“Dialogues of Displacement: Intersections Between the Literary Texts of African and Asian Diaspora(s)”

Chair: Trevor Lee, City University of New York (CUNY)

“It is from those who have suffered the sentence of history – subjugation, domination, diaspora, displacement – that we learn our most enduring lessons for living and thinking.” – Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture

Salman Rushdie identifies the diasporic subject as “fantasist” who “build[s] imaginary countries and tr[ies] to impose them on the ones that exist.”  Focusing on the role of literature as a medium by which migrants both understand themselves and relate to society, The Circle for Asian American Literary Studies (CAALS) invites papers that explore the literary connections between African and Asian diasporic communities.  What might we learn by looking at the texts of African and Asian migrants comparatively?  We welcome papers that particularly compare and/or contrast ways in which the experiences of both African and Asian diasporic peoples open new textual possibilities.  Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

* Transnational modes of literary production and circulation

* Fictive depictions of the African and Asian homelands

* New technologies as a literary medium of expression and communication for migrants

* Diasporic science fictions, literary utopias/dystopias, or alternative worlds

* John Ogbu’s distinction between “immigrant minorities” and “involuntary minorities”

* Cosmopolitanism in Asian and African diasporic literature

* Relations between immigrants and host communities

* Intersecting racial political movements of Asian and African migrants and/or settlers

* Literary criticism, canonization, and global literature

* The various re/incarnations of hip-hop in diasporic communities

* Literary depictions of conflicts among migrant peoples

* Intersecting strands of magical realism in diasporic literature

Please send a 1-page abstract by December 18 to Trevor Lee via email: tjlee101@gmail.com.  Please mention any technological needs for your presentation on your abstract. Also, please note that if your abstract is selected and you agree to present on this panel, you will need to become a member of CAALS before presenting.  For more information, please visit our website at https://caals.org/