UPDATE: Postcolonial Picaresque (3/21/03; MLA '03)

The CFP I sent last week, now posted on the website, has some strange
characters in it, due to cutting and pasting, I believe, so I'm correcting
this, as well as changing the deadline. Thank you.

UPDATE: Postcolonial Picaresque (3/21/03; MLA '03)

In 'The Myth of the Picaro,' Alexander Blackburn defines the 'picaro' as a
'half outsider,' 'an outcast of society who wants to enter in' (16). In
this view, such a character represents 'the heart of every true picaresque
novel,' whether it was written in the 16th century or the 20th. Blackburn
goes on to identify half-outsiders as everything from confidence men to
artists, rogues, and pseudo-Christs, ultimately arguing that Western
civilization itself 'could be described as picaresque,' that 'the picaro is
modern man without living faith' (25). Blackburn fails to consider the
picaresque outside of the Western tradition, however. This proposed special
session, 'The Postcolonial Picaresque,' will explore how postcolonial
writers have employed the Western picaro figure to express their alienation.
The postcolonial picaro is a denizen of the 'contact zone,' to borrow Mary
Louise Pratt's phrase, an outcast of society seeking integration into a
half-alien world.

Please send 500 word abstracts by March 21 to Shannon Young
(syoung39_at_earthlink.net)

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Received on Fri Mar 07 2003 - 18:21:43 EST