Geocritcism and Spatial Literary Studies (new book series)

Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies. Announcing a new book series from Palgrave, edited by Robert T. Tally Jr. Please direct inquiries or book proposals at robert.tally@txstate.edu

CfP: Geocriticism, comparative literature, and beyond

Call for papers (in English and French below):

ICLA 2013 Paris Congress, Paris Sorbonne University (Paris IV), from the 18th to the 24th of July, 2013.

Geocriticism, comparative literature, and beyond

Call for Papers
Since its basic principles were formulated at Limoges University in June 1999, geocriticism has been developing under the impetus of researchers from diverse areas (mainly Africa, North America, and Europe) and varied disciplinary fields (literary theory, geography, and philosophy, among others). The 2013 ICLA Congress offers an opportunity to all interested scholars to reassess this recent approach in literature studies. Our goal shall be to present the possible applications of goecriticism, to point out its specific qualities, and to try to open up new vistas in comparative literature and beyond.

The seminar will consider the following fields of study:
- Geocriticism: why and how?
- Geocriticism and its relation to other spatial approaches (ecocriticism, geopoetics, cultural studies, etc.).
- Geocriticism and its likely corpus.
- Geocriticism and the question of the referent: is literature in the world?
- Geocriticism and its connections with other fields (literature studies, geography, urbanism, tourism, etc.)

After a selection process conducted by the scientific committee, between 12 and 15 seminar attendees will present their contributions (15 minutes each) in French or in English. The proceedings will be published by the Limoges University Press in the “Espaces humains” series.

Please send us a 300 word abstract before June 1st, 2012, to geocritique.icla2013@gmail.com.

Keywords
Geocriticism, literary theory, comparative literature, space, cartography, geography

Seminar organizers
Bertrand Westphal & Clément Lévy

Congrès AICL Paris 2013, Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), 18-24 juillet 2013

Géocritique, littérature comparée et au-delà

Appel à contributions
Depuis que ses principes fondamentaux ont été formulés à Limoges en juin 1999, la théorie géocritique s’est développée sous l’impulsion d’universitaires issus de diverses aires géographiques (Afrique, Amérique du Nord, Europe, notamment) et de plusieurs secteurs disciplinaires (littérature, géographie, philosophie, entre autres). Le congrès de l’AILC de 2013 donnera l’occasion aux chercheurs intéressés de faire le point sur cette nouvelle approche. Il s’agira de dégager les éventuels domaines d’application de la géocritique, de cerner sa spécificité et de tenter d’ouvrir des perspectives innovantes, en littérature comparée et au-delà.

Plusieurs pistes de réflexion sont envisagées :

- La géocritique, pourquoi et comment ?
- La géocritique dans ses relations aux autres approches spatiales (écocritique, géopoétique, imagologie, etc.) ;
- La géocritique et ses corpus possibles ;
- La géocritique et la question du référent : la littérature est-elle dans le monde ?
- La géocritique à la croisée des disciplines (littérature, géographie, urbanisme, tourisme, etc.)

Veuillez nous adresser un résumé de 300 mots à geocritique.icla2013@gmail.com avant le 1er juin 2012.

De 12 à 15 communications de 15 minutes chacune seront retenues par le comité scientifique. Les interventions se feront en anglais ou en français. Les actes seront publiés auprès des Presses Universitaires de Limoges, coll. « Espaces Humains ».

Mots-clés
géocritique ; théorie littéraire ; littérature générale et comparée ; espace ; cartographie ; géographie

Organisation
Bertrand Westphal & Clément Lévy

Geocriticism on Facebook

If you are a Facebook user, please "like" the Geocriticism page. I will try to use it, along with this blog site, for regular updates.

Geocritical Explorations: Space, Place, and Mapping in Literary and Cultural Studies

Geocritical Explorations: Space, Place, and Mapping in Literary and Critical Studies, a collection of essays edited by Robert T. Tally Jr, will appear in October 2011 and is now available for pre-order. Here's the Table of Contents:

Foreword; B.Westphal
Introduction: On Geocriticism; R.T.Tally Jr.

