CfP: World Literature and Dissent

World Literature and Dissent

The University of St Andrews School of English Research Colloquium
17–18 June 2016

We are delighted to announce the fourth annual School of English Colloquium World Literature and Dissent, to take place at the University of St Andrews, 17–18 June 2016. Registration and the call for papers are now open.

World Literature and Dissent will reconsider the role that dissent plays in the contemporary aesthetics of globalisation. Moving beyond merely descriptive taxonomies or positivist literary historicisms, we mobilise critical theory to revitalise the language of critique in a field under threat of subsumption by the rhetorics and value systems of economisation. Rather than asking if there is room for dissent and resistance within the monetised spheres of global publishing, translation, and literary prestige, we ask how dissent might be expressed and how, as literary scholars, we might develop a criticism that supports resistance to the bureaucratic and economic apparatuses of contemporary states, furthers social justice, and values human expression beyond the strictures of marketability.

Speakers include Anna Bernard, Timothy Brennan, Sharae Deckard, David Farrier, Djelal Kadir, Oisin Keohane, Wendy Knepper, Nick Lawrence, Dominic Smith, Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Galin Tihanov, and Robert Young.

Places are limited, so early registration is important. Only those who are registered will be admitted to the conference; there are no drop-in sessions.

For further event details, please visit http://worldlit.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk.

We have a very limited number of open places within our programme and invite brief papers (~15–20 minutes) from scholars at any career stage addressing some meaningful aspect of world literary theory and dissent. Abstracts of around 250 words may be submitted by 1 April 2016 to worldlit@st-andrews.ac.uk.

For the full CFP, please see http://worldlit.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/submissions/.