Call for Papers
March 28-29, 2003
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA

• The politics of literature and the literature of politics
• The writer as an agent of consciousness formation and (de)formation
• Literature as utopia or reality (can both be politically engaged? How? At what levels?)
• Ways of 'exiting' abject spiritual and physical poverty through the use of the fantastic in colonial and post-colonial literary works
• Reworking the language / reworking the subject
• Literature and History: two sides of the same coin
• Questions of: migrant communities and diaspora
• The terrorist subject and terrorized object
• The unveiling of the self through the mask
• Body and soul rhetoric
• Speech and silence.
• The expression of objects.
• Engagement in literature (political, moral...)
• Heroism and counter-heroism.
• Intra and intertextual authorial dialog.
• Caribbean literature: indigenous and foreign voices.
• Authoritative shout and its effects.

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.