NEMLA 2013: Space, Spatiality and Identities in Francophone African Literature and Cinema 

This panel invites abstracts on the representation of identities, aesthetics and sociocultural practices in relation to space as depicted in francophone African novels, novellas and cinema. How does space feature in the mimesis of identities? What types of spatial entities are Francophone writers and filmmakers engaging with and why? Do such representations usher in new aesthetics? Please submit a 250-500 word abstract in English and French to maniang@colby.edu by Sept 30, 2012.

Senghor's arrest and subsequent imprisonment in a German concentration camp inspired his collection of poems Hosties noires. His Parisian experience led to the emergence of the Negritude movement. Since his generation, the writing of space has continued to preoccupy Francophone African writers and filmmakers. Ahmadou Kourouma has tapped this theme in his depiction of issues confronting his native Ivory Coast. In his detective novels, the Congolese Bolya has most recently uncovered the invasion of Parisian parks (Bois de Vincennes) for ritualistic purposes that are traceable to the black continent. Danny Kouyate, Joseph Gai Ramaka, Mweze Ngangura, Jean-Marie Teno, Cheikh Ndiaye, Aminata Sow Fall, Malika Mokeddem, Calixthe Beyala, etc. provide each a literary and filmic reading of space that deserve to be fully revisited. The significance of space then lies in the extent to which it helps shed light on the construction and thematic content of these works. It participates in their conceptualization. Despite its significance, space has often been occulted in discussions that focus exclusively on questions of orality, language, translation, identity, and transculturation. This panel seeks to demonstrate its centrality in Francophone African literature and cinema.

Although not limited to these topics, papers can deal with nationalism, religious spaces, ethnicity, new sexualities, transnational experience of space, the body as a site of identity (tattoos, scarification, mutilation), the self and prison, etc.

The Convention will be held in Boston, MA, March 21-24, 2013.