The American Tradition of Descent/Dissent:
The Underground, the Countercultural, the (Anti)Utopian
Ovidius University, Constanta, Romania
October 7-9, 2010
The topic of this conference aims at reflecting the contemporary atmosphere of dissent in the United States at a time when the economic, the social, the political and the cultural give rise to underground, countercultural and (anti)utopian movements and positions in the United States of America in perfect correlation with the tradition that has marked their descent from the colonial period to the present. Dissent often emerges from reinvestigating, reanalyzing and descending into the intricacies of fundamental issues that have long been left untouched. The conference offers space for papers and debates on the broader repercussions of the American tradition of descent/dissent in all the acceptations of these terms from an interdisciplinary perspective (literature, literary theory, history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, imagology, the history of ideas, cultural studies, geography, political sciences, film studies and other associated fields and disciplines).
We invite proposals for papers and panel discussions on the following topics:
· transnationalism as dissent from inherited national identity;
· deconstructive readings as dissenting analyses;
· postcolonialism/postimperialism as dissent from the Metropolis/the Empire;
· minority matters – descent into the Other/the politics of dissent;
· feminism and the dissent from patriarchal discourses and practices;
· autobiography and life writing as investigating descent;
· productions outside the establishment e.g. the avant-garde;
· the unconscious as a site of descent/dissent;
· the descent into the underworld;
· (anti)utopian societies, groups, communities;
· mystery/secrecy/sacredness and the underground;
· private and public dissent;
· countercultures: dissent from the mainstream/descent into the self;
· environmentalism as dissent from ecosystem destruction;
We are pleased to announce that
Dr. Janice A. Radway, Walter Dill Scott Professor of Communication Studies, Northwestern University, Illinois, has already confirmed our invitation to participate in the conference as a key-note speaker.
Proposals for 20-minute papers should be submitted by March 15th, 2010 in the form of an abstract of 150-200 words. As each paper will be followed by 10-minute discussions, participants are kindly asked to limit the presentation to their time-slot. Those interested in proposing a panel discussion should submit the title and the names of at least three other academics who will participate in the talk.
If you are interested in participating, please fill in the registration form
and return it to Ludmila Martanovschi, RAAS Secretary, Ileana Jitaru, RAAS Treasurer, and Nicoleta Stanca at the following e-mail address: [email protected]
Registration fee:
RAAS members – 50 ron
non – RAAS participants – 50 euro
to be paid upon arrival. Further details on the program will be made available at a later date to those who will have filled in and returned the registration form.