Seminar Organizers: Emily A Maguire, Northwestern University, and Kahlil Chaar, New York University

As Edouard Glissant, Antonio Benítez Rojo, and other Caribbeanists have observed, the Caribbean is a paradigmatic space of cultural flows, connections and interruptions, a territory whose history and identity have been and are determined by errantry and up-rootedness. Thus, Caribbean literary production is often characterized as a practice of translation, negotiation, and appropriation, a power struggle with cultural traditions that span both sides of the Atlantic. This panel aims to discuss these constructions of the fragmentary world of the literary Caribbean and in the process question the possibility and/or impossibility of defining the Caribbean as such. We welcome proposals that engage critically with these issues by offering new readings of exemplary texts and/or bringing marginal texts to light. Relevant questions include the following: In what ways do both the translation and mistranslation of languages, cultures and ideologies operate in the literary Caribbean? What dialogues and/or misreadings have become determining (even defining) elements of Caribbean literature? Is it possible to conceptualize Caribbean literary production beyond questions of identity, and what would be the impications of such thinking? What roles should narratives of nationhood and insularity play in a re-envisioning of the Caribbean literary archipielago?

Please submit paper proposals directly through the ACLA website at: http://www.acla.org/acla2009/?page_id=7