Seminar: Re ‐envisioning South Asian Liter atures

[Stefan Baums]

Dear list,

I would like to bring the following conference announcement to 
your attention. If you are interested in presenting a paper please 
write directly to the organizer. (Please note that the deadline 
for proposals is coming up fast.)

Best wishes,
Stefan Baums

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CALL FOR PAPERS

ACLA 2009 Conference
March 26-29, 2009
Harvard University

SEMINAR:  RE-ENVISIONING SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURES: THEORIES, 
AESTHETICS, AND INFLUENCE IN LOCAL AND GLOBAL CONTEXTS

Buddhadeva Bose, founder of the Department of Comparative 
Literature at Jadavpur University, once remarked "There isn't 
anything called Indian Literature, whatever are there, are but ten 
or twelve literatures written in different Indian languages." 
Bose's comment points to the difficulty of forming a cohesive, 
holistic theory of South Asian aesthetics, criticism, and 
literature. Bose implies that it is as problematic to speak of 
multiple South Asian literatures as one unified whole as it is to 
single out one national literature and allow it to take literary 
precedent over others. Thus, only by understanding local and 
global contexts, can we access and re-envision South Asian 
literatures, theories, and aesthetic practices.

This seminar invites scholars to present papers on:

    * What kind of aesthetics and theories developed within
     particular South Asian literatures? How did these local
     literatures influence or exclude one another? Did any of
     these literatures take a cultural precedent over another?
    * In what aesthetic frame do we place multilingual or exophonic
     South Asian writers?
    * What has been the affect of colonial languages on South Asian
     literary forms? What lasting influence did these languages
     have on our perception of South Asian literary canons,
     marketplaces, and aesthetic norms? How do such literatures
     compare to their local or regional counterparts?
    * What is the relationship between access to the literatures of
     South Asia and their local or global presence?
    * How have non-South Asian (and perhaps even non-colonial)
     writers absorbed South Asian aesthetic practices or themes
     into their own work?

The DEADLINE for paper proposals is NOVEMBER 3, 2008 at 9 pm PST.

Please submit all papers abstracts (with a 250 word maximum) 
directly to the 2009 ACLA Conference Website at: 
http://www.acla.org/submit/

If you have any questions regarding the conference or seminar 
theme, please send an e-mail to banerjee at fas.harvard.edu

==========

-- 
Stefan Baums
Asian Languages and Literature
University of Washington