“Writing Across the Americas” - Call for Papers

Call for Papers:

We are planning an international symposium for May 6 and 7, 2012 to be held at Tel Aviv University, and invite you to submit a proposal (250 words) for a paper that engages with the subject of “Writing Across the Americas.” The symposium will be conducted in English.

Writing Across the Americas: Policies, Politics, Poetics
It is a commonplace that communities in the New World defined themselves in relation to the Old World from which they came. After all, European colonialism shaped the linguistic, religious, and ethnic foundations of the geopolitical entities of the Western hemisphere. But often self-definition has also been affected by these communities’ relation to other communities in the Americas. What impact has the United States had on the self-definition, languages, and cultural production of Latin American nations? What impact has Latin America had on the linguistic policies, culture, and literature of the United States? This symposium will explore these issues from a variety of perspectives.
The following are a few suggested areas, but feel free to submit proposals in other areas as well.
1. The “Americanization” of Latin American language and literature, and the impact of Latino/a and Chicano/a writers on US American language and literature.
2. Migratory experience and aesthetics in North/South American literature.
3. “New World” or “Hemispheric” studies vs. “American” or “Latin American” studies
4. Mutual Images: Latin American perceptions of the US and vice versa
5. Inter-continental Travel Literature
6. Inter-American Cultural Networks
7. Inter-American Artistic Exchanges
8. Translation in the Americas
We are pleased to announce that Professor Ricardo Salvatore of Universidad Torcuato Di Tella , Buenos Aires, and Professor Doris Sommer of Harvard University will be delivering lectures at the conference.

Deadline is March 4th, 2012. Submit proposals to:
shalhavk@post.tau.ac.il or institut@post.tau.ac.il

Steering committee for the symposium:
Professor Raanan Rein
Dr. Milette Shamir
Dr. Rosalie Sitman
Prof. Hana Wirth-Nesher
Dr. Michael Zakim

Department of English and American Studies, American Studies Program
The Sverdlin Institute for Latin American History and Culture