Upcoming Conferences
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Continuing Postcolonialism
9th Conference
21-22 July 2023
Water’s Edge Hotel,
Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The 9th Conference and Triennial General Meeting of The Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (SLACLALS) will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 21 to 22 of July 2023 at the Water’s Edge Hotel.
Please note that the CfP below was originally posted in 2020 when the conference was scheduled to take place in Kandy, but the conference was cancelled due to COVID-19.
21-22 July 2023
Water’s Edge Hotel,
Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The 9th Conference and Triennial General Meeting of The Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (SLACLALS) will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 21 to 22 of July 2023 at the Water’s Edge Hotel.
Please note that the CfP below was originally posted in 2020 when the conference was scheduled to take place in Kandy, but the conference was cancelled due to COVID-19.
We are interested in two clear trajectories: postcolonialism’s continuing relevance to a reading of the contemporary geopolitical and geocultural order, and its position as a commodity/product for global marketing in which subalternity, indigeneity, ethnic identity are part of the academic, publishing and pedagogic “chic.”
In a 2012 essay, Robert JC Young writes:
The only criterion that could determine whether “postcolonial theory” has ended is whether, economic booms of the so-called “emerging markets” notwithstanding, imperialism and colonialism in all their different forms have ceased to exist in the world, whether there is no longer domination by nondemocratic forces (often exercised on others by Western democracies, as in the past), or economic and resource exploitation enforced by military power, or a refusal to acknowledge the sovereignty of non-Western countries, and whether peoples or cultures still suffer from the long-lingering aftereffects of imperial, colonial, and neocolonial rule, albeit in contemporary forms such as economic globalization.
Young emphasizes the continuing cultural and theoretical work of postcolonialism in the globalized era. What is the nature of this continuing work? How does postcolonial theory and literary cultural production deal with planetary conditions of continuing exploitation,
climate crisis, eco-disaster? What does postcolonialism do in response to nativism, fundamentalisms and cultural nationalisms that both contest and constitute nation-state formation in the post-colony? How is it to deal with contentions and contests of indigeneity and globalized subaltern movements?
Postcolonial literary production is both a response to and a product of the new world (dis)order, whose features have been inventoried above. But it is often a critical response and a critique of both, the postcolony and the new world. We hope to examine the responses of postcolonial literature and thought to not only conditions of postcoloniality but of planetarity as well.
But we are also interested in the appropriation, via what Lisa Lau terms “re-orientalism,” of the postcolonial literary production into the global marketing of “Third World chic.” Is there a “Brand Postcolonial” at work somewhere? What would make up the brand “postcolonial” for global consumption?
The conference will focus in particular on the relevance (or otherwise) of postcolonial theory to the interrogation of the following or any other relevant topics:
The conference is for SLACLALS members only, but membership* could be obtained at the point of registering for the conference.
Membership fee*(Sri Lankan and international) : LKR 120
* Registration fees could be paid at the conference venue, through bank transfers, or with cheques drawn in favour of “The Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies,” crossed “a/c payee,” and posted to Chair, SLACLALS, c/o Dept. of English, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. But we encourage paying the fee in advance to secure your slot.
Account name : The Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies
Account number : 0001274358
Bank : Bank of Ceylon, Peradeniya [588]
Swift code (if required) : BCEYLKLX
For further information, contact Marlon Ariyasinghe at [email protected].
In a 2012 essay, Robert JC Young writes:
The only criterion that could determine whether “postcolonial theory” has ended is whether, economic booms of the so-called “emerging markets” notwithstanding, imperialism and colonialism in all their different forms have ceased to exist in the world, whether there is no longer domination by nondemocratic forces (often exercised on others by Western democracies, as in the past), or economic and resource exploitation enforced by military power, or a refusal to acknowledge the sovereignty of non-Western countries, and whether peoples or cultures still suffer from the long-lingering aftereffects of imperial, colonial, and neocolonial rule, albeit in contemporary forms such as economic globalization.
Young emphasizes the continuing cultural and theoretical work of postcolonialism in the globalized era. What is the nature of this continuing work? How does postcolonial theory and literary cultural production deal with planetary conditions of continuing exploitation,
climate crisis, eco-disaster? What does postcolonialism do in response to nativism, fundamentalisms and cultural nationalisms that both contest and constitute nation-state formation in the post-colony? How is it to deal with contentions and contests of indigeneity and globalized subaltern movements?
Postcolonial literary production is both a response to and a product of the new world (dis)order, whose features have been inventoried above. But it is often a critical response and a critique of both, the postcolony and the new world. We hope to examine the responses of postcolonial literature and thought to not only conditions of postcoloniality but of planetarity as well.
But we are also interested in the appropriation, via what Lisa Lau terms “re-orientalism,” of the postcolonial literary production into the global marketing of “Third World chic.” Is there a “Brand Postcolonial” at work somewhere? What would make up the brand “postcolonial” for global consumption?
The conference will focus in particular on the relevance (or otherwise) of postcolonial theory to the interrogation of the following or any other relevant topics:
- The Humanities and Literature in contemporary Postcolonialism
- Diasporic/Migrant Experience
- Postcolonialism and Climate Crisis
- Vernacular Postcolonialisms
- Neocolonialism
- Gender and Postcolonialism
- Nativism/Nationalism/Indigeneity
- New World Order/Disorder
- Fundamentalisms
- Subalternity
- Literary Production/Literary Marketing in Postcolonial spaces
- Contemporary Postcolonialism and Language Studies
The conference is for SLACLALS members only, but membership* could be obtained at the point of registering for the conference.
- Abstracts of proposed papers in no more than 250 words, with six keywords, should be submitted by email to [email protected] on or before 1 June 2023. Acceptance will be notified by email.
- Presentations will be 20 minutes in duration.
- Multimedia facilities will be available.
- Since conference slots are limited, parallel sessions will not be held. Prospective presenters are advised to send in their abstracts as soon as possible so that the conference committee can take an early decision and send notifications.
- International participants are welcome but SLACLALS does not have the wherewithal to subsidize travel/accommodation to assist in airport/hotel return. However, suggestions on these matters will be provided later or could be obtained by writing to the email address below.
- SLACLALS requires that all presentations, except for the keynote, be given in-person at the conference venue.
- Preliminary conference registration after 1 June 2023. Details to follow. Registration fees will cover meals (cocktail dinner and lunch) and tea (morning and afternoon) and conference material.
Membership fee*(Sri Lankan and international) : LKR 120
* Registration fees could be paid at the conference venue, through bank transfers, or with cheques drawn in favour of “The Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies,” crossed “a/c payee,” and posted to Chair, SLACLALS, c/o Dept. of English, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. But we encourage paying the fee in advance to secure your slot.
Account name : The Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies
Account number : 0001274358
Bank : Bank of Ceylon, Peradeniya [588]
Swift code (if required) : BCEYLKLX
For further information, contact Marlon Ariyasinghe at [email protected].