SALA 2008 CFP

[Field, Robin]

CALL FOR PAPERS

9^th Annual SALA (South Asian Literary Association) Conference

San Francisco, December 26-27, 2008

 

Conference Theme:  “Gender and Sexuality in South Asian Literature and Culture”  

 

Discussions of gender and sexuality in South Asia can be examined in relation to colonial reform measures that targeted women as a special constituency and postcolonial models of development that emphasize women’s role in nation-building and national development. The colonial and postcolonial state’s focus on gender is reinforced by strong trajectories of women’s movements in this region. More recently, an activism that combines the struggles of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) people, under the term ‘queer’, has emerged in South Asia. Now South Asian women’s and queer movements also assert their similarities to and differences from similar forms of activism in the West. However, as with activism, representations of gender and sexuality in South Asian literary and cultural fields reveal Western as well as local influences. In some cases, these representations contribute to, and further, feminist and queer politics in South Asia.

 

We invite papers on literature, criticism, film, cultural, and social activism that explore any aspect of gender and sexuality as constitutive of the South Asian experience in national and diasporic contexts. Papers may explore, but are not restricted to, the following areas:

 

• The literary and social constructions of masculinity and/or femininity in colonial times and in anti-colonial resistance movements
• Literary, critical, and filmic representations of gender as a category of ‘reform’ in colonial times and of ‘development’ in postcolonial times
• Non-canonical social and literary texts (women’s magazines, newspaper reports, oral histories, life-narratives) that constitute the history of women’s writing in South Asia
• Writings about women’s experiences in significant moments of South Asian history (anti-colonial resistance, Partition, Naxalite movement, Civil War in Sri Lanka etc.)
• The emergence of new directions in South Asian women’s literature: diasporic women’s fiction, dalit women’s autobiography, feminist poetry etc.
• Critical accounts of the legacy of colonial legislation in postcolonial times, such as Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code, and Article 365 of the Sri Lankan Penal Code, criminalizing “sodomy” and other “unnatural sexual acts”
• Recent publications addressing same-sex relations in South Asian history, culture, and literature including anthologies of critical and creative writing, fiction, poetry, and drama
• Books, pamphlets, posters, documentaries on debates about the relevance of sexuality-based activism in South Asia.
• The impact of popular cinema and iconic figures in shaping constructions of gender and sexuality
• Intersection of concerns of class, gender, and sexuality in literary, cultural, and social spaces
• The influence of South Asian diasporic writings, including feminist and gender theory in the Western and South Asian academy

 

Please send a 300-word abstract of your paper and a 5-6 line bio-note listing your institutional affiliation and current email address to the conference co-chairs at the email addresses given below. The subject line of your email should contain the words “SALA 2008.”

 

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15^th July 2008

 

Email addresses:

kanika...@ttu.edu and Robin...@kings.edu

 

Postal addresses:

Dr. Kanika Batra, Department of English, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Box 43091, TX 79409-3091  Fax Number: 806-742-0989

 

Dr. Robin Field, Department of English, King's College, 133 N. River Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711. Fax Number: 570-208-5988

 

 

Robin E. Field, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of English
Director of Women's Studies
King's College
133 N. River St.
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711
robin...@kings.edu
(570) 208-5900 x. 5771