CALL FOR PAPERS (Please circulate and distribute)
"Bordering on Transgression: Crossing the Nation's 'Normal' Frontiers"
NEMLA 12-13 April 2002 Toronto
The tradition of maintaining distinct national literatures has come under
pressure with the advance of late 20th century global capitalization. Yet
the resistance to dominant forms of national representations-literature,
film, performance, music-still assert themselves as alternatives to the
mainstream, be that political, sexual, or cultural.
Is the notion of transgressive literatures, in particular, especially those
that are concerned with asymmetries of gender and sexuality, concomitant
with other writings whose subjects do not adhere to purported "national
standards"? What of authors, such as Steven Weiner, an American writing as
a Canadian, whose characters deny or defy the existence of borders, both
sexual and and national? Does Canada's reputation as a "postmodern" or
"queer" country reflected in its literatures? Does America's political
conservatism and melting-pot culturalism deny literary plurality? Or are
all these simply cliches?
How do Canadian and American literatures "play out" in the other's country?
Can authors, such as Margaret Atwood (in _The Handmaid's Tale_ or Annie
Proulx (in _The Shipping News_) accurately represent a locality not strictly
their own? How does each nation "patrol" their literatures (eg: in
university syllabi), and might such gatekeeping (if any) be translated as
censorship (eg: Canada Customs' prosecution of Little Sisters)? Is Carol
Shields, for example, the winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the Governor
General's Award, a Canadian or American author?
Please submit queries and/or abstracts and papers by
15 September 2001
Andrew Lesk
318 Albany Ave
Toronto ON M5R 3C9
More information on my own work can be found at
www.AndrewLesk.com
Please note: You must be a NEMLA member by (at least) March 2002, and you may
only submit ONE paper to a NEMLA paper session.
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