Writing
Europe 2001: Migrant Cartographies
Cultural Travellers and New
Literatures
22-23-24 March 2001
International Conference
Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies
Research School OSL, Onderzoekschool Literatuurwetenschap
Belle van Zuylen, Research Institute for Multicultural and Comparative Gender Studies
University of Leiden - University of Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Keynote speakers*
Avtar Brah, Paul Gilroy, Alec Hargreaves, Robert Frazer, Graziella Parati
Increasing mass migration is redefining actors, places, and languages in European writing. These cultural shifts are magnified in the writing of cosmopolitans, expatriates, exiled as all migrants. By and large, the languages of the most powerful ex-colonisers (English and French) have been the privileged medium of expressing straddling nations, cultures and identities. However, other migrant traditions (such as those expressed in minor ex-colonial languages or vernaculars) are mapping new literary and cultural spaces. At the dawn of the new millennium it is important to assess the different material backgrounds that colour all these texts and acknowledge in what way they contribute to rewriting, expanding and subverting existing notions of European identity and citizenship.
We invite papers addressing the conundrum of these new power relationships and creative forces. We are particularly interested in presentations that explore the wide array of migrant literatures within Europe in their colonial, social, religious and linguistic interchanges.
(*confirmed)
TOPICS AND THEMES:
-Identity Politics & Multiculturalism
In an era of cultural shift and increasing mobility who is the ‘migrant’? When does the notion of different origins and authenticity fade into that of assimilation and integration? Is multiculturalism a valuable concept that makes this opposition evaporate? Is multiculturalization within Europe a common and homogenous process? In what ways is the phenomenon conveyed within migrant literatures?
-Literary Canons and New Voices
New Migrant literatures are developing within and in complex relation to European literary canons. These literatures are mainly expressed in the languages of the ex-colonizers (English, French and Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese) but also in many other mothertongues (Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Berber, Ahmaric, Tigrinya, Albanian, Turkish to mention but a few). Is there an inter-minority discourse among these literary expressions and what is the role of translation? In what ways do European publishing and market policies create and inflate the notion of the immigrant writer as the spokesperson of an imagined community?
-Gender and Ethnicity
Migrant women are often the site of struggle between community values and new possibilities for identification. How is the construction of identity through the intersection of gender, ethnicity and nationality rendered in women's writing? How has the femininization of immigration within Europe contributed to the transmission of local values and to the disruption of homogenizing trends? Are immigrant women writers appreciated for their literary achievements or in the name of international feminism?
-Urban Space and Lifestyles
In what ways have migrant writers changed the perception and representation of the city? In what ways do they contribute to the notions of metropolitanism and marginalization? Does migration in Europe have a profound effect on mentalities and norms or does it merely lead to superficially ‘hybrid’ lifestyles (exotic food, oriental clothing, ethnic furniture and world music)? How does the intense politics of dressing and clothing for some immigrants reinforce alterity and particularization? To what extent is traditional clothing used as a symbol for ‘authenticity’ by immigrants?
-The Migrant in Hypertext
Are new migrant writers making use of hypermedia to shift their
presence from ‘local’ Europe to virtual communities, erasing thereby their
status as guests? How do communities reconstruct themselves in cyberspace? What
is the function of mailing lists, newsgroups, on line forums for the
reinvention of identity and overcoming of ethnic alterity? Do electronic
highways reconstruct that sense of territorial communities that are broken up
by the advent of new political barriers (see Euro zone)?
Deadline: due by 30 September 2000
Please mail a copy of your 250 word abstract to:
Conference and Programme Organisers:
Dr. Daniela Merolla Dr. Sandra Ponzanesi
Merolla@Rullet.LeidenUniv.nl Ponzanesi@pscw.uva.nl
ALW, University of Leiden Belle van Zuylen Institute, University of Amsterdam
2300 RA Leiden Rokin 84-90, 1012 KX Amsterdam
The Netherlands The Netherlands
Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. Mineke Schipper (Leiden University), Dr.Jacqueline Bel (OSL Leiden University), Prof. Dr. Rosi Braidotti (Utrecht University), Prof. Dr. Theo D'haen (Leiden University), Prof. Dr. Robert Frazer (Open University, U.K.), Dr. Frances Gouda (University of Amsterdam), Prof. Dr. Selma Lydesdorff (Amsterdam University), Prof. Dr. Paulo de Medeiros (Utrecht University), Dr. Gloria Wekker (Utrecht University).