Author: versuslaboratory

CALL FOR PAPERS
14th Comparative Canadian Literature Graduate Student Conference
April 1-2, 2016
Université de Sherbrooke, Québec
The 21st century in Canada is marked by an ongoing discussion about settler/Indigenous relations. Recent events suggest a changing social landscape for Indigenous peoples in Canada, and it is obviously of vital importance to Canada’s future to resolve issues of land claims, environmental protection, self-governance, discrimination, re-appropriation of history, culture, language and identity. Contemporary social and political movements like Idle No More and No More Stolen Sisters (a human rights campaign calling attention to the extensively high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada) as well as the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015) have highlighted the reality that Indigenous peoples in Canada face today. Yet the recent nomination of two Indigenous Ministers in the Liberal cabinet, the inclusion of Indigenous leaders at the global climate change summit in Paris and the growing interest in Indigenous studies all indicate a hopeful turn in the recognition of Indigenous governance in Canada and Quebec as well as in the reconciliation between Canada’s Indigenous peoples and settlers. Literature represents one possible route to cultural reconciliation. The 14th Graduate Student Conference “Rethinking Comparative Canadian Literature: Indigenous Methodologies and Other Contemporary Approaches” will highlight the potential of Indigenous and alternative ways of reading, writing, and thinking to question, but also to enrich established theoretical and analytical frameworks in Comparative Canadian literature.

We will accept papers in English and French dealing with, but not restricted to, the following topics:
o Indigenous methodologies / decolonization
o Feminist, postcolonial and other contemporary theories
o Subaltern voices, counter-narratives, resistance narratives, culture from below, grassroots movements
o Cultural re-appropriation and literary authority
o Diverse forms of writing and self-representation, including Indigenous orature
o Theorizing Comparative Canadian literature
o Mainstream (English-Canadian and Québécois literatures) and minority literatures (immigrant and Indigenous literatures)
o Language questions (English, French, foreign and Indigenous languages)
o Translation studies

The conference will take place from April 1-2, 2016 on the main campus at Université de Sherbrooke and is designed as an open space of gathering for young scholars interested in Comparative Canadian Literature and Translation Studies. As the University’s Comparative Canadian Literature program is unique in the world, we invite graduate students (both MA and PhD) from different disciplines (Comparative literature, English/Canadian/French/Québécois literatures, Translation studies, Indigenous studies, Cultural studies, Film studies, History etc.) to submit paper and poster proposals. Submissions from advanced undergraduate students will be taken into consideration if
the proposed abstracts indicate an outstanding and original contribution.

Please submit your abstract of no more than 250 words and a short biographical note (150 words) to:
gradstudentsconference@gmail.com. Be sure to include your name, affiliation and degree, e-mail address as well as the title of your presentation and upload the documents as an attachment (PDF format).

Submission deadline: January 31st, 2016.
We look forward to your contribution and to welcoming you in Sherbrooke in April 2016!

Le 15 mai prochain, nous tiendrons une 4e rencontre de VersUS et du Labo CPCC [ http://cpcc-lab.org/ ] de l’Université de Montréal. Cette rencontre se déroulera à l’Université de Sherbrooke.

The concept of frontier is most productive in thinking about queer experience. The spatial frontier separates the invisibility of private intimacy from the visibility of public life; the freedom and security of queer districts (for instance, the Village in Montreal, Church Street in Toronto, and Davie Street in Vancouver) from the heteronormative erasure of queer life in towns and cities throughout Canada. The border is also temporal and generational, separating childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age of those who live their queer experiences in extremely different ways. It marks queer legal status before and after same-sex marriage; queer history before and after the appearance of HIV, AIDS and tritherapies; and larger social histories before and after the sexual liberation struggles of the sixties and seventies.
Many questions may guide an analysis of the concept of the frontier in the representation of queer experience; for instance, what are the borders which separate gays and lesbians in their twenties from those in their sixties? What are the borders which mark class differences in the LBGT community? Which are the frontiers between gender normativity in the public sphere and the challenges of gender performativities of femininity, masculinity, male femininity, female masculinity, the femininity or masculinity of transsexuals, etc.? Sexuality is also problematic and must be understood within a logic of agency and of the multitude of choices which are offered, from total sexual abstinence to the most unrestrained sexuality. Many other factors define, separate and cohere in the multiple experiences of queers in Canada and Quebec: including the plurality of desires, racial, ethnic and cultural identities, nationality and transnationality, postcolonialism and globalization, Indigeneity and autochthony, heteronormativity and homonormativity, the defense of marginality, and so on.
It is in this context that we invite scholars of Québécois, Canadian, and Indigenous literatures to explore the concept of the frontier in works which represent the experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, trans*, intersexual, genderqueer, Two-Spirit, and/or drag and transvestite subjects—in other words, of queer realities. Papers may include analysis of novels, poetry, short stories, and theatre, and may focus on a single work or a set of texts, relate either to Francophone, Anglophone, or Indigenous literatures exclusively, or be a comparative analysis of the literary traditions of Quebec and English Canada.
All submissions to Canadian Literature must be original, unpublished work. Essays should follow current MLA bibliographic format (MLA Handbook, 7th ed). Maximum word length for articles is 6,500 words, which includes endnotes and works cited.
Submissions should be uploaded to Canadian Literature’s online submission system CanLit Submit by the deadline of March 1, 2015
Questions in advance of the deadline may be addressed to: Jorge Calderon (calderon@sfu.ca) and Domenico Beneventi (domenico.beneventi@usherbrooke.ca)

