Key elements in colonial and postcolonial discourse and criticism have always been questions of belonging, of identity, of expressing, explaining and analyzing contemporary and earlier attitudes to peoples and cultures including our own. Postcolonial literatures and their theories can be seen as processes of an ongoing de-colonization of ideas, philosophies and social norms. Globalization processes problematize issues of trans-cultural identity and the refraction of local cultural practices in the diaspora.

We invite papers for this conference which address questions of identities and masks used to reveal or hide the above-mentioned issues in relation to the “many faces” of postcolonialism. The conference will have three main sections:

• African literature
• settler country literatures - Canadian, New Zealand and Australian
• multicultural literatures - e.g. Caribbean, British, and American.

Abstract deadline: 1 May

The conference is held 10 - 12 October, with a follow-up research seminar for graduate students 13-14 October. Please see conference website for details.