Actualité
Appels à contributions
Chinese Traits, Francophone Lines: The Value of Transcultural Creativity (Queen's Univ., Belfast)

Chinese Traits, Francophone Lines: The Value of Transcultural Creativity (Queen's Univ., Belfast)

Publié le par Université de Lausanne (Source : FRANCOFIL)

CALL FOR PAPERS

Conference on ‘Chinese Traits, Francophone Lines: The Value of Transcultural Creativity’

Queen’s University Belfast, UK, 21-22 November 2019

Francophone-Chinese Studies has emerged since the 1990s as a rich field within Francophone research in response to the growing community of writers, visual artists and film makers originally from China who have settled in French-speaking countries. The work of this artistic community of immigrants has been quickly legitimized by positive press coverage, prizes and inclusion in school curricula, thus attaining institutional recognition, despite evidence of the global, rising tide of nationalism and of anti-immigration rhetoric. The conference invites papers examining the different manifestations of Francophone-Chinese cultural production and their significance, but it is also interested in the creativity of other transcultural models and their capacity for individual and social transformation.

While artistic creation cannot provide a simple solution to deep societal problems like racism, it can result in local communities learning more about the experiences of immigrants and their contributions to society, thus reducing fear of the unfamiliar, challenging common misconceptions, crossing rigid identity boundaries and breaking down the mentality of ‘them’ and ‘us’. By focusing on transcultural relationships, the conference will share knowledge of the ways in which artistic expression creates connections between (foreign) artist and (local) community which drive democratic engagement and increase immigrants’ participation in wider society. It will interrogate how an environment of understanding and more cohesive communities may be formed through the indirect, artistic promotion of tolerance and diversity.

Proposals in either English or French may address, though not necessarily exclusively, the following themes:

  • Transcultural literary or visual creativity
  • Theories of transculturation
  • Place and identity
  • Cultural communities
  • (Non-)belonging
  • Migration and exile
  • Immigrants and/in society
  • Diversity and inclusivity
  • Integration and engagement
  • Cultural value and social capital benefits

The conference is generously supported by the Institute of Modern Languages Research.

Please submit abstracts for papers (200 words) by Friday 30th August 2019 to the conference organiser: Dr Rosalind Silvester, r.silvester@qub.ac.uk