British Comparative Literature Association Conference 2013 "migration"

British Comparative Literature Association Triennial Conference, 2013 – MIGRATION

Call for Papers

The BCLA invites conference papers on the theme of migration, understood as the migration of texts, stories, and myths across cultures and time, media, genres and species, as well as the migrations of peoples across lands, seas, and worlds.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• borders, boundaries, crossings
• exile, displacement, Diaspora
• nomads, refugees, sailors, pirates, argonauts
• odysseys, expeditions, quests, transits
• departures, destinations, arrivals, Heimat
• worlding, world-litting
• globetrotting, globalectics
• glossolalia, polyphonies, palimpsests
• re-telling, reinscription, re-visioning
• transmedia, cross-genre, adaptation
• metamorphosis, mutation, metempsychosis

Special Strand: Through Dido's Eyes: The Arab Spring in Literature and the Arts

• In collaboration with the British School at Rome and the Society for Libyan Studies, and sponsored by the British Academy, the BCLA Migration conference also includes a dedicated strand of panels, readings, and performances entitled Through Dido’s Eyes: The Arab Spring in Literature and the Arts.
• This strand is presided by the figure of the Queen of Carthage, known in the Arab world as Elissa, called Dido by Virgil in the Aeneid. A refugee, exile, woman, ruler, builder, she offers a symbol of the complexity of northern Africa and the interconnectedness of the Mediterranean.
• The aim is to create new links between BASIS institutions and the Arab world, and to explore with colleagues from the areas affected by the Arab Spring some of the cultural resonance of this remarkable historical moment.

Deadline for submission of proposals for individual papers or panels:

15 December 2012

Please send proposals, no longer than 250 words, and a brief biographical statement to:

bcla2013@essex.ac.uk