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Call for Papers: African Literature Association Conference (New Deadline: 31 January 2019)

By Africa in Words on 2 January , 2019 • ( 1 )

We are delighted to share that the deadline for the submission of panel and paper proposals for the 2019 (May 15-18) ALA conference has been extended to Thursday 31 January.

ALA conference
Columbus
May 15-18, 2019
Theme: Institutions of African Literature: Future, Present, Past

Image courtesy of ALA

This is the 50th year of the continuous publishing of Research in African Literatures and African Literature Today, two frontline journals of Africanist literary criticism whose statures in the profession attest eloquently to the most enduring outcomes of the intellectual exertions of the African Literature Association (ALA).

To recognize, and take stock of, the ramifications of half a century of uninterrupted, significant criticism and theorizations about African literatures and cultures, the organizers invite retrospective and prospective papers on the institutional, material, grounds of the production of African literatures. ALA is interested in critical examinations of how the establishments have impacted literary and cultural productions. They are even more interested in explorations of which, and how, literary forms have shaped the establishments and institutions of African literature in the various locations they have occupied historically.

Quirky, trenchant, and perhaps truculent, discussions are particularly welcomed. For example, what is it about poetry that drives so many prizes, when the form is not much discussed in criticism? Is theater dead? Does the rise of video indicate that Africa is becoming post-literary? Whatever happened to literacy? Where in Africa is orality? Why do Afriphone verbal arts thrive in electronic media but not in print? Is the secret in the form? Do festivals exist still? Whither intermediality?

ALA seek paper, panel, roundtable and keynote proposals that examine institutions of African literatures under the following sub-themes:

Sub-Themes

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

Tsitsi Dangarembga, Director Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust, Harare, Zimbabwe
Carole Boyce Davies, Professor of English & Africana Studies, Cornell University

Deadline: January 31, 2019

Submissions:
https://conference.africanlit.org/2019-proposal-guidelines

Enquiries:
africanlitassoc2019@gmail.com

Venue:
Renaissance Columbus Downtown Hotel,
50 N. 3rd St.,
Columbus,
OH 43215
Phone: + 1 614-228-5050