Possible topics: “Westernization”

• Phenomena of regionalization and globalization: place of the author’s role within that referential frame as an individual and engagé citizen
• Archival regional and national structures in literature
• Transculturation/hegemony/subaltern/ hybridity/ diaspora/ deterritorialization/ othering/ eurocentrism/ mestizo
• End of postmodernism: now what?
• (Con)fusion
• Enforcement of cultural boundaries: practice of exclusion
• Homogeneity deconstructed by antiwar, women’s, gay & lesbian, transgender and transsexual movements

Ethnolinguistics

• Theoretical aspects in ethnolinguistics (relationships among language /culture/ thought /ideology/ society)
• Dialectology and ethnolinguistics
• Ethnolinguistics and semiotics
• Oral tradition in text
• Languages/cultures in contact

Medieval

• Strategies of coexistence
• Jewish Diaspora
• Peace, negotiation and reciprocity
• Post-Colonial Cultures
• Mimicry and originality
• Resistance and complicity

Other

• Testimony and literature: anthropological, historical, philosophical and political readings
• Tradition of black literature in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Ethnicized/subaltern discourse
• New languages of communications (codes) and identity
• Poetics and socio-political commitment
• Literature of travels – written from and to the Americas
• Pícaros and picaresque
• Didactic of literature – research & reflection on classroom practices

This list is meant to be suggestive rather than exhaustive. Papers on other topics related to the conference will be considered.

Proposals for papers, panels (3-4 papers) and roundtables are invited in all areas of Romance languages from all theoretical perspectives. Presentations will be limited to a reading time of 20 minutes (with an additional ten minutes for discussion). Abstracts must be submitted anonymously and should be no more than 250 words, counting references and examples, with margins of at least 1-inch, letter size 11/12. They must include an attached cover letter indicating the title, author’s name, affiliation, address, telephone number and e-mail address. Proposals for panels should contain the title of each presentation and the above information for each participant. Papers may be read (and abstracts submitted) in Spanish, English, Italian and French. Submissions are accepted from graduate students only. There is limited lodging space available for presenters from out of town. E-mail and fax submissions are accepted. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged.

Deadline for submission: December 7, 2001

Address all submissions to:
Ms. Sadie Northway, Secretary
Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures
Lyons 304
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3804
Tel. (617) 552-3820
Fax (617) 552-2064
E-mail: reyescub@bc.edu

Address all inquiries to:
Organizing Committee
Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3804
Tel (617) 552-3820
Fax (617) 552-2064
E-mail: romrev@bc.edu

A selection of papers will be published in the literary criticism journal Romance Review www.bc.edu/romrev