[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: The Art and Politics of Subversion: Theory in a Counter Mode (5/31/06; collection)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: Sura Rath <RathS@cwu.EDU>


CALL FOR PAPERS

Forum on Contemporary Theory
Centre for Contemporary Theory
301-02 Shiv Shakti Complex
84 Sampatrao Colony, R. C. Dutt Road
Baroda 390 007, India

Tel: (0265)5522512
Website: www.fctworld.org; email: pck@satyam.net.in;
                           librarycct@yahoo.co.in


The Forum on Contemporary Theory, an organization based in Baroda, 
India, has
been organizing an international conference on Theory and inter-disciplinary
studies and publishing a volume every year of select papers from the 
conference
and from the submissions made in response to its Call for Papers for the 
volume.
In keeping with this practice it will publish in 2006 a volume devoted 
to the
theme of its eighth international conference "The Art and Politics of
Subversion: Theory in a Counter Mode" held in Mangalore during 14-17 
December
2005 in collaboration with the Department of English, Mangalore 
University.  The
volume will be published by Pencraft International, Delhi in association 
with
the Forum on Contemporary Theory, and will be formally launched at the 
inaugural
ceremony of its 9th conference to be held in mid-December 2006. It will be
edited by R. Radhakrishnan, Chair, Department of Asian American Studies and
Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of California at
Irvine, and Kishori Nayak, Chair, Department of English, Mangalore 
University,
India. The editors will be assisted by R. Shashidhar, Ravishankar Rao, 
Parinitha
and D. R. Shashidhar from the Department of English, Mangalore 
University. The
volume is part of a series called Critical Interventions in Theory and 
Praxis
launched by the Centre for Contemporary Theory, Baroda under the general
editorship of Prafulla C. Kar and Parul Dave Mukerji, Conveners of the 
Forum on
Contemporary Theory.

The theme of the eighth international conference, "The Art and Politics of
Subversion: Theory in a Counter-Mode," continued the debate initiated at the
Vishakapatnam conference in 2004, focusing on the dialogic encounter 
between the
discourse of high Theory and what could be called its "double" in its 
popular
manifestation. It seeks to explore in some detail how Theory's dominance 
seemed
to have been undermined through its own proliferation in the market of 
commodity
fetishization. But what may appear to be its dilution has in fact become a
symptom of Theory's greater accessibility and transmission across 
cultures. This
is visible in the very language in which Theory now circulates and in 
its many
forms. One could see even in Derrida's later writings the sign of such a
linguistic transformation indicating his inclination toward some kind of
expressive intelligibility. The Bakhtinian notion of dialogism germane 
to every
culture seems true in the case of Theory as well. Despite Paul de Man's 
anxiety
over the vulgarization of Theory in the marketplace, theory has reached 
a broad
range of constituencies and is being consumed under different 
conditions. When
subversive, and this is not always the case, Theory has not only 
critiqued the
European legacies of the "metaphysics of presence" but has enabled the 
emergence
of what Foucault would call "subjugated knowledges."

The proposed volume will attempt to examine the conditions under which 
Theory
has flourished, the implications for such proliferation for Theory 
itself and
its academic relevance, the nature and modes of such proliferation and their
cultural significance. It may sound paradoxical, but it seems true that 
Theory
as a holistic enterprise has provided conditions for its own 
deconstruction by
encouraging subversion as its desired goal, thereby re-generating itself 
through
its descent from its self-imposed loftiness to the level of public 
participation
by exploring its playful and comic potential. The ascendancy of the 
"popular"
manifested in various cultural and aesthetic forms seems to signal that 
Theory
has been translated into its praxis and has thereby found its appropriate
articulation. We shall explore how this counter-mode has been able to 
re-direct
the energies of Theory into its ludic direction, thus opening itself up to
useful social and cultural appropriation. Through such devices as political
cartoons, fictional parody and burlesque, comic strips and kitsch, colonial
mimicry, carnivalesque laughter, play and games, anecdotes as interventions,
exploration of the body in its performative acts and such other devices, 
Theory
is ubiquitous in its panoply of self-constitutive subversion. This kind of
subversion is both ideological, as it is aimed against high theory's
valorization of linguistic opacity and artistic as it exploits the material
already available in the field of Theory, extending its boundary so that its
relevance to the world at large is not lost. The works of Huizinga and 
Bakhtin
could be used as conceptual tools for throwing more light on this aspect of
Theory's other face. It is important to understand what happens to 
Theory when
it circulates through media and popular art forms, or when Theory 
creates its
own travesties, as in the Sokal affair.

Papers, mostly of conceptual nature, supported by textual examples, are 
welcome.
Mere textual analysis without any broad framework will not be 
entertained. The
deadline for submissions is: May 31, 2006. You may send the paper as an 
email
attachment to R. Radhakrishnan at rradhak@aol.com or rradhakr@uci.edu

The decision about the status of your paper will be communicated to you 
by the
end of August 2006.



Sura P. Rath, Director
The William O. Douglas Honors College
Central Washington University
Language & Literature Building, #103B
400 East University Way
Ellensburg, WA 98926-7521
USA

Phone: 509-963-1440
Fax:      509-963-1206
Email:   raths@cwu.edu




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