Dialogues across Boundaries: Debating Local Cosmopolitanisms
21 – 22 November 2009
Position Papers: Neil Lazarus, Stephanie Newell and John Thieme
With the Participation of Creative Writers Brian Chikwava and Deon Meyer
Dialogues across Boundaries: Debating Local Cosmopolitanisms
Historically, meanings attached to the notion of cosmopolitanism have often placed it in an opposition to the local; moreover, the term itself bears a legacy of complicity with various forms of imperialism and global violence. This two-day conference centred on literary and related texts and textualities will debate the possibilities of repositioning ‘cosmopolitanism’ as a de-colonial term, in line with the broad intellectual project of ‘provincialising Europe’. We will seek to move away from equating cosmopolitanism with un-localised ‘hybridity’ brought on by globalisation, and will, instead, aim to underscore the local embeddednes of texts and practices that would speak to difference and to experiences of the universal. Position papers will examine local aspects, impacts and implications of transnational institutions and constructs—including the Postcolonial, comparative or ‘world’ literary canon(s).
Provisional Programme
Saturday 21 November
9: 30 – 10:00 Coffee and registration
10:00 – 11:30 Position paper
John Thieme (East Anglia): ‘Fictional Citizens of the World? Postcolonial Cosmopolitanisms and their Western Reception’
11: 30 – 11: 45 Refreshments
11: 45 – 13: 15 Panel 1: Modes of displacement and distance
Caroline Rooney (Kent): ‘Utopian Cosmopolitanism and the Conscious Pariah’
Ross Hair (Southampton): ‘Poetics of Place in the Jargon Nexus’
Anna Bernard (York): ‘”Now we are all Israelis”: Metropolitan Localisms and Israel/Palestine’
13: 15 – 14: 15 – Lunch
14: 15 – 15: 45 – Position paper
Neil Lazarus (Warwick): ‘Literary Studies and Local Universalisms’
15: 45 – 16: 00 – Refreshments
16: 00 – 17: 30 – Panel 2: Text and Reception
Sharae Deckard (University College Dublin): ‘”Failed Narrators”: Theorizing Local Forms and Semi-Peripheral Aesthetics in Mabanckou and Pepetela’
Robert Spencer (Manchester): ‘Refusing to Choose, or, How to Read The Satanic Verses’
James Procter (Newcastle): ‘Not reading Brick Lane’
James Graham (Middlesex): ‘Cosmopolitanism and the Idea of Community in Postcolonial Literary Studies’
18: 00 – 20:00 – Creative writers’ event: Brian Chikwava and Deon Meyer in conversation with Ranka Primorac
Sunday 22 November
9: 00 – 9:30 Coffee and registration
9: 30 – 11: 00 Round table: Offshore
Linked papers addressing modes of cosmopolitanism emerging from material, conceptual and imaginative notions of ‘offshore’ linked to finance, labour and the law.
Stephanie Jones (Southampton)
Nicky Marsh (Southampton)
Liam Connell (Winchester)
11: 00 – 11: 15 Refreshments
11: 15 – 13:00 – Position Paper
Stephanie Newell (Sussex): ‘”Local Cosmopolitans” in Colonial West Africa’
Respondent: Pnina Werbner (Keele)
13:00 – 14:00 – Lunch
14: 00 – 15: 30 – Panel 4: African crossings
Wumi Raji (Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria): ‘Urban Routes: Affinity, Affiliation and Expressions of Local Cosmopolitanisms in a Nigerian Postcolonial Video-Film’
Ranka Primorac (Southampton): ‘Zambian cosmopolitanisms’
Chris Warnes (Cambridge): ‘Unpicking the Rainbow: Niq Mhlongo’s Novels of Deception’
Georgia Axiotou (Edinburgh): ‘Subaltern Crossings and the Cosmopolitanism yet-to-come’
16: 00 – 16: 15 – Refreshments
16: 15 – 17: 45 - Panel 5: Ex-patriot locations
Ben Grant (Kent) and Kaori Nagai (Kent): ‘Ex-patriotism’
Will May (Southampton): ‘Recomposing the Cosmopolitan: Contemporary Opera and Cultural Collaboration’
Chu-Chueh Cheng (National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan): ‘Cosmos of Similitude in Ishiguro’s Nocturnes’
17: 45 – 18: 15 – Concluding round table: all participants
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Registration (including two-course lunch and refreshments)
Paper presenters £20
Two-day delegates £40
One-day delegates £25
To register online, go to http://www.soton.ac.uk/english/news/cosmopolitanisms_09.html ,or send a cheque addressed to ‘University of Southampton’ to Ranka Primorac at the address below.
Venue: Avenue Campus, Lecture theatre B. For more information on conference venue and travel, please see http://www.soton.ac.uk/english/about/location.html. There are no parking restrictions in the university on weekends.
Accommodation: Registration does not include accommodation. However, concessionary rates for conference delegates and speakers have been arranged at Highfield House Hotel, within walking distance of the Avenue Campus. Please see http://www.highfieldhotelsouthampton.co.uk/ for details; please quote conference code ‘DAB’ when making enquiries.
For details of other accommodation in Southampton, see
http://www.travelodge.co.uk/search_and_book/?gclid=CPn856awxp0CFVVu4wodcw02rw
http://www.booking.com/city/gb/southampton.html?aid=303948;label=southampton-hCavE6j2nGKa1z_WQZq*xwS3457812891;ws=&gclid=CKHJ1cKwxp0CFQdl4wodh09gsg
http://www.elizabethhousehotel.com/
For more information, please contact
Dr Ranka Primorac
E-mail: R.Primorac@soton.ac.uk
English
University of Southampton
Avenue Campus (room 1007, extension 23841)
Southampton SO17 1BJ
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