CONFERENCE: “Transculturation and Aesthetics”

To mark the close of the three-year Nordforsk funded project on Literary Transculturation an international conference open to all interested will be held at the University of Bergen. This conference aims to bring together the concerns previously explored in the Network's research seminars/symposia, opening them up to a wider conceptualization of transculturalism.

The meaning of the transcultural and the aesthetic expression of this is the site of muchcontemporary thinking in the wake of postcolonialism. Issues of borders and border-crossings are of central interest, be they geographical, epistemological, cultural, personal, temporal, or symbolic. The notion of writing history “to reconstruct on entirely new terms” (Attwell) is fraught with theoretical perplexities. This is very much what underlies theories of globalization processes, and of course it is not coincidental that precisely postcolonial theories of culture and identity politics have so strongly influenced how we understand our own current and interconnected realities. This interconnectedness, of routes/roots and cultures, is not a phenomenon “elsewhere;” it increasingly circumscribes and describes the realities and lives lived in our own contemporary societies, evident in the processes of migration, border crossings and responses to an integrated Europe.

The literary expression of this is a key element in understanding this world, not least since literary transculturation is linked to other cultural phenomena from folklore to film, further emphasizing the need for creating and developing interdisciplinary approaches. The emphasis on the simultaneity of multiple sites, heterogeneity and heterochronos is important in helping to create an understanding of the contemporary cultural and social aspects of everyday life.

Invited speakers:

Dominica Dipio (Uganda): "Negotiating Transcultural Identities in African Literature: Timothy Wangusa's Upon This Mountain and Ngugi wa Thiongo's The River Between"     

Norma Klahn (U.S.): "Re-Plotting Border Imaginaries: A Tale of Two Cities" 

Ato Quayson (Canada): Periods vs. Concepts: Space-making and the Question of Postcolonial Literary History"  

Richard Rodriguez (U.S.): "After the Border Wall is Built"

PRACTICAL INFORMATION:

The conference venue is historical hotel Grand Terminus, where all plenaries and workshops are held. This is also the conference hotel; when you book your room mention that you are a participant at the conference.

The City of Bergen graciously hosts a reception for the conference participants Friday evening in the historical Schøtstuene. 

The conference dinner is held at Grand Terminus Saturday evening. 

If you are interested in going on the "Norway in a Nutshell" trip Monday 3 September, please write Anne Holden Rønning at anne.ronning@if.uib.no

You can view the complete list of abstracts sorted according to the workshops they belong to (on the right side) 

For other questions regarding the conference, please contact Anne.Ronning@if.uib.no or lene.johannessen@if.uib.no

  WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN BERGEN!