MELOW
(The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of
the World)
CONFERENCE CALL
16th INTERNATIONAL MELOW CONFERENCE
Chandigarh, 3-5 March 2017
Theme:
Facts,
Distortions and Erasures: Literature as History; History in Literature
Literature has ever shared an intimate relationship with history. History has
provided the background and context to literary works down the centuries and
remains one of the many sources of inspiration for a writer. Our perception of
the history-literature interface keeps changing as time goes on and in recent
decades, contemporary theoretical developments have yet again changed the
understanding of literature’s connection with history and enabled us to
see the literary text in more ways than one. We may now see ‘literature in history’
(Brannigan) and history in literature, taking the literary
text as unofficially recorded history, focusing on the ‘historicity of texts’
and the ‘textuality of history’ (Montrose), History now conceives itself
as exploration rather than discovery, as reinscription rather than
reproduction; through its revisionism it interrogates the master-narratives to
salvage and include in its corpus little narratives, local knowledges,
collective memories and oral stories long kept outside the official episteme.
The 16th MELOW International Conference would seek to explore
the changing relationships between history and literature, focusing on a broad
expanse that includes literature across borders of time and space. Areas of
exploration would relate literature and its representations in history,
recorded and unrecorded. These may include but are not limited to the
following:
·
Theoretical
issues: reading strategies, contemporary views of history, grand narratives and
little stories.
·
History,
memory and literary representation: historical events commemorated in
literature; creative use of historical sources.
·
Reconfigurations:
figmentation, fabrication and fictionalization of historical characters;
condensation and displacement.
·
Re-centering:
magnification of marginalized characters, unheard/ignored voices and events.
·
Counter-narratives:
Revisioning and re-interpretation of traditional accounts.
·
Search
for truth: intermingling of fact and fiction.
·
Whose story? Her-story
as history.
Abstracts not exceeding 250 words are invited on the issues
listed above. The main thrust of the
conference remains world literature that cuts across continents; keeping this
in view, proposals related to the areas given below may be sent to the given
email id with a copy to melusmelow@gmail.com:
1. Proposals on Theoretical
considerations: Prof Anil Raina at aneelraina@gmail.com
2. Proposals
related to Indian Literature: Dr Roshan Lal Sharma at roshanlal.sharma@gmail.com
3. Proposals
related to Canadian and American Literature: Prof Manpreet Kang at roohipannu@yahoo.co.uk
4. Proposals
related to European Literature: Prof Ashis Sengupta at ashmit_2003@yahoo.com
5. Proposals
related to Australian/African Literature: Dr. Vandhana Sharma at vandhanasmvdu@gmail.com
6. Proposals
related to areas not covered above: Prof Manju Jaidka at jaidkamanju@gmail.com
Your
abstract (of about 250 words) should be sent in the TEXT BOX of the
email (not as attachment). The following information, in the given format,
should be sent along with the abstract:
|
Name
of Delegate
Official
designation
Email
id
Title
of Abstract
|
|
MELUS/MELOW
conferences attended earlier (in which year and where)
|
|
Are
you currently a member of MELOW? Or do you need a fresh / renewed membership?
Please specify.
|
|
ABSTRACT
[Text] 250 words max.
|
The subject line of your
message should read thus:
ABSTRACT 2017: [YOUR NAME] and [If applicable, state if you are
an Indian citizen below 40, competing for the ISM award]*
Deadline for receipt of abstracts is 1 September 2016
All
abstracts will be peer-reviewed before they are accepted. Do not send
full papers. Once acceptance letters are sent, full papers (approx 3,000
words) will be invited only from participants competing for the Isaac Sequeira
Memorial Award. The rest need to bring their complete papers (hard copies,
please) along at the time of the conference.
* ISAAC SEQUEIRA MEMORIAL AWARD:
In the memory of our mentor,
Prof Isaac Sequeira, MELOW annually awards a prize for the best paper presented
at its conference. The award comprises a certificate and a cash prize of Rs.
5,000.
The competition is open
to Indian citizens who are members of MELOW.
The competing participant / delegate should be born on or after 01.01.1977. The abstract should be submitted
by the stipulated deadline. If it is selected for the ‘long list’ the complete
paper will be invited by a given deadline and assessed and shortlisted before
it is presented at the conference.
