CFP: The Literature of Trauma: Native/Indigenous/Aboriginal Perspectives (3/1/05; RMMLA, 10/20/05-10/22/05)

Call For Papers?The Literature of Trauma: Native/Indigenous/Aboriginal
perspectives.

October 20-22, 2005

Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association 59th Annual Convention, Coeur
d?Alene Resort on the Lake, Coeur d?Alene, Idaho.

In her seminal work "Worlds of Hurt" Kalí Tal asks her readers to consider
?the connection between individual psychic trauma and cultural
representations of the traumatic event.? Obviously the colonization of the
?New World? was a traumatic event of monumental proportions and although
there has been an abundance of texts produced on the subject, little effort has
been made to represent the conquest of the new world from the perspective of
those who were ?conquered.? Because of issues associated with linguistic
colonialism and language deprivation this question is especially significant to
the examination of American Indian and other indigenous responses to European
colonization that began in earnest near the end of the fifteenth century. The
focus of this panel will be to explore this historical terra incognita in a way
that inverts/subverts the traditional modes of historical explanation and
attempt to answer Tal?s vitally important questions from the perspective of
native/indigenous/aboriginal peoples.

Some possible areas of investigation into the experience of trauma from the
native perspective could center on:

Narratives of boarding/residential school experience.
Native/indigenous/aboriginal military responses to colonialism.
Accommodation and adaptation as a survival technique.
The psychic trauma associated with assimilation and culture loss.
Regenerative cultural efforts of native/indigenous/aboriginal peoples.
Trauma and contemporary American Indian literature.
Genocide and the project of colonialism.
The Indian massacre and American history.
Trauma, cultural memory and oral tradition.
Manifest Destiny and the gendering of dominance.
Ritual, spiritual, ceremonial responses to trauma.
Representations of trauma in native art.

The above list is certainly not exhaustive and I encourage proposals that
address the issue of trauma and European colonialism in innovative and
insightful ways. Send abstracts of 250 words and a brief vita by email or
snail-mail, along with your name, educational affiliation, address, phone
number, and email address to: strattbj_at_email.arizona.edu.

---------------------------------------------

Billy J Stratton
University of Arizona
American Indian Studies Program
310 Harvill
Tucson, Arizona 85721
strattbj_at_email.arizona.edu

For abstracts sent electronically, please send as Microsoft Word attachment or
copy and paste text into the body of the e-mail. Deadline for proposals: March
1, 2004.

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Received on Fri Feb 04 2005 - 11:34:08 EST