CFP: American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) Conference, Puebla,
Mexico: April 19-22, 2007

Seminar Title: "Imaginary Empires: Structural Dislocations and the
Production of Alternative Spaces"

Deadline for Submission of Paper Proposal: November 1, 2006

Please note: in order to be considered for inclusion, all paper proposals
must be submitted directly to the ACLA website,
<http://acla2007.complit.ucla.edu/>.

Seminar Organizers: Marc Caplan,The Johns Hopkins University, and Sara
Nadal, University of Pennsylvania
E-mail contact (queries only, no submissions): < acaplan4_at_jhu.edu>

Description: The relationship between narrative form and the construction of
national identity­the ways in which literary communities construct national
identity, as well as the dependence of nationalist ideologies on narratives
of the state­has been a given in literary studies and related disciplines
since at least the publication of Benedict Anderson¹s ³Imagined
Communities.² This seminar will consider the problem of narrative space in
contexts of Diaspora, exile, colonization, and related instances of
individual or collective dislocation, outside or beyond the formulation of
the nation-state.
 
Topics to be considered include:
 
The construction of the metropolis as a transnational space
The uses of cosmopolitanism in the reconfiguration of national ideology
The imagining of national spaces from a position of exile
The function of minority languages in creating alternatives to dominant
national discourse
The reclaiming of ruins, ancient texts, and similar ³lost spaces² in an
alternative cartography of the nation
The problem or potentiality of transnational imperial (Roman, Iberian,
Hapsburg, Ottoman, etc) identities
The role of partition in the creation of multiple
national affiliations
The deterritorialization of language in situations of
cultural contact
The portrayal of the immigrant in post-nationalist
discourse.
 
With this panel we hope to reconfigure supposedly fixed political identities
in order to open them to alternative productions of collective but
non-hegemonic spaces. Researchers in all periods and languages encouraged to
apply.

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Received on Thu Oct 05 2006 - 01:55:10 EDT