CFP: Exterminating Narratives: Identifying and Resisting Genocidal Cultural Logics (9/15/04; collection)

full name / name of organization: 
Timothy R. Libretti
contact email: 

CFP: Exterminating Narratives: Identifying and Resisting Genocidal Cultural
Logics (Deadline: 9/15/2004)

       Seeking proposals for papers for an edited volume exploring and
foregrounding genocide as a cultural and literary category for approaching
narrative with the objective of identifying cultural logics of genocide
that might not typically be understood as such and also of highlighting
narratives of resistance of resistance to genocide that provide an
imagination of an alternative way of living and organizing social
relationships. In the current critical discourses of literary and cultural
studies, we hear much about postcolonialism, colonialism, nationalism,
globalization, citizenship, and, of course, paradigms of race, class,
gender, and sexuality. Related to such discourses but much less mentioned
are the discourse, concept, and above all practice of genocide which such
critical discourses rarely confront directly or in depth. These
discourses, however, could be mobilized to help us address, comprehend, and
resist the practices and cultural logics of genocide that, far from being
facts of history we seek to understand retrospectively, are ongoing
practices that often elude naming, identification, and redressas we see by
recent events in Rwanda, Bosnia, Chiapas, and persistently in Native
America. Proposals for papers are sought exploring such issues as how
genocide is represented, how it is narratively recognized, misnamed, or
misidentified, how it is defined; what is the continuum of genocidal logic
into practices of everyday life not usually or necessarily understood as
part of such a logic, such as the logic of the commodity? What do comparing
acts of genocide reveal about its logic? Papers should deal with specific
texts which might include literary works as well as political texts such as
UN policies and resolutions and also critical studies of genocide such as
Samantha PowersThe Problem from Hell, Philip Gourevitchs work, and
others. Inquiries and abstracts should be sent to Tim Libretti at
T-Libretti_at_neiu.edu.

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Received on Fri Mar 05 2004 - 01:39:53 EST