CALL FOR PAPERS/NORTH AMERICAN DRAMA CONFERENCE IN BRUSSELS

Thu May 18 15:00:25 EDT 2006

CALL FOR PAPERS

“Signatures of the Past: Cultural memory in Contemporary North American Drama”

An international conference hosted by the Department of Languages & Literatures and the Center for Canadian Studies of the University of Brussels

Brussels, Belgium, April 25-28, 2007

In the last two decades or so, the Anglophone North-American stage has witnessed the emergence of significant dramatic works interrogating the preservation of cultural memory. In their provocative and innovative theatrical works, a sizeable number of English Canadian and American playwrights contest standardizing and globalizing patterns of thoughts. These authors not only challenge the classic European theatrical aesthetic, but they also criticize the Canadian and American multicultural dream. Recurring themes such as exile, fragmentation of the self, stereotyped notions of authenticity, attest to a willingness to reject the simplistic binarism of Western hegemony while celebrating cultural and aesthetic heterogeneity. Through theatre, these writers invite us to re-think the issue of cultural memory in order to conceive new identities shaped according to shared values respecting local identities and traditions. 

The Anglophone North-American focus of this conference will seek to offer a comparative cross-cultural approach of contemporary Canadian and American theatrical production at the turn of the 21st century. Moreover, as theatre often mirrors social and cultural conflicts, this contrastive approach will hopefully illuminate differences and/or similarities between the two countries as far as identity building, issues of nation and conception of multicultural models are concerned. Ultimately, this particular vantage point will enable participants to determine more accurately the special positioning of contemporary North-American theatre in the wider context of modern Anglohone drama. 

Keynote lecturers will include Professor Harry Elam (Stanford University), Professor Karen Shimakawa (Tisch School of the Arts), Professor Ric Knowles (University of Guelph), Professor Craig Walker (Queen’s University), Ms Cherrie Moraga (Chicana playwright), Mr Guillermo Verdecchia (Latino-Canadian playwright).

The conference will consist of a series of plenary lectures by noted scholars and playwrights as well as a number of parallel paper sessions. 20-minute paper proposals are therefore welcome on a variety of topics related to the general theme. Presentations dealing with individual dramatists, theory or production aspects in contemporary North America (U.S. and/or English Canada) will be most welcome, particularly as they relate to cultural memory issues. Papers need not provide systematic comparisons between U.S. and Canadian drama, although contrastive considerations are encouraged, whenever possible. Conference participants are therefore invited to consider the following suggestions for paper proposals, either in a U.S. and/or English Canadian context (this list is by no means exhaustive):

--How does North-American theater redefine cultural memory at the turn of the 21st century? Where is it located? How can we define cultural memory within multi-ethnic North American societies?  How can local and national identities be preserved in the dramatic text?

--How does North-American drama interpret the link between cultural and collective memory? How does a so-called collective memory interact with individual representations in drama? 

- In what sense do contemporary North-American theatrical productions have an impact on the building and preservation of cultural memory?

- How do contemporary theatrical productions in North America illuminate the increasing interdisciplinarity between fields such as history, memory and theatre?

- In what way(s) does North American theatre highlight the historical construction of particular identities?

- Is cultural memory built, imagined, or perpetuated in different ways in Canadian and American dramatic texts?

- As “a mirror to society,” how does theatre participate in the shaping of the concepts of identity and nation, both in Canada and the U.S.? 

250-word abstracts should be submitted to the conference convenors, Prof. Marc Maufort and Ms. Caroline De Wagter, before November 1, 2006 (mmaufort at ulb.ac.be and caroline.dewagter at gmail.com). Acceptance of proposals will be notified by December 1, 2006, so as to allow the authors of selected submissions to apply for travel funding from their universities in due course. 

A selection of papers presented at the conference will be published in the “Dramaturgies” book series edited by Professor Marc Maufort (published by P.I.E.-Peter Lang).

For additional information, please contact Professor Maufort on e-mail (mmaufort at ulb.ac.be) or by snail mail at the following address:

             Professor Marc Maufort

English Department CP 175

Université Libre de Bruxelles

50, av. F.D. Roosevelt

1050 Bruxelles

Belgium/ Europe

Professor Marc Maufort
Chair, Department of Languages and Literatures  CP 175
Université Libre de Bruxelles
50, av. F.D. Roosevelt
1050 Bruxelles
Belgium
Tel.: ++ 32-2-426-04-37
Fax: ++ 32-2-650-24-50
E-Mail: mmaufort at ulb.ac.be
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