The Concept of the National Writer
Due Date: 01-01-2022
This volume intends to engage comprehensively and comparatively with the meanings, functions, and values that define and reshape the concept of the national writer by situating it in a transnational and transfrontier context not only with a particular emphasis on “literatures in French” (Panaïté) but also with extensive parallels and in-depth comparisons with other linguistic, geographic, and cultural areas.
There is a wide breach between the writers whose works are shaped by “relation” and interculturality and those who profess national angst, rootedness, and the perennial supremacy of their language. In drawing a multifaceted, plural, and (self-)contradictory portrait of the national writer today, this volume intends to query the foundational discourses of literary history and criticism, their attendant models and counter-models, their sphere of possibilities, and their conceptual and imaginary limitations.
350-word proposals for chapters in French or English, accompanied by a title, e-mail address, and brief professional résumé (150–200 words), should be submitted to opanaite@indiana.edu by 1 January 2022. Proposals will be selected in early 2022 and complete texts evaluated in fall 2022. Accepted articles will be included in a bilingual volume to be published in 2023.