Deadline: 31 March 2013
This special session has been approved for the 2013 Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association (PAMLA) Conference in San Diego, California on November 1-3, 2013.
We are interested in papers that examine literary texts and cultural discourses that represent and examine the relations between diasporas and their homelands and hostlands through cultural identification and historical-temporal differences or “age”.
As Vijay Mishra observes in regards to the Indian diaspora and its literature, there is both an “old” and a “new” Indian diaspora produced in different historical and economic moments, distinct from but imbricated with each other. We wish to consider if this “old-new” distinction applies to other diasporas and their literary and cultural representations (such as the African and Chinese diasporas, among others). Furthermore, we wish to consider Gabriel Sheffer’s distinction between “transnational communities” and “ethnonational diasporas,” where the latter is more closely linked to the homeland through “long-distance nationalism” while the former are better characterized as “informal non-organized networks.” Although all diasporas are dispersed across borders, the degree of cultural identification exhibited by individuals or groups with either a cohesive ethnonationalism or a looser transnational community is an open question and bears investigation.
We invite papers on literature produced by writers concerned with diasporic or postcolonial cultural identities, transnational communities, ethnonationalism, and globalization as problem and possibility. Comparative papers on two writers within one diaspora expressing different “old-new” perspectives, or about one writer whose work combines “old-new” and “ethnonational-transnational” perspectives are especially welcome.
Please send questions and proposals (approximately 500 words) to Weihsin Gui. Proposals will also need to submitted on the PAMLA website when it becomes active.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For queries/ submissions: weihsin.gui “at” ucr.edu
Website: http://www.pamla.org/
This special session has been approved for the 2013 Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association (PAMLA) Conference in San Diego, California on November 1-3, 2013.
We are interested in papers that examine literary texts and cultural discourses that represent and examine the relations between diasporas and their homelands and hostlands through cultural identification and historical-temporal differences or “age”.
As Vijay Mishra observes in regards to the Indian diaspora and its literature, there is both an “old” and a “new” Indian diaspora produced in different historical and economic moments, distinct from but imbricated with each other. We wish to consider if this “old-new” distinction applies to other diasporas and their literary and cultural representations (such as the African and Chinese diasporas, among others). Furthermore, we wish to consider Gabriel Sheffer’s distinction between “transnational communities” and “ethnonational diasporas,” where the latter is more closely linked to the homeland through “long-distance nationalism” while the former are better characterized as “informal non-organized networks.” Although all diasporas are dispersed across borders, the degree of cultural identification exhibited by individuals or groups with either a cohesive ethnonationalism or a looser transnational community is an open question and bears investigation.
We invite papers on literature produced by writers concerned with diasporic or postcolonial cultural identities, transnational communities, ethnonationalism, and globalization as problem and possibility. Comparative papers on two writers within one diaspora expressing different “old-new” perspectives, or about one writer whose work combines “old-new” and “ethnonational-transnational” perspectives are especially welcome.
Please send questions and proposals (approximately 500 words) to Weihsin Gui. Proposals will also need to submitted on the PAMLA website when it becomes active.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For queries/ submissions: weihsin.gui “at” ucr.edu
Website: http://www.pamla.org/
