Conference on English and American Literature

English Department, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan

Conference Date: March 11, 2006
Abstracts Due: Nov. 15, 2005

Conference Theme: "Situated Knowledges: Literature of Belief, Believing, and the Unbelievable"

Due to exceptional interest in the conference guests and themes of the upcoming Sixth Wenshan Conference on English and American Literature and the streamlining of the review process, the deadline for abstracts has been extended to 15 November 2005. After that date, new submissions will not be accepted.

We are proud to announce that the special international guests to the conference include scholars and authors whose own exceptional work explores the divide of contexts in ways that have proven to be both highly original and critically important:

• Dr. Meaghan Morris, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, internationally respected cultural studies scholar with numerous ground breaking publications, including an appearance in the inaugural anthology of Cultural Studies (Grossberg, editor).

• Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Bremerton, Washington, USA, award-winning author, poet, and critic whose work in the fantasy and horror genres is considered ground breaking, whose explorations into feminist fantasy literature has set the template for an entire generation, and whose own novels and short stories have won the admiration of peers as well as scholars and general readership, exploring complex themes ranging from cultural pluralism to personal psychological horror.

• Dr. Joanna Chan, New York, New York, USA, critically acclaimed playwright and director whose own work explores the cultural divide between East and West but whose work as artistic director of the Yangtze Theatre Company in New York is considered a very important transition point, introducing many important Asian artists to the English-speaking world.

In addition to these international guests, and others, the conference will also play host to a number highly respected scholars from within Taiwan. The full program of scholars and topics is to be announced at a later date.

Call for Papers

The conference seeks to interpret literary knowledge in terms of contexts, the bridging of the divide from one locality or context to another, the location of the reader both spatially and temporally, the site(s) of the text, and/or how authors situate themselves. It also looks at how such knowledges differ from site to site, whether in terms of nationality or ethnicity or gender or class.

We are calling for papers that address any period, genre, or source of literature broadly conceived. The specific choice of topics are very open within this theme. Some suggested subtopics include, but are not limited to:

• Situating through the "chronotopes" of literary protagonists, genres, and readers themselves.

• Local knowledge revisited: limiting, disembedding, deterritorializing, or defending beliefs?

• Unbelievable sites in literature. The fantastic as escape from and/or recreation of locations.

• On location: the setting vis-à-vis being "on location" of narrative filmmaking. Settings in literature and their knowledges.

• The country versus the city as sites of conflicting knowledges. Urban literature and nature writing.

• The body as situated knowledges: differential beliefs in the performative body, the gendered body, the aged body

• Ecosystems as situated knowledge in literary works.

• Revisiting the site of class consciousness: how to remap class-based knowledges in the global division of (immaterial) labor.

• Cultural locations and multicultural sites in the production of literary knowledge.

• Ways of believing and disbelieving in interpretive practices. How do texts allow believability and beliefs?

• Beliefs sacred and profane. Devotional literature, meditative writing, the site of epiphanies and doubts.

While submissions may be related to any of the above, and more, in essence, this conference revisits and expands upon ideas similar to Donna Haraway's theme of "situated knowledges" and the idea of "local knowledge" discussed by Clifford Geerz and so many others recently in terms of a global/local dynamic. To situate knowing and believing is to re-cognize the "site" of knowledges whether in terms of social spaces, ecological places, the embodiment in perfomative bodies, the material relations of production of values, and many other such situations and locations of cultural representation.
 
Please email abstracts (up to 300 words) before November 15 to wsconf_at_nccu.edu.tw . Notification of acceptance: December 23, 2005. Deadline for full paper: February 15, 2006. Possible publication in peer-reviewed journals.

         ==========================================================
              From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
                        CFP_at_english.upenn.edu
                         Full Information at
                     http://cfp.english.upenn.edu
         or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu
         ==========================================================
Received on Tue Oct 18 2005 - 00:13:01 EDT

categories