The Journey and Its Portrayals: Explorers, Sailors, (Im)migrants (Nov 25-6, 2011)

full name / name of organization: 
Center for the Humanities / National Sun Yat-sen University

The act of the journey ("to go from home to a distance") and migration signify the basic need of humanity to explore and in all cultures memories of the journey in its various forms represent important aspects of society, history, and culture in all of its aspects and dimensions. Records of travel, exile and return, and (im)migration and their perception are elements of culture including aspects of ideological, personal and/or group formation, artistic and/or historical representation, and the social imagery. Travel and the journey represent the basic human characteristic of curiosity and patterns of migration involve social, political, and cultural tensions emanating from basic needs of cultural, economic, political, etc., existence. Presentations at the conference are about travel and the journey expressed in literature and the other arts including analyses of portrayals of explorers, sea travelers and sailors, émigré(e)s, and (im)migrants. Official languages at the conference are English and Chinese. Abstracts of papers in 200 words with a 150-word bioprofile are invited by 15 February 2010 to Professor I-Chun Wang at chsc705@mail.nsysu.edu.tw. Revised and peer-reviewed versions of the conference papers are planned to be published in the Purdue University Press humanities and social sciences peer-reviewed quarterly CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture .