CFP: The Politics of English as a World Language

[Mark Stein]

Invitation & Call for Papers
_______________________________________________________________________
   Association for the New Literatures in English
   ASNEL / GNEL
   Annual Conference 2001

   "THE POLITICS OF ENGLISH AS A WORLD LANGUAGE"
   6 to 9 June 2001

   Prof. Dr. Christian Mair
   University of Freiburg
_______________________________________________________________________

The past decade has been characterised by a convergence of interests –
mostly unacknowledged in institutionalised academic frameworks – between
linguists working on English as a World Language ("EWL") and scholars in
the field of postcolonial literary studies. Books such as Robert
Phillipson's Linguistic Imperialism (1992), Alastair Pennycook's The
Cultural Politics of English as an International Language (1994), or the
massive collection of essays on Post-Imperial English edited by Fishman,
Conrad and Rubal-Lopez have made the point that the spread of English has
not taken place in a social and cultural vacuum. In studies of postcolonial
literature, language issues have always been prominent – an emphasis that
has increased rather than abated in recent years. It is the aim of this
conference to explore the interdisciplinary territory linking EWL studies
and scholarship on postcolonial literatures. Linguistic, literary and
cultural-studies contributions are invited on issues such as
Multilingualism/ Heteroglossia, Creolisation, English and Linguistic Human
Rights, Postcolonial Language Planning, Language and Identity/ Ethnicity,
Gender and Language, Linguistic Experiments in Literature, Language and
Literary Audience(s), Cultural Transfer and Translation, and
Interdisciplinary Teaching.

Enquiries and submissions (name, affiliation, title of contribution, and
abstract of no more than 200 words) should be addressed to the convener:

                                Prof. Dr. Christian Mair
                                Englisches Seminar, Universität Freiburg
                                D-79085 Freiburg
                                Germany
                                mailto:mairch at ruf.uni-freiburg.de



Provisional Programme

The following have accepted invitations to speak:
-Florian Coulmas (Duisburg), "The economics of language in a global community"
-Barbara Lalla (St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago): "The politics of the
language/ literature interface in the Caribbean"
-Peter Mühlhäusler (Adelaide): "English as an exotic language: the limits
of adaptation"
-Alastair Pennycook (Sydney): "Homogeny and heterogeny: Possible roles of
English in the world"
-Tove Skutnabb-Kangas und Robert Phillipson (Roskilde, Denmark):
"Linguistic diversity and biodiversity: the threat from killer languages"
-Loreto Todd (Leeds): "Espousing the other tongue: for better and for worse"
-Michael Toolan (Birmingham): "English as the supranational language of
human rights?"

The following writers have so far agreed to read from their work during the
conference:
-Diran Adebayo (Nigeria/ UK)
-Uma Parameswaran (Canada)
-Patricia Powell (Jamaica/ USA)
Negotiations are under way with several further writers.



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This may be of interest to listmembers--hope to see many of you there.*
                                                                      *
                                                     Mark Stein       *
                           New English Literatures and Cultures       *
                                                         FR.4.3       *
                                    Universitaet des Saarlandes       *
                                           D-66123 Saarbruecken       *
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