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- Convenors:
-
Anna Sofia Churchill
(KU Leuven)
Olga Husch (JLU Giessen UCP Lisbon)
Sonja Ruud (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
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- Format:
- Panel
Short Abstract:
Countering exclusionary notions of national literature, this panel centres writings by authors rendered out-of-place by the nation-state, exploring how literary production in contexts of displacement can unwrite established forms of literature and redefine belonging outside of nationalist terms.
Long Abstract:
Traditionally, the Western literary canon has predominantly consisted of authors whose personal identities and writings conform and contribute to collective imaginings of national identity. It has only been in recent decades that writers who would have previously been excluded because of their race, ethnic origin, or migration status have started to be included in national literatures. However, this inclusion normally only facilitates space for those who are already commercially successful authors. Both the publishing industry and academic study frequently overlook texts written from the bottom-up – that is to say, works by writers who are liminally situated in the margins of national belonging, created without intervention or mediation by more established interlocutors. Focusing on contexts of “displacement,” this interdisciplinary panel explores writings by diverse authors who are rendered out-of-place by the nation-state system, through migrantization, (settler) colonialism, and racialization. Inviting contributions from across the Humanities and Social Sciences which examine the form and content of such literary texts as well as the social processes involved in producing them, it seeks to dismantle hegemonic frameworks in which literature is created, perceived and studied. Encouraging dialogue with decolonial, postcolonial and feminist theories and Indigenous worldviews, the panel explores how such literary production in contexts of displacement can unwrite established forms of literature and dominant logics of knowledge production. At the same time, it considers how these modes of writing can afford new narrations of multivalent cultural knowledge and heritage, redefining belonging outside of nationalist terms.