Frontières queers dans la littérature québécoise et canadienne

La notion de « frontière » est des plus productives afin de penser l’expérience queer. La frontière spatiale sépare l’invisibilité de l’intimité et la visibilité socio-culturelle ; la liberté et la sécurité des quartiers queers (par exemple le Village à Montréal, Church Street à Toronto et Davie Village à Vancouver) et l’oppression, le danger et l’effacement de la vie queer dans de nombreux villages et villes à travers le Canada. La frontière est aussi temporelle. Elle sépare l’enfance, l’adolescence, l’âge adulte et la vieillesse des personnes qui vivent leur expérience queer de manières fort différentes. Elle marque aussi l’histoire queer avant le droit au mariage de personnes de même sexe, et après ; avant la trithérapie contre le VIH, et après ; avant l’apparition du sida, et après ; avant les luttes de libération sexuelle des années 60 et 70, et après.

De nombreuses problématiques peuvent guider l’analyse de la frontière dans la représentation de l’expérience queer. Par exemple, quelles sont les frontières qui séparent les gays et les lesbiennes dans la vingtaine de ceux dans la soixantaine ? Quelles sont les frontières qui marquent la différence entre les personnes riches et les personnes pauvres ? Quelles sont les enjeux du genre sexuel : la féminité, la masculinité, la féminité masculine, la masculinité féminine, la féminité et la masculinité transsexuelles, etc. ? La sexualité est aussi fort problématique. Il faut ici penser à la multitude de choix qui sont offerts de l’abstinence sexuelle totale jusqu’à la sexualité la plus effrénée et démesurée. De nombreux autres facteurs définissent, séparent et relient entre elles les multiples expériences queers au Canada et au Québec : entre autres la pluralité le désirs, l’identité raciale, ethnique et culturelle, les questions nationales et transnationales, le postcolonialisme et la globalisation, les réalités des Premières Nations et des autochtones, l’hétéronormativité et l’homonormativité, la défense de la marginalité, etc.
C’est dans ce contexte que nous invitons les spécialistes de littérature québécoise, canadienne, et autochtone à explorer la fonction de la notion de frontière dans des œuvres qui traitent principalement de l’expérience de gays, de lesbiennes, de bisexuel(le)s, de personnes bispirituelles des Premières Nations, de drag queens et kings, de travesti(e)s, de transsexuel(le)s, d’intersexuel(le)s, en d’autres mots de la réalité queer. Les études peuvent porter sur le roman, la poésie, l’essai et le théâtre. Elles peuvent être centrées sur une œuvre en particulier ou sur un ensemble de textes. Elles peuvent porter soit sur la littérature francophone, soit sur la littérature anglophone, soit sur la littérature autochtone. Ou encore elles peuvent comparer les traditions littéraires francophone, anglophone, et autochtone au Québec et au Canada.
Tous les articles soumis à Canadian Literature doivent être des travaux orginaux et ne doivent pas avoir été publiés auparavant. Les articles doivent être présentés en suivant les règles bibliographiques du MLA. (MLA Handbook, 7e éd). Le nombre maximal de mots pour un article est limité à 6 500 mots, ce qui inclut les notes en fin de texte et la liste des références.
Les articles doivent être téléchargés à partir du système en ligne du site Web de Canadian Literature à CanLit Submit au plus part le 1er septembre, 2014.
Si vous avez des questions avant la date butoir de soumission des articles, prière de contacter Jorge Calderon (calderon@sfu.ca) and Domenico Beneventi (domenico.beneventi@usherbrooke.ca)
Date butoir: 1 mars, 2015