[Bilimsel Haber] ?let: CFP: Women Writing Rape: Literary and Theoretical Narratives of Sexual Violence (UK) (3/21/07; 4/28/07)

[suletar at kulturad.org]

----- gpultar at kulturad.org taraf?ndan iletilen ileti -----
   Tarih: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:47:20 +0200
  Kimden:  Gonul Pultar <gpultar at kulturad.org>
Yan?t Adresi:Gonul Pultar <gpultar at kulturad.org>
    Konu: CFP: Women Writing Rape: Literary and Theoretical Narratives  
of Sexual Violence (UK) (3/21/07; 4/28/07)
    Kime: Sule Tarakcioglu <suletar at kulturad.org>

CALL FOR PAPERS
Women Writing Rape: Literary and Theoretical Narratives of Sexual Violence

A Half-Day Symposium at the University of Warwick ~ Saturday 28th April 2007

Funded and Organised by the Feminist & Women's Studies Association (FWSA)
Featuring a Keynote Speech by: Dr. Ananya Jahanara Kabir, University of
Leeds

This symposium proposes to bring together academics with an interest in
feminism and gender studies across a variety of fields, including
Literary Studies, History, Sociology, Legal Studies, and Creative
Writing. The central aim is to consider how rape is theorised in
contemporary feminism. The symposium will encourage dialogue between
literary narratives of rape and theoretical aspects of feminist debates
about sexual violence.

In her 2002 article, 'Toward a New Feminist Theory of Rape', Corinne M.
Mardorossian argues that for British and American feminisms, '[r]ape has
become academia's undertheorized and apparently untheorizable issue'.
Mardorossian asks why there is such 'stagnation in the theorizing of
sexual violence precisely at a time when the body is so high on the
feminist scholars' list of priorities' and she seeks to understand this
phenomenon. Mardorossian demands an alternative feminist theory that
addresses these problems i.e. that 'does not accept existing premises
and established "truths" but problematizes them by asking alternative
questions and offering different conceptions'. However, some feminists
have criticised Mardorossian's suggestions for a solution at the end of
her article, because they are rooted in challenging representations
rather than in detailed sociological research. Mardorossian demands that
feminists 'resist the facile opposition between passivity and agency'.
She concludes that ultimately feminists must 'theorize and
reconceptualize the meanings of categories such as "victim" and
"experience" rather than merely criticize their use'.

Despite the claim that feminism has failed to re-theorise rape, this
symposium aims to show that the kind of subversive representational
deconstruction demanded by Mardorossian is already being performed in
contemporary literary texts that deal with sexual violence. We are
particularly interested in papers that deal with subversive literary
texts that perform one of the following strategies:

-rethinking categories such as "victim" and "experience" in relation
to rape narratives;
-subverting the notion of a "gender script";
-undermining active/passive binaries;
-questioning the separation of rape from an experiential perspective;
-reasserting the importance of women's experience;
-recognising relations of power and panopticism in representations of rape;
-undermining media representations of 'real' and 'fake' victims.

Some writers that might make interesting case studies are novelists
like Yvonne Vera, J.M. Coetzee and Toni Morrison, or poets like Selima
Hill, Pascale Petit and Sharon Olds.

The symposium will include a keynote speech by Dr. Ananya Jahanara Kabir
on the topic of how rape is represented in contemporary South Asia.
There will also be a creative writing workshop for delegates that
provides ways into rethinking categories such as 'active', 'passive' and
'victim'. Negotiations are being made for the proceedings to be published.

Deadline for Abstracts:  21st of March 2007

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words for 15 - 20 minute papers.

Please send by e-mail (in the e-mail body or by attached Word document)
to Sorcha Gunne (sorchagunne at gmail.com).

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