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Call for Papers "Theory at Work: Text, History and Culture" International Seminar Department of English Faculty of Arts Banaras Hindu University Varanasi (India) 9-11 November 2010 __________________________________________________ The past few decades have witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of theories that has led to the emergence of new approaches to the production and critique of knowledge. Theories as such, have emerged as unbounded group of writings about various interrelated knowledge systems – anthropology, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, social and intellectual history, gender studies and mass media studies. While some theories focus on textuality, some plead for the historicity or historicisation of the text, others see the text as a socio-cultural practice but they are not mutually exclusive, they often overlap each other. This interplay of textuality, history and culture in canonical and non-canonical texts, in past and present cultural representations, calls for explorations and interventions. While the established disciplines have incorporated many of these developments in their own objectives of study, the tensions within the fields have thrown up new dimensions that invariably demand interdisciplinary methods of inquiry. The proposed International Seminar on “Theory at Work: Text, History and Culture” intends to build up comprehensive and broad-based theoretical and critical approaches to race, gender, nation and culture. It also seeks to generate a discursive dialogue focusing on the deployment of theories in the study of various cultural representations – visual, written, aural and gestural. We welcome research papers from a variety of disciplinary approaches to contemporary theories. Suggested topics may include but are not limited to the following: - Text and Meaning: Structuralism, Deconstruction, Intertextuality, Reader-Response Theory, Dialogism, Narratology - Text and History: New Historicism, Cultural Materialism, Marxist Theory, Frankfurt School, Discourse of Power - Text and Culture: Postmodernism, Psychoanalytical Theory, Race and Gender Studies, Postcoloniality, Multiculturalism, Subaltern Theory, Translation Studies, Literature and Film, Ecocriticism - Theory and India: Nativism, Re-reading Indian Aesthetics, Modern Indian Literary Theory, Globalism and India An Abstract of about 300 words may be submitted electronically (as attachment in MS-word) by 31 August, 2010, to [email protected]. Name, institutional affiliation, e-mail, standard mailing address and phone/cell number should be mentioned. Contact: R.N. Rai Convener, International Seminar Department of English Faculty of Arts Banaras Hindu University Varanasi-221005 India Cell: +91 9450545311 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.bhu.ac.in/seminar/seminar.htm __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
