__________________________________________________
Call for Papers
"The Author in Translation:
Cultures, Periods, Texts and Beyond"
Book Project
__________________________________________________
In the late 1960's, the author was declared a non-issue in
literary circles. Indeed, some critics referred to the
"Death of the Author" (Roland Barthes, 1967) or posed the
author as question mark ("What Is an Author," Michel
Foucault, 1969) in an attempt to shift the emphasis in
interpretation from the work to the text and to (inter)
textuality. In the resulting theoretical and critical
perspective, the authorial role, figure, voice and authority
were to a great extent obliterated or at least temporarily
silenced.
But the author has proven to be a fairly stubborn entity,
rumors of whose death are greatly exaggerated. The last ten
years in particular have witnessed what might usefully be
called a resurrection of the author. Increased interest in
autobiography and life writing, especially by voices
hitherto marginalized, bear witness to this trend. At the
same time, issues of copyright law and intellectual property
are increasingly dominating publishing and print use. The
vexed question of who owns the privilege of using, citing,
publishing texts and images has as much to do with the
specific individuals who created the work under scrutiny as
it does with the environments that enabled -or hindered -
its creation.
An increasing awareness of transnational global perspectives
also necessarily resituates the changing questions and
concepts of the author within much broader cultural as well
as historical and linguistic contexts.This collection will
revisit these matters from a globalized, non-Eurocentric
perspective. It foregrounds the extent to which questions of
authorship and authority are tied to historical and social
practices that fluctuate across languages, cultures and
ethnicities. Rather than asking "What is an author?", we
prefer to ask "Where is an author?" and /or "What was an
author?" By studying the ways in which notions of authorship
and authority are mapped across the ever-shifting boundaries
of culture and discipline, we hope to contribute to a better
understanding of the issues involved.
The following questions are intended as guidelines to help
contributors frame their papers. The list is by no means
exhaustive and other approaches or topics certainly welcome:
1. Is and how is the author's biography enlisted as a way to
understand the text s/he has written?
2. How does gender frame our understanding of the author?
3. How do questions of intention and authority relate to our
conception of the author?
4. How are originality and creativity dealt with across
cultures? Does the author's value (or authority) increase in
proportion to the novelty of his/her work? And how is the
question of collective or networked authority conceived or
theorized?
5. How does the history of imperialism inflect the
construction of the author?
6. How do media determine our understanding of authority?
Does one author a film or photograph in the same way that
one authors a book?
7. Where is the figure of the author made visible or
indicated in a given work or text?
Deadlines and Outcomes:
Abstracts by September 1, 2007, completed papers for
accepted proposals by January 31, 2008. Abstracts and papers
should be sent by email to both of the two addresses below
and contain full contact data.
We plan to propose this collection to English-language
publishers in late 2007 and early 2008 with a view to
publication in early 2009. We are also planning a colloquium
built around the questions raised here and the issues raised
by the contributors.
Contact:
Suzanne R. Pucci
Dept. of Modern Languages
University of Kentucky
USA
Email: [email protected]
Ziad Elmarsafy
Dept of English and Related Literatures
University of York
UK
Email: [email protected]
__________________________________________________
InterPhil List Administration:
http://interphil.polylog.org
Intercultural Philosophy Calendar:
http://cal.polylog.org
