Call for contributions to a panel
"The distribution of literary capital in the world republic of letters"

The panel aims to further the discussion developed in and flowing from Pascale
Casanova's "The world republic of letters"
http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/publish/casanop.htm.

It will examine the tension between the aesthetic universalism informing the
competition for recognition amongst authors in metropolitan centres such as
Paris, London, New York and Barcelona on the one hand, and the powers shaping
the hierarchical literary field within which literary capital is produced and
distributed. It will scrutinise the principles and processes shaping
consecration by literary legislators in these centres. This includes a critical
consideration, from a decentralised perspective, of the lines of power that
determine the trajectories of literary texts as they travel between local and
global fora. And it will investigate specific cases that illuminate the ways in
which marginalised authors seek to manage their literary capital in this
competition and the ways in which their entry alters the conditions shaping the
literary field.

Invitations are extended to panellists who would like to:
• Analyse the notion of literary capital and the ways in which literary capital
is generated and distributed locally and globally.
• Discuss the tension between aesthetics and the sociology of literature.
• Broaden Casanova's claims to a discussion of marginalised literature – in
particular from Africa and Asia – she does not investigate.
• Extend Casanova's theses to related but different non-fiction literary fields,
such as travel writing and ego texts.
• Propose alternative accounts of the "geopolitics of literature" (Eagleton) to
those put forward in "The world republic of letters".

Please submit abstracts of 200 – 300 words by Monday 30 January 2006 GMT to
Stephan Meyer at
stephan.meyer_at_unibas.ch
Zentrum Gender Studies
Universität Basel
Steinengraben 5
CH-4051 Basel
Fax ++41 61 267 08 74

For further information about the conference "Forging the Local and the Global:
Textual Migration and Translation" 9 – 12 July 2006 Stellenbosch University,
please go to http://academic.sun.ac.za/english/localglobal2006/

Kindest regards

Stephan Meyer

_________________________________________

Stephan Meyer
Sprachenzentrum
University of Basel
Kornhausgasse 2
CH-4051 Basel
Switzerland
Tel: +41 61 - 322 39 60 (Home)
     +41 61 - 270 22 32 (Work)

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Received on Mon Jan 02 2006 - 07:15:58 EST