We would be most grateful if the attached call for papers could be
post on the CFP site. With many thanks: Dan Wylie.

CALL FOR PAPERS

               The 3rd Literature & Ecology Colloquium
                          6-8 October 2006

            Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

                          Toxic Belonging?:
               Ecology and identity in southern Africa

           =93My fate binds me indissolubly to this place=94
     (James Stevenson-Hamilton, first warden of Kruger National
                                Park)

      =93By every conceivable measure, humanity is ecologically
                             abnormal=94
                            (E O Wilson)

What is the nature of our belonging on the earth and within
natural ecosystems? How do we forge and represent our
notions of identity within the oikos =96 the hearth =96 of the natural
world? Is our presence inevitably toxic? Do our symbolic
representations of belonging (or alienation) necessarily partake
in the damage we do to our environment, or can they help heal
our sense of homelessness? Is our self-realisation =96 as Freya
Mathews argues in The Ecological Self =96 only or inevitably =93a
function of ecological interconnectedness=94? What is the role
of our literatures in expressing such self-realisation, especially
in the southern African context?

Papers addressing these and related questions =96 preferably, but
not necessarily exclusively, focussed on southern African
material =96 are hereby invited. Closing date for submission of
abstracts: 31 July 2006.

The following are some possible lines of approach:

# Landscape aesthetics and belonging
# Literary treatments of the politics of land ownership
# Nature as trope for Africanness/indigeneity
# Notions of wilderness as expressive of identity
# Urban vs rural representations of belonging
# Precolonial societies as exemplars of ecological
belonging
# Influences of scientific ecology on conceptions of
belonging

Please pass this call for papers on to anyone you feel might be
interested.
Inquiries to Dr Dan Wylie, Dept of English, Rhodes
University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
Email: D.Wylie_at_ru.ac.za. Phone +27 46 603 8409.
Visit the colloquium website on www.ru.ac.za/clan

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Received on Mon Jan 30 2006 - 17:45:30 EST