Performing Identities

CALL FOR PAPERS

"Through me many long dumb voices": Performing Identities in American
Literature

Department of English Studies, University of Durham September 10th 2011

Performing Identities in American Literature seeks to explore the ways in
which American identity is defined, enacted and contested in texts from the
sixteenth century up to the present day. Tapping into the influential, yet
highly contradictory visions of identity which have dominated the modern
field of American Studies, in which multiculturalist and pluralist critiques
of a unified national sensibility are set against the "indifference to
difference" of an increasing cosmopolitanism (Michaels, 2004), the event
invites fresh discussion of the identities contained and performed beneath
the umbrella term "democracy". By expanding a consideration of the
performative beyond the more obviously dramatic aspects of text, we aim to
provide a forum for debating the role played by the theatrical dimensions of
the imaginary within American literary identities, highlighting the staging
of belonging and exclusion that has shaped writers' responses for more than
four centuries.

In the interest of broadening the scope of discussion, we invite abstract
submissions for papers of between 20 and 40 minutes in length. Presentations
are welcomed in a variety of formats, from single and joint papers to lecture
performances and works-in-progress. Topics may include, but are by no means
limited to:

*Patriotism and anti-patriotism: narratives of belonging and exclusion
*Migration, immigration and inward expatriation
*Propaganda and nationalism/exceptionalism
*Staging the past: re-writing history as literature
*Issues of authenticity: difficulties inherent in enacting race/class/nation
*"Textualising" the body and bodily experience
*Metatextuality and self-reflexive performativity
*The evolving identity and cultural mythology of the American writer
*Multiplicity and cosmopolitanism: new directions for American literature

Please submit your name, institutional affiliation and abstract of up to 300
words to [e-mail] by the deadline of July 31st 2011.

Further information and updates can be found at the symposium website:
PerformingAmerica.blogspot.com

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