[Discussion] UPDATE: The Postcolonial Body (9/1/04; NEMLA, 3/31/05-4/2/05)

[sule tarakcioglu]

UPDATE: Corrected version

CFP: The Postcolonial Body

Northeastern Modern Language Association (NEMLA) Convention 2005
Cambridge, MA
March 31-April 2, 2005
Convention Information: http://www.nemla.org
(Panelists must be members of NEMLA)

This panel proposes to examine the ways in which the body reflects,
rehearses,
and redefines the Postcolonial state.  As Colette Guillaumin in Racism,
Sexism, Power and Ideology points out, the =93natural characteristic=94 o=
f
ethnicity, race, nation, or gender, =93inscribes the system of domination
on the
body of the individual, assigning to the individual his/her place as a
dominated person.=94  For the Postcolonial, this inscription of dominance
leaves
traces upon the body, traces which are present in the literature, film, a=
nd
cultural productions of previously colonized nations.  Rushdie=92s fantas=
tic
metamorphosing bodies in The Satanic Verses, Salih=92s sexual predator in
Season
of Migration to the North, and the diseased body in Ghosh=92s The Calcutt=
a
Chromosome all exhibit the ways in which the body situates itself as a
site of
examination, explanation, and resistance to the colonial past and the
neo-colonizing present.
In redefining the ways in which this body reacts and redefines itself, Ha=
rdt
and Negri argue that =93corporeal mutations constitute an anthropological
exodus
and represent an extraordinarily important . . . element of the
configuration
of republicanism =91against=92 imperial civilization.=94  This =93anthrop=
ological
exodus=94 describes the points where the body can be seen as both reactin=
g to
and escaping the hegemonies which were imposed by the history of
colonialism.
If resistance is enacted upon representations of the body and displayed i=
n
corporeality, it becomes significant and successful in enforcing a
refusal to
join anthropological normality and the disciplines of colonizing and
neo-colonizing culture.  This is also seen when Ian Baucom, in =93Chartin=
g the
=91Black Atlantic,=92=94 locates the diasporic Postcolonial subject by
utilizing the
metaphoric body as it moves through global waters, refusing to remain or =
be
defined by either the point of departure or arrival.  This panel seeks
papers
that investigate the ways in which the Postcolonial body is represented a=
s
both a perceived conduit of =93abnormality=94 and monstrosity, reflecting
epistemic colonial constructions, or examine the ways in which the
Postcolonial body serves as a trope for resistance and re-definition in t=
he
diaspora and in the homeland.

Please send 250-300 word abstracts to Rebecca Fine Romanow, University of
Rhode Island, at rromanow@mail.uri.edu by September 1, 2004.

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