cfp.english.upenn.edu

Contributions are sought for a collection of essays analysing international relations, cosmopolitanism and the transnational in Vizenor’s fiction. The intention is both to locate Vizenor within the debates currently taking place around these topics and also to address the strained relationships between the idea(l)s of Native American sovereignty and transnationalist literatures.

Vizenor’s work is extremely well-suited to such treatment: few if any American writers are as consistently international in their perspective. Spurred by Japanese poetry, European modernism, French theory, Guatemalan genocides, German psychoanalysis, Chinese totalitarianism, Parisian boulevards and English motorway roundabouts, Vizenor’s work at its best strives towards internationalism while at the same time remained firmly rooted in the Anishinaabe cultural specific.

Essays are therefore sought on any aspect of Vizenor’s engagement with other cultures, whether in his theoretical, autobiographical or fictional writings.

Essays will be 6-7,000 words, referenced MLA-style.

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words on this topic to James Mackay at transnationalvizenor@gmail.com, by Monday, August 31st 2009. I would be happy to answer any queries concerning the project.