Tuesday, 1 February 2011

CFP: Beyond Calypso : New Perspectives on Samuel Selvon

Beyond Calypso : New Perspectives on Samuel Selvon



Warwick University Yesau Persad Centre for Caribbean Studies 2nd July 2011


Keynote speaker: Professor Kenneth Ramchand
(University of Trinidad and Tobago)

Samuel Selvon is one of the Caribbean's most widely-read, popular and influential novelists, one whose works have, as early as their first publication, been granted classic status. While the author's significance is undeniable, historically Selvon's oeuvre has been read primarily to seek its insight into the lived experience of the Windrush generation, or its replication of the tropes and techniques of calypso. Selvon's work, though, has much more to offer than this. While expressing a strong, Caribbean-centred cultural identity, his writing demonstrates a perceptiveness that extends beyond its immediate context.

Beyond Calypso will seek to explore the richness of Selvon's work. In advance of the sixtieth anniversary of Selvon's first novel, A Brighter Sun, this one-day event will draw together new perspectives on the author in order to celebrate his contribution to Caribbean, British and postcolonial literatures.

Selvon's legacy will also be celebrated through tributes and the presentation of restored sound archives from the collections of the Centre for Caribbean Studies.

250-words abstracts are invited for papers that apply new or little-used analytical frameworks to the writer and his work. Topics can include, but are not limited to:
− New approaches to Selvon through the optics of gender studies, ecocriticism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism or others
− Creative works - including poetry, fiction and music - inspired by Samuel Selvon
− Readings of Selvon's less famous works, including his radio plays and short stories, and the novels An Island Is a World and I Hear Thunder
− Re-engagements with or re-negotiations of existing critical perspectives on Selvon's work

Please email all abstracts to Malachi McIntosh and Stephanie Decouvelaere at
m.mcintosh@warwick.ac.uk by Friday 1 April 2011

Stephanie Decouvelaere
Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3

Malachi McIntosh
Warwick University

Letizia Gramaglia
Warwick University

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