Writing under Socialism- Univ. of Nottingham conference in July 2008

[Alexandra Smith]

Call for Papers: Conference:Writing under Socialism-Past and Present :  
A Comparative Approach

Papers are invited for an international conference entitled Writing  
under Socialism to be held at the University of Nottingham on 11-12  
July 2008.

Using a comparative approach that crosses disciplines and continents,  
this conference asks for a re-evaluation of the position of writing  
under socialist states past and present using new material, theories  
and methodologies that have come to light since 1989. We invite  
contributions from researchers working on literary production in  
China, Cuba, the GDR, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, in order to  
initiate a dialogue between researchers working in very different  
fields.

In contrast with literary production under capitalist regimes, writers  
living under socialism have had to negotiate a role for themselves and  
their writing within an institutional framework defined by a specific  
political and ideological value-system and entirely administered by  
the state. Whilst socialist regimes tend to place a high value on  
literary practice, they also find it a source of potential subversion,  
and it is the nature of this contradiction that has attracted the  
attention of numerous researchers in the past.

However, writing under socialism involves more than the traditional  
dichotomy of mind versus power and instead includes complex  
relationships between the different actors, institutions and policies  
that together form the context of literary production in a given  
state. By asking for fresh perspectives on writing in a range of  
socialist countries, this conference aims to draw out some of the  
commonalities and differences in these complex relationships, which we  
envisage will both cross national boundaries and highlight their  
continued importance.
Of particular interest is the opportunity to bring together research  
into post-Cold-War socialist states, in which writers are still living  
the experience of socialism after the historical caesura of 1989, and  
post-Cold-War analyses of states which collapsed in 1989, allowing  
access to previously restricted material.

Possible areas for discussion include, but are not restricted to:

Interaction of writers with Party functionaries.
Role of publishers, periodicals, booksellers and literary critics as  
mediators between the state, writer and reader.
Role of Writers? Unions as mediators between state and writer.
Methods of censorship and the interaction of external and internal  
pressures on the censorship of texts.
Socialist cultural policy in theory and in practice.
(Changing?) Definition of writer/intellectual under socialism.
Role of mass cultural movements in literary production and consumption.
Success of mass cultural movements and their effect on participants.
Writing outside of the state apparatus: underground and unofficial  
literary movements.
Theoretical approaches to the study of writing under socialism.

Papers focusing on writing under any socialist state are welcome,  
including, but not restricted to: Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, GDR,  
Cuba, Nicaragua and China.

Professor Michel Hockx (SOAS) will give the keynote address entitled:  
?Print Culture and the New Media in Post-Socialist China?.

The language of the conference will be English. Publication of  
selected papers is envisaged.
Please send abstracts of no more that 200 words to Sara Jones  
(agxsmj at nottingham.ac.uk) and Meesha Nehru (asxmn at nottingham.ac.uk) by  
1 February 2008.


===========================================
Alexandra Smith (PhD, University of London)
Lecturer in Russian
School of European Languages and Cultures
The University of Edinburgh
David Hume Tower
George Square
Edinburgh EX8 9JX
UK

tel. +44-(0)131-6511381
fax: +44- (0)131- 650-3604
e-mail: Alexandra.Smith at ed.ac.uk





-- 
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

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