First Call for Papers

II INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE AMERICAN LITERARY WEST: BEYOND THE MYTH

University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, 7-8 October, 2010


This international conference, organized by the research group REWEST (Research in Western American Literature: www.ehu.es/rewest ), will focus on the different ways in which literary interpreters of the American West have shaped and reshaped traditional western imagery and themes. We would like this conference to offer as diverse and rich a picture of current research on the literature of the American West as possible. We particularly invite specialists of western American studies to consider the literary representation of the complex interaction between the mythic dimension of the West and its real historical, social, and cultural features. Papers can address a variety of critical issues in literary studies of the West:

- the role of "place", "space", and "region" in western writing
- the interplay between myth and history
- the construction and deconstruction of western stereotypes
- gender politics and power
- masculinity and cowboy mythology
- border landscapes and narratives
- race and ethnicity (multiculturalism, assimilation, exclusion, transculturation...)
- immigration and exile
- forgotten and neglected Wests
- the impact of globalization, urbanization, science, and technology on the West
- nature writing, ecocritical perspectives, and environmental concerns
- the popular West
- memory and (auto) biography in the West
- the New West
- class issues
- religion in the American West
- personal / regional identity (re/de) construction in the West
- the role of family and relationships
- the American West in non-U.S. literatures
- cultural transfers between literature and films...

Papers should not exceed 10 pages (2,500-3,000 words: 20 minutes’ delivery). Although English will be the official language of the Conference, papers in Spanish or Basque will also be accepted.

The conference will be held at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Confirmed keynote writers: Bernardo Atxaga, Phyllis Barber, Gregory Martin

Confirmed plenary speakers: Neil Campbell (U. Derby), Nancy Cook (U. Montana), David Fenimore (U. Nevada-Reno)

Please submit your proposal (300 words) plus a brief CV to the conference organizers by April 30, 2010. Proposals may be submitted via e-mail to David Rio (david.rio@ehu.es), Amaia Ibarraran (amaia.ibarraran@ehu.es) and/or Martin Simonson (martin.simonson@ehu.es).