[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: Rites of Passage: Exploring Changes in the Travel Motif (2/15/06; 3/2/06-3/4/06)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: Shaswati Mazumdar <smazumdar@gmx.net>


CALL FOR PAPERS

SEMINAR:

Rites of Passage: Exploring changes in the travel motif

2-4 March 2006

Though travel has always been a recurring theme in writing, it emerged as a
significant motif in the 18th and 19th centuries, not only in literature but
also in philosophical and political discourse. This was a reflection of the
large-scale migration of people unleashed by the process of 
industrialisation
and colonisation as also of the beginnings of travel as tourism for the 
leisured
classes.

The transformation of the world over the last two centuries has 
witnessed the
'massification' of travel, both as mass tourism and in the explosive 
increase in
migration. Both these forms of 'massification' have seen unprecedented 
expansion
with the onset of the postcolonial era and particularly in the contemporary
times of globalisation. This expansion has been driven particularly by 
modern
technologies of travel and the media, but more generally by the social, 
economic
and political conditions that emerged in the last century and then in the
postcolonial world. While this process has included a redefining of 
borders, it
has also sedimented the divides that existed between and within societies,
albeit in new ways. The temporary escape or displacement of the traveller as
tourist and the more permanent escape or displacement of the traveller as
migrant reflect and are linked by these divides.

Travel as a motif has been deployed in a variety of modes: as real, 
imaginary
and virtual travel, as time travel and as travel in hyperreality. But it has
always also been concerned, in one way or another, with constructing 
notions of
the Self and the Other, or of utopian and dystopian worlds. In what ways 
have
these notions changed? And how are they reflected in the motif of travel?

The seminar will bring together scholars from different disciplines to 
reflect
upon the changes in the motif of travel and explore the artistic forms with
which writers and other artists have sought to engage with them.


Submission of abstracts (200-300 words): 15 February 2006

Additional Information:

Each paper will be allotted 20-30 minutes for presentation. Given the 
shortage
of resources, the Department is unable to offer travel fare. However, local
hospitality will be provided in the University Guest House for outstation
participants. A selection of papers of the seminar will be published


Department of Germanic & Romance Studies
University of Delhi
Delhi - 110007
India

Tel: 27666426, 27667725 Ext.1296
E-mail: grs.du.in@gmail.com



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