Each arrival presupposes a departure. Who ever sets out on a journey
seeks to re-enact the sacredness, the enthusing power, of the places of
his/her arrival, be it profane or religious. In order to capture such an
experience, in order to live through the moment of arrival as a
meaningful caesura, as a moment of exception, a moment of relief from the
time-bound conditions of regular life, preparation is necessary.

However, such places of exceptional significance, or sacredness, have
always been converted into texts. Therefore their topography seems to be
absolutely essential, and the conscious and conscientious traveller is
required to merge his/her immediate perceptions with his/her abilities to
imagine and conceptualise. The aim is to recognise, and reflect on a
process of metamorphosis of oneself, internally and externally.

Pilgrimage is an example of such an experience. But, if travelling means
to appropriate an art of articulate identity transformation, such
experience may also apply, in a secularised form, to literary and
performative acts of acknowledged self-disavowal in order to re-imagine
the human self.

Travelling is the art of motion, motion results in moments of
encountering, and such moments manifest themselves by unsettling
linguistic repercussions. Places of arrival also function as inscriptions
of such repercussions, inscriptions of the past crossing the present, of
the other crossing the self.

We invite papers which explore places (such as Rome, Athens, Jerusalem,
Mecca, Benares …), rituals, texts and scriptures as religious, or secular
inscriptions â€" “topographies” â€" of such “arrivals”.

American Comparative Literature Associations Annual Conference April 24-
27, 2008 in Long Beach, CA

Seminar leaders:
Professor Snjezana Zoric, Philosophical-Theological College Bressanone,
Italy
Dr. Gert Hofmann, National University of Ireland, Cork

For questions regarding this panel please direct them to:
g.hofmann_at_ucc.ie
Snjezana_Zoric_at_gmx.de

The deadline for paper abstracts is November 15, 2007. To submit a paper
abstract, please go directly to the conference site at
<http://www.acla.org/acla2008/> and click on the "Propose
a Paper or Seminar" link in the left hand margin.

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Received on Tue Oct 30 2007 - 06:04:20 EST