Panel:
Re-Inscribing The Road:
The Evolution of the ³Lonesome Traveler² in American Literary Culture
NEMLA 2000: Buffalo, NY.
April 7-8, 2000
This session enquires into the ever evolving tradition of the literary
nomad as a historically constitutive figure of American ³authenticity² ,
individualism, and knowledge. The role of the ³traveler² has
traditionally been a powerful signifier in our cultural landscape, tied
to American ideologies of individualism, meritocracy , and ultimately,
the American Dream. ³Road Novels,² in particular, have become integral
to our cultural understanding of the creation and enhancement of
individual subjectivity, and the means by which exploration and
communication across difference has claimed to take place. Indeed, the
³Cross Country Trip² has become practically an initiation into identity
for a particular cross-section of the dominant culture -- it has become
our ³grand tour².
The models that we maintain for this trip are shaped by the travel
narratives that have not only been made public, but also made marketable
-- needless to say, these are predominantly the narratives of white men.
Papers for this session should enquire into both the roots of the
American Travel Hero and/or how the idea of the adventurer, the road
tripper, the nomad is different when read in terms of the varied travel
experiences of marginal subjects. Work which concentrates on current
discussions of nomadic subjectivity and the material roots and
consequences of these theories for a discussion of American cultural
work will also be considered. The work of this session promises to
bring into dialogue multiple understandings of the significance of the
nomad as both a historically constitutive figure of American ³Identity²
and a site for enquiry into the relationships between geography,
movement, subjectivity, and epistemology in contemporary American
culture.
Please submit 1-2 page abstracts, no later than September 15, 1999.
Send To:
Shealeen Meaney
404 Manning Blvd.
Albany, NY 12206
shealeen@worldnet.att.net
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