Politics of Postcolonial Reconciliation (11/1/02; 5/29/03-5/31/03)

Call for Papers for Proposed Panel Session

Imagining A Different Future:
The Politics of Postcolonial Reconciliation

At the present moment in history there is an unprecedented proliferation of public scenes and processes of collective reconciliation. So global and widespread is this current phenomenon of reconciliation that it seems to have become a common, even guaranteed, feature of national and international politics alike. Witness, for example, the creation and operation of truth commissions in South Africa, Chile, and Argentina, the emergence of the "Sorry" movement in Australia, and the various movements for reconciliation by Palestinians and Israelis. Yet if processes of reconciliation constitute a trend of almost international proportions, postcolonial critics have barely begun the immense task of assessing its import and implications, as well as problems and possibilities. Especially neglected by critics has been the question of the role that literary and other cultural texts perform in contributing to discourses of reconciliation.

We solicit proposals on a wide range of issues related to the topic of collective reconciliation. Specific questions that presenters might consider could include-but are not limited to-the following: What is the relationship between postcolonial reconciliation and resistance? How do discourses of reconciliation operate in a gendered manner? What is the relationship between reconciliation and related concepts such as guilt, repentance, remembrance, apology, forgiveness, restitution, and redress? How do specific cultural, linguistic, religious and other differences inform and affect demands and desires for reconciliation? Do practices of collective reconciliation efficaciously undermine or transform positions of dominance and subordination or only reinforce them? How does the proliferation of projects of collective reconciliation relate to processes of globalization? If postcolonial reconciliation is indeed possible, what are its conditions of possibility? Given that it is often corporations and nation-states that facilitate processes of reconciliation, what does it mean for institutions to express affect (e.g. regret, shame, contrition)? How is it possible to apportion responsibility for (post)colonial crimes and racial wrongdoing without resorting to such reified categories as colonizer and colonized?

Papers will be presented at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Commonwealth Language and Literature Studies (CACLALS) at the Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities, 29-31 May 2003, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Presenters must be members of CACLALS at the time of the conference.

Send 250-500 word abstracts on any aspect of collective reconciliation, as well as a bio of approximately 100 words to:
Julie McGonegal, Department of English, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L9H 2YG (mcgoneja@mcmaster.ca), or, David Jefferess, Department of English, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L9H 2YG (jefferdm@mcmaster.ca)

Deadline for submissions: November 1, 2002.