*Location:* United Kingdom
*Call for Papers
Date:* 2008-02-01 *
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.
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.
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
Meesha Nehru & Sara Jones
School of Modern Languages & Cultures
Trent Building
University of Nottingham
Email: asxmn@nottingham.ac.uk
