[Discussion] (Dis)Locating Identity

[Gonul Pultar]

UPDATE/ATTENTION: CALL FOR PAPERS (Extended Deadline)

(Dis)Locating Identity in the 20th Century:
An International Conference
http://www.usc-conference.mtvcc.us/
Saturday, April 3 - Sunday, April 4, 2004
University of South Carolina-Columbia
Department of English

The diverse intersections of location and identity entail a necessary deb=
ate about the ways cultural, social, historical, political, environmental=
, and religious forces shape identity in the twentieth century. The arts =
provide a forum in which the complex relationship between location and id=
entity can be explored and questioned. Is it possible to map identity? Is=
 the question of culture equivalent to the question of identity? Is ident=
ity a project or an object? Does the permeability of physical boundaries =
affect the definitiveness of identity? Is the term identity obsolete? How=
 do gender, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, and nationality play into =
this conversation? We seek papers that not only reflect and build upon th=
ese issues, but encourage the analysis and exploration of multiple types =
of literature such as hypertext, film, art, and music in addition to poet=
ry and prose. We strongly encourage cross-genre discussions.

Topics may include, but certainly are not limited to:

*       the woman warrior
*       culture versus counterculture
*       mental illness
*       issues in virtual space
*       rural versus urban life
*       the metropolis
*       the fl=E2neur and mapping the city
*       identity and a life on the road
*       (de)constructing gender and race
*       struggles in Modernism
*       fragmentation and construction
*       feminist writing/theory/practice
*       social and natural environments
*       masculinity and femininity
*       religion and spirituality
*       post-colonial experience
*       war culture
*       activism and the arts

The deadline for submission is Monday, November 17, 2003.
Please submit an abstract at http://www.usc-conference.mtvcc.us/.

Information on our Keynote Addresses:

Professor David Cowart:

David Cowart, Louise Fry Scudder Professor at the University of SouthCaro=
lina (Columbia), has won major awards for teaching and research.  A consu=
lting editor for the journal Critique, Professor Cowart has been an NEH f=
ellow and held Fulbright chairs at the University of Helsinki and at Oden=
se University in Denmark.  In addition to over ninety articles, notes, an=
d reviews, he has written five books: Thomas Pynchon: The Art of Allusion=
 (1980), Arches and Light: The Fiction of John Gardner (1983), History an=
d the Contemporary Novel (1989), Literary Symbiosis: The Reconfigured Tex=
t in Twentieth-Century Writing (1993), and Don DeLillo: The Physics of La=
nguage (2002). He is at present finishing a new book on recent American i=
mmigrant writing.

Professor Janette Turner Hospital:

Janette Turner Hospital is Carolina Distinguished Professor of English at=
 the University of South Carolina.  She has formerly been Writer-in-Resid=
ence at Boston University, M.I.T., Colgate University, and at universitie=
s in Australia, Canada, England, and France. Her novels have been transla=
ted into many languages (French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Czech a=
nd Hindi among others) and have received prestigious literary awards. Amo=
ng her internationally acclaimed novels are: The Ivory Swing (1982), winn=
er of Canada's Seal Award, Borderline (1985), Charades (1988), The Last M=
agician (1992) and Oyster (1996). Dislocations (1987), a collection of sh=
ort stories, won the Fellowship of Australian Writers Fiction Award in 19=
88. Her works deal with a sense of displacement and search for identity. =
She herself has led a nomadic life, and the constant dislocation became o=
ne of the main themes in her writing. Her latest novel, Due Preparations =
for the Plague, was published in May 200!
3, and has already received major critical acclaim in Australia, Canada, =
and the USA.