Travel, discovery, exile, exodus, diaspora, migration, desertion, banishment, imprisonment, eviction, discovery, dislocation, escape: the forms of displacement with which literary (and non- literary) texts engage are manifold. The notion of ‘movement’ is one of the oldest and most enduring literary preoccupations. From the quest narratives of the ancient world, to twenty-first- century imaginative explorations of mobility, displacement (broadly defined) and its correlates have retained a prominent place in the interrelated histories of literary themes and genres, cultural formations and linguistic innovations.
The 2018 AIA seminar invites submission of abstracts on any topic connected to the themes of displacement and movement. To secure as broad a range of participants as possible, we welcome proposals that focus on any historical period, from a literary or non-literary angle.
The call is open to all early career scholars, including PhD students, post-doc fellows and temporary researchers (RTD-A and RTD-B). To encourage lively and productive exchanges, written papers will be circulated in advance and presentations will be short – 7-10 minutes – followed by a 30-minute discussion.
The programme will include a number of invited speakers from the international and national research community.
Selected papers will be published.
Topics for presentations might include, but are not limited to:
- Transformation, renewal and change
- Representations of ‘self’ and ‘other’
- Geographical and social mobility
- Voyages of the mind
- Scenes of crisis, states of insecurity
- Vagrants, migrants, refugees
- Story-telling, memory and displacement
- Gendered configurations of space and motion - Progress and its discontents
- Narratives of difference and belonging
- Identities on the move.
If you wish to participate, please, send a 300-word abstract and title by 15 March to Silvana Colella (silvana.colella@unimc.it), Elena Di Giovanni (elena.digiovanni@unimc.it) and Segreteria AIA (aiasegreteria@unict.it).
A preliminary programme and dedicated webpage will be available soon. For information, please write to elena.digiovanni@unimc.it.