American Comparative Literature Association Conference 2006 (Princeton
University, March 23-26)

Ecocriticism and its Postcolonial Futures
Seminar Organizer(s): George Handley, Brigham Young University; Elizabeth
DeLoughrey, Cornell University

Postcolonial theory has frequently asserted the value of positionality in
order to foreground the politics of discursive authority. Positionality has
generally been thought to include race, gender, sexuality, and class but has
more recently come to include geographical and biotic space. In an era of
increasing ecological degradation, the mutually constitutive relationship
between social inequity and environmental problems has been more starkly
illuminated, as the recent tragedy in New Orleans has shown. In an effort to
understand how the history of empire has altered both the literal and
literary landscape of postcolonial studies, we seek papers that explore
these points of contact. We imagine this as a panel that engages the
connections between postcolonialism and ecocriticism in historical terms as
well as their contemporary manifestations in areas of the world that remain
particularly vulnerable to environmental crisis and (neo)colonialism,
globalization, and/or militarism. Papers could address these, among other
possible questions: Are postcolonial and environmental concerns compatible?
What emergent theoretical paradigms are needed to address both fields? How
do postcolonial authors imagine and theorize the relationship between human
and non-human histories? What is the relationship between ecological
imperialism and literature? How does the idea of postcolonial history change
when we include the natural environment? Why has ecocriticism neglected the
(racialized) history of empire, and what might it gain from a thorough
engagement with postcolonial studies? How might these knowledges be drawn
upon to guide the futures of sovereignty and sustainability?

Please submit paper proposals (250 words) to this seminar through the ACLA
website by November 30th.

www.princeton.edu/~acla06 submissions:
<http://webscript.princeton.edu/~acla06/site/?page_id=4>
http://webscript.princeton.edu/~acla06/site/?page_id=4.

 
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Received on Fri Nov 11 2005 - 09:17:56 EST