PART I: GEOCRITICISM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Geocriticism, Geopoetics, Geophilosophy, and Beyond; E.Prieto
The Presencing of Place in Literature: Towards an Embodied Topopoetic Mode of Reading; S.Pultz Moslund

PART II: PLACES, SPACES, TEXTS
Redrawing the Map: An Interdisciplinary Geocritical Approach to Australian Cultural Narratives; P.Mitchell & J.Stadler
Textual Forests: The Representation of Landscape in Latin American Narratives; M.Mercedes Ortiz Rodriguez
Land of Racial Confluence and Spatial Accessibility: Claude McKay's Sense of Mediterranean Place; M.K.Walonen
The Shores of Aphrodite's Island: Cyprus and European Travel Memory; A.Eche
Jefferson's Ecologies of Exception: Geography, Race, and American Empire in the Age of Globalization; C.M.Battista

PART III: TRANSGRESSIONS, MOVEMENTS, BORDER CROSSINGS

Geopolitics, Landscape, and Guilt in Nineteenth-Century Colonial Literature; R.Weaver-Hightower
"Amid all the maze, uproar and novelty": The Limits of Other-Space in Sister Carrie; R.Collins
Furrowing the Soil With His Pen: Derek Walcott's Topography of the English Countryside; J.Johnson
Global Positioning from Spain: Mapping Identity in African American Narratives of Travel; M.C.Ramos
The Space of Transgression: A Geocritical Study of Albert Camus's "The Adulterous Wife"; B.La Juez
Affective Mapping in Lyric Poetry; H.Yeung

Index

Geocriticism: Real and Fictional Spaces

The English translation of Bertrand Westphal's Geocriticism is now available. Click here for the official site.

Although time traditionally dominated the perspectives of the humanities and social sciences, space has reasserted itself in the contexts of postmodernity, postcolonialism, and globalization. Today, a number of emerging critical discourses connect geography, architecture, and environmental studies, among others to literature, film, and the mimetic arts. Bertrand Westphal’s Geocriticism explores these diverse fields, examines various theories of space and place, and proposes a new critical practice suitable for understanding our spatial condition today. Drawing on a wide array of theoretical and literary resources from around the globe and from antiquity to the present, Westphal argues for a geocritical approach to literary and cultural studies. This volume is an indispensible touchstone for those interested in the interactions between literature and space.

“The transdisciplinary spatial turn explodes globally in Geocriticism, a stunning literary tour-de-force that explores real and fictional spaces everywhere on earth. There is no one better than Westphal to interweave the Francophonic and Anglophonic geographical imaginations in ways that enhance our understanding of how geography and literature are critically related. This valuable translation opens the floodgates to European spatial thinking, while at the same time building creatively on the critical geographical literature available in English.”--Edward Soja, Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning, UCLA

“When you say you know a city, Paris, for example, how do you separate your flesh-and-blood visits there from your visits to the literary Paris of Baudelaire, of Dickens, of Hemingway? Do all those writers, and the multitude of other writers who have written about Paris, write about the same city? These are among the sorts of marvelous questions about the identity and difference of reality and representation, of sensation and memory, of life and fiction, which Bertrand Westphal’s Geocriticism investigates with deftness and rigor. Drawing on postmodern critical currents in philosophy and geography as well as in literary studies, Westphal examines a vast multilingual corpus of literary and cinematic examples to illuminate the field lying at the intersection of lived and imagined space.”--John Protevi, Professor of French Studies, Louisiana State University

Geocriticism Conference in Limoges, France

Click here for program.

Geocriticism at Texas State

"Professor pioneers geocritical approach for studying literature," by Billi London-Gray.

(This is a recent piece about Dr. Tally and geocriticism posted on the Texas State University blog. Click here.)

Cosmogonies et filiations: une géocritique du chaos originel

Call for Papers:
Colloquium at the Université de Limoges
For more information, click here.

Appel à contribution
Date limite : 15 juin 2010
Université de Limoges, 18-20 novembre 2010

Responsables scientifiques :
Bertrand Westphal (Université de Limoges / EHIC) et Véronique Léonard-Roques (Université Blaise Pascal / CELIS)

Accompagnées d'un résumé et d'un bref C.V., les propositions de communication seront à envoyer aux organisateurs du colloque avant le 15 juin 2010 aux adresses suivantes :
bertrand.westphal@wanadoo.fr
veronique.leonard@gmail.com

Geocriticism Group on Facebook

For those using Facebook who are interested in Geocriticism, please feel free to join the Geocriticism group.

Geocritique

Bertrand Westphal's La Geocritique: Reel, fiction, espace (Paris: Minuit, 2007). See publisher's page here. Professor Westphal and I are making arrangements to publish an English translation. Stay tuned.