Call for Papers: Indian Diaspora Literature: Racialized Subjectivities and
Hybridized Identities

We propose to publish a collection of essays on the diasporic implications
of the hybrid cultural consciousness in the writings of the Indian
diaspora. The location of the diasporic presence may be in the nation
itself or in transnational locations and various sites of migrations, such
as the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, on the one hand, and
Myanmar, Malaysia, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, or the Caribbean,
on the other. Although the phenomenon of population dispersal is ancient,
it appears to have increased massively in the postcolonial period. The
focus would include postcolonial theory, diasporic studies, and Indian
cultural studies. The explicit issues that the project hopes to
interrogate would be around the concepts 'national', 'emergent', 'hybrid',
'globalized', or 'lost (Indian)' identities.

In spite of a large presence of Indians in Africa, for example, works by
Indian authors coming out of Africa, other than a few well known names,
such as Vasanji and Govender, rarely reflect their
experiences. Additionally, voices from the margins, such as women, or
members of the GL/Q community are rarely showcased in Indian literature.
When we do read available literature, it focuses on ideas of cultural
hybridity in separate racialized spaces. After Indians were taken over by
the British to Africa as indentured laborers since the abolition of
slavery, intermingling of cultures and languages created a new psychic and
cultural landscape, and literature does reflect some of these experiences.
What we hope to accomplish in this project is the showcasing of literature
reflecting emergent Indian voices from far-flung diasporic spaces locating
not only cultural but also racialized hybridity in the interstices of the
Indian literarily landscape.

The editors are prominent writers in the area of postcolonial and immigrant
literature, and would be appreciative of reading any manuscripts which
might fulfill stated vision in the collection. All essays would be
refereed by independent academics in the field of diasporic literature.

Please send one-page abstracts along with a completed 20 page paper (not to
exceed 4000 words) to the editors, Jaspal Singh
(<mailto:jsingh_at_nmu.edu>jsingh_at_nmu.edu) and/or Rajendra
Chetty (Chettyr_at_cput.ac.za) by the end of May, 2006. Please indicate
Title, Name and Affiliation of author. We will notify you by the end of
August as to the selection of your essay for the collection.

Jaspal K. Singh
Assistant Professor, English Department
Gries Hall, Northern Michigan University
1401 Presque Isle Avenue
Marquette, MI 49855
Phone: 906-227-1832
Email: jsingh_at_nmu.edu
Fax:906-227-1096

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Received on Thu Mar 02 2006 - 11:45:24 EST