12th Annual Graduate Conference on Language and Literature
McGill University, Montreal
Theme: Permeability and Selfhood
March 11-12, 2006

This call for papers is for a panel to be held at Permeability and Selfhood, the
McGill Graduate Conference on Language and Literature, which will take place
March 11-12 at McGill University , Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

PANEL:
Custodians of Selfhood: Narrative as (De)constructions of the Self in the
Fiction of Twentieth-Century Canadian Women Authors

"But it remains the case that I know who I am or what I am feeling only by
belonging to a language which is never my personal possession. It is others who
are the custodians of my selfhood" (Terry Eagleton, After Theory).

Subverting the discourse of victimhood, many characters in twentieth-century
fiction by Canadian women-–dynamic, multivalent selves–-refuse to be limited by
totalizing constructions of subjectivity. For example, from Offred's scrabble
word-games to Joan Foster's gothic costume writings to Iris Griffen's writing
of The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood's protagonists create alternate versions
of selfhood. Each of Atwood's protagonists is given the opportunity to become a
custodian of the self through engaging in subversive narrative practices that
ultimately effect self-actualization. How do other Canadian women authors
construct selfhood in their fiction?

This panel welcomes papers on the fiction of twentieth-century Canadian women
authors as it pertains to narrative constructions of the self, especially
through the use of narrative as a subversive force against a totalizing
structure.

Please send your 300 word abstract by January 5, 2006 to
lesya.alexandra_at_gmail.com or amber.butler_at_gmail.com

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Received on Tue Nov 29 2005 - 16:26:50 EST