Université de Liège, Belgium, 13-15 January 2011
Tropics of Travel. 4. Homes
International Conference jointly sponsored by
Université de Liège, Liège
and
SOAS, London – INALCO, Paris – Università Ca' Foscari, Venezia
The Conference is part of a wider project that takes the form of four international symposia of which three were already held in Venice (2007), Paris (2008), London (2009). Each symposium was devoted to one of the following tropes: 1) Departures 2) Encounters 3) Utopias and Dystopias. The last one will be organized in Liège (2011) with the following trope for its theme: Homes.
The project
Project Leaders: Frédéric Bauden (Université de Liège), Aboubakr Chraïbi (INALCO, Paris), Antonella Ghersetti (Università Ca' Foscari, Venezia), Wen-Chin Ouyang (SOAS, London)
Travel is arguably a central metaphor of man's search for the right place in the world that has grounding in and impact on reality. Accounts of travel, fantastic or real, at home or abroad, are a familiar subject in cultures and literatures worldwide. Travel has been a staple narrative motif in Arabic writings. Tropics of Travel will examine travel not simply as a process, but as a central trope, a figurative matrix that drives quest for knowledge, geographical discovery, historical narratives, religious accounts of pilgrimage, spiritual journeys of transcendence, official records of diplomatic missions, literary journeys of transformation, and cross-cultural dialogues. It will, more particularly, explore the importance of new forms of knowledge created through the mediation of travel in the definitions of identity, community and home. The Project will look at factual or fictional Arabic writings that take ‘travel' as its main theme or motif from a comparative and multi-disciplinary perspective so as to involve scholars of literature, geography, history, anthropology, religious studies, art, art history and cultural studies.
Tropics of Travel, Part 4 : Homes
Organizing and scientific Committee: Frédéric Bauden (Université de Liège), Aboubakr Chraïbi (INALCO, Paris), Antonella Ghersetti (Università Ca' Foscari, Venezia), Wen-Chin Ouyang (SOAS, London)
Liège Organizer: Frédéric Bauden (Université de Liège, Liège)
The final part of the Project takes the other destination of travel as its subject and looks at the ways in which travel may revise notions of self, community and home, and inscribe into the journey of homecoming significance of ontological and epistemological dimensions.
- In what ways do tourism and relatively long sojourn ‘abroad' produce divergent articulations of subject and community?
- Is it possible to speak of ‘migration' as we know it today in the pre-modern context? How would modern knowledge gained in studies of massive populations movements refine our understanding of travel and homecoming in pre-modern eras?
- Is the shape of home necessarily drawn by homesickness and nostalgia?
- What role does alienation abroad play in the imaginings of home?
- What meaning do the differing experiences of travel and residence abroad inscribe on the journey of homecoming, therefore, home? What becomes of home? Is return possible? What are the possible trajectories of homecoming?
- How is travel remembered, thought of and reinterpreted? Are there dreams or nightmares about travel? Or are there simply memories? How do these various forms of remembering shape travel writing?
- When does ‘home' become ‘exile'?
- How does ‘travel' mediate between alternative visions of community?
- What role does travelling material culture play in individual, communal and cultural transformations?
- Is it possible to speak of ‘cosmopolitan' culture and economy in the pre-modern world? What impact does that have on notions of travel and definitions of home?
Those who wish to participate are kindly requested to send an abstract of no more than 500 words or one A4 page (double-spaced) to Frédéric Bauden (f.bauden@ulg.ac.be) before the end of March 2010. We ask you to adhere to the theme of this Conference (Homes) as the other themes were already investigated during the previous conferences. A circular containing more details on the organisation of the Conference will be sent to those whose papers have been accepted.
Presentations should last 30 minutes; they will be followed by discussion and questions. The official languages of the conference will be English and French. However, papers written in another European language will be accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the Conference. Papers to be submitted for publication will be peer-refereed.
Registration fees: 50 € (euros). Participants will be responsible for their travel and accommodation expenses.