Asian American Transgressive Texts

The Circle for Asian American Literary Studies (CAALS) is sponsoring a panel at the American Literature Association (ALA) conference in Boston on “transgressive texts”—writings in which the author’s identity does not match the identity of the text in question.  For literary critic Shelly Fisher Fishkin, transgressive texts are those “in which black writers create serious white protagonists, and white writers black ones” (“Desegregating” 121), but the CAALS wants to open up Fishkin’s definition to interrogate the differences that emerge when thinking about the category of “Asian American writing” and the “Asian American writer,” particularly when there is a disjunction between the creative writer and the created subject.

Examples of questions and topics to consider:

*Interrogating the Chinese-Cuban diaspora in Cuban American writer Cristina Garcia’s Monkey Hunting

*Considering the Italian American narrative voice in Chang-rae Lee’s Aloft

*Examining the theme of the short story cycle and the community of Vietnamese American exiles in Robert Olen Butler’s A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

*Exploring both the “American” as well as “Asian” aesthetics in American Indian writer Gerald Vizenor’s Griever: An American Monkey King in China

Please send 1-page abstracts & 2-page cvs by Monday, January 5 to Jennifer Ho via email:  jho@email.unc.edu

For information on the American Literature Association conference, please go to the following website:

http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/ala2/american_literature_association_2009.htm

Latino Writers in Conversation with Tradition

The Latino Studies Caucus of the American Literature Association is interested in proposals for a panel on “Latino Writers in Conversation with Tradition.” Defining “Latino” broadly enough to include works originally written in Spanish and/or English, we are interested in examining instances of exchange between Latinos and the canonical precedents who have inspired, angered, and at times implicitly excluded them; whether the conversation with tradition is a heated argument, an outburst of rage, or a plea for help from a past Muse, we are interested in seeing how Latinos negotiate with pantheons and canonized coteries. All genres and time periods from Jose Marti to the present day are relevant and encouraged.

Below are some examples though these should not be viewed as an exhaustive list:

-Sandra Cisneros’ relationship to Virginia Woolf’s concept of “a room of one’s own.”

-Reinaldo Arenas’ playful appropriation of world classics from Homer’s Iliad to the works of Rabelais.

-Julia Alvarez’s seeming homage to Poe’s “Black Cat” at the end of How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents.

-Luis Valdez’s adaptation of “the Fool” from King Lear to the spectral Pachuco in Zoot Suit.

Proposals should be no longer than 250 words and may be sent to Robert Oscar Lopez at the following email address: rolopez@csun.edu. Please clearly include your name and contact information so that R.O. Lopez can notify you if your paper has been accepted.

The deadline is January 5, 20008.

The Latina/o Literature and Culture Society of the American Literature Association seeks proposals for several panels at the American Literature Association’s 20th annual conference at the Westin Copley Place in Boston on May 21-24, 2009.   We are particularly interested in seeking out papers that address the following topics:

Latina/o Writers and Canon(s). Chair: Roberto Carlos Lopez.  rolopez@csun.edu

Spoken-Word Poetry. Chair: Elizabeth Jacobs. elj@aber.ac.uk

Any aspect of the work of Junot Diaz Chair: Alisa Braithwaite. akb1@mit.edu

Latina/o Children’s Literature Chair: Tiffany Lopez. tiffany.lopez@ucr.edu

Ambiguous Authors and Transgressive Texts (joint panel with the Circle for Asian American Literary Studies). Chair:  Jennifer Ho  jho@email.unc.edu

Those interested in submitting a paper should send a one-page abstract with your name, position, affiliation, and contact information to the appropriate panel chair

For proposals on any other aspect of Latina/o Literature and Culture, please send them along with your name, position, affiliation and contact information to Eliza Rodriguez y Gibson at eliza_rodriguezygibson@redlands.edu

Final Deadline for Proposals: January 5, 2009.

For information about the Latina/o Literature and Culture Society, visit us online at www.latinorolodex.com or contact Latina/o Literature and Culture Society president Eliza Rodriguez y Gibson at eliza_rodriguezygibson@redlands.edu.

Voicing the future in Latina/o Literature

A proposed panel for the American Literature Association Conference, May 21-25 in Boston

The panel will explore expressions of the future in Latino/a theatre, poetry and performance. Papers may focus on one text or performance, on works by one author, or on multiple writers/performers within the Latino/a ethnic group. Papers are sought that explore various kinds of imagined futures in terms of dystopic or utopic environments, landscapes and communities; political futures; gendered subjectivities and racial constructions. I am particularly interested in essays that explore how these futures are articulated and physically expressed, and hope to get papers that examine these representations in contemporary Latina/o theatre, performance and poetry.

Please email abstracts of 300-500 words to Liz Jacobs (elj@aber.ac.uk). Include with your abstract your name, academic affiliation, contact information, and a one-page CV.

Deadline for proposals: Jan 5th, 2009