CALL FOR PAPERS
"Making a Start Out of Particulars"
The Fourth Biennial Conference of the Association for the Study of
Literature and Environment (ASLE)
June 19-23, 2001
Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff
PANEL: COLONIZING NATURE
As ecocritics continue to explore what it means to "speak for nature" from
a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives, questions often focus
on representations of the "voiceless" non-human world: what constitutes
"real" nature? who has the privilege to speak for it? can "ecology" provide
a standard for judging representations of it? are essentialized notions of
terms like "nature" and "wilderness" ultimately productive? This panel
explores these questions by drawing parallels between debates in
ecocriticism and contemporary postcolonial theory and criticism.
While we are wary of simply appropriating postcolonial perspectives (and
potentially downplaying historical realities like slavery and
colonialism), we believe postcolonial considerations of nativism, native
culture, and nationalism offer crucial interrogations of the colonized
Other that can be applied to discourses about nature. Various narratives
of colonial and imperial conquest tend to conceive of nature and natives
in similar derogatory terms, often in order to justify subjugation and
domination. We welcome papers interested in exploring these topics in the
context of conquest narratives, postcolonial texts, or any of the
interstices between.
In keeping with the aims of this conference, we encourage participants
willing to talk through papers rather than simply reading them aloud.
Possible topics may include:
--Nature as Other in African, Caribbean, Indian, South
American, or other postcolonial texts
--Representations of nature in North American conquest
narratives
--Intersections of ecocriticism and postcolonial theory
--Essentializing nature/ essentializing native culture
--Searching for the "voice" of nature and natives
--Issues of authenticity
--Theory in the context of political exigencies
Please send a one page abstract, or completed paper, and c.v. to either
one of us by Friday, December 8, 2000. Email or regular mail is fine.
Susan Lucas
Literature & Environment Program
English Dept/098
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno, NV 89557-0031
email: slucas@scs.unr.edu
Michael Lundblad
Department of English
University of Virginia
219 Bryan Hall
Charlottesville, VA 22904
email: ml2r@virginia.edu
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