Conference CFP - Locations and Dislocations of Theory

deadline for submissions: 
December 20, 2019
full name / name of organization: 
Faculty of Letters, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania

The past few decades have been crucial for the dismantling of theory, formerly understood as a monolithic concept, applicable to a wide range of epochs and regions. Rather than a timeless or non-spatial concept, theory represents “a historically circumscribed mode of thinking about literature” (Galin Tihanov). Researchers informed by Edward Saidʼs “traveling theory” (James Clifford, Caren Kaplan, Mieke Bal) have also insisted on the enormous pressure of context in shaping and reshaping theory. Convincing metanarratives of itinerant international canonization in the 20th century literature (Mads Rosendahl Thomsen) have opened the theoretical debate.

The system of circulation and adaptation of theories in different local contexts has been, we believe, insufficiently investigated. Moreover, with few exceptions, theory has been localized in Western cultures, while the other regions of the world are presumed to provide, at their best, the literary material necessary for its illustration. In a seminal study, Revathi Krishnaswami points to the fact that, while the literary canon has constantly expanded with the emergence of postcolonial comparatism, the systematic reflection on literature is still treated as a Western European or American trait. Therefore, she calls for the building of a set of “world literary knowledges” that would include conceptual hypotheses from outside the consecrated “World Republic of Letters”.

Our conference, an event of the Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory (http://www.metacriticjournal.com/) invites different reflections on the relationship between theory and context, on concept transfer from one environment to the other, on the mapping of World Theory at certain points in time, on theoryʼs embededness in local cultures (either as “location”, or as “untranslatability”) or, quite the contrary, on its cross-cultural potential. Not least of all, our aim is to provide the necessary framework for addressing the hegemonic relationships between cultures in terms of theory production and to explore cultural strategies in which these “world literary knowledges” can effectively extend their territory outside Western borders.

 

Possible topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • constructing and deconstructing theory

  • world literature and literary theory

  • inscribing and circumscribing literary knowledge

  • traveling concepts and theories

  • metanarratives of canonization

  • location and circulation of theory

  • mapping world theory

  • cultural embeddedness and cosmopolitanism

  • cross-cultural transfers of theory

 

Conference organizersThe conference is an event of the Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory, supported by the Faculty of Letters (Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca), and chaired by Alex Goldiș and Mihaela Ursa, editors-in-chief and professors at the host institution.

 

Confirmed keynote speakers

  • Galin Tihanov, Queen Mary University of London, UK, the Institute for World Literature

  • Delia Ungureanu, University of Bucharest, Romania, the Institute for World Literature

  • Andrei Terian, Lucian Blaga University, Sibiu, Romania

 

Guide for authors

The official language of the conference is English. We welcome proposals for papers and pre-constituted panels (3-4 panelists). Please submit: name and affiliation, a paper title, a 150 words proposal with 5 key words, and a 100 words bio-note. For panels, please submit: name and affiliation and a 100 words bio-note, the panel title, 3-4 names of panelists, each observing the above requirements for paper proposals. Each paper will be allotted 20 minutes for presentation.

Submission address: metacriticjournal@gmail.com

Important dates

Deadline for proposal submission: December 20, 2019

Notification of acceptance: December 23, 2019

Conference registration deadline: February 20, 2020

Conference days: March 9-10, 2020

Other important Information

The conference fee is 80 €, payable online. For PhD students under 26, the fee is 40 €. It includes conference dinner and access to all conference activities and materials. The venue of the conference is the main building of the Faculty of Letters, Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania, Horea Str. 31.

Conference website: we are constantly updating information here: https://locationsoftheory.wordpress.com/

Publication of conference proceedings

We plan to publish a selection of the presented papers in the peer-reviewed Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory (indexed WOS, ERIH/ EBSCO, and others, see here: http://www.metacriticjournal.com/) .
A separate volume edited by the organizers is to be published at an international publisher, pending on the range and quality of papers.

For further details, please contact professors Alex Goldiș or Mihaela Ursa at e-mail: metacritic.journal@ubbcluj.ro, metacriticjournal@gmail.com