Connected Understanding: Stories, Lives and Texts

Call for Papers for Congress

Montreal, May 30-June 1, 2010

 

"I believe that everyday stories, acimowina, the stories that are the foundation of contemporary Indigenous literature, although not spiritual, are nevertheless spirit. Everyday stories, too, have transformative powers, but they must first implicate the audience before transformation can occur" (Episkenew 15).  “Indigenous narratives serve a socio-pedagogical function in that their objective is to change society by educating the settler readers about the Indigenous perspective of Canadian society.  The narratives implicate settler readers by exposing the structures that sustain White privilege and by compelling them to examine their position of privilege and their complicity in the continued oppression of Indigenous people” (Episkenew 17).

 

Metis literary critic Jo-Ann Episkenew traces the themes of story and healing in Taking Back Our Spirits: Indigenous Literature, Public Policy, and Healing (2009) and asserts the transformative potential of story—but only when the audience is first implicated in the telling and the tale.

 

This conference investigates the connections between stories, lives, and texts in the context of literature and healing. Following are suggested topics, but we welcome proposals addressing any aspect of the connected understanding of stories, lives, and texts:

 

·         How do various genres differently implicate the audience?

·         What are the constraints on the transformative potential of story?

·         What is the function of witnessing in understanding storied lives?

·         What constitutes everyday stories and what are the politics of everyday autobiographies?

·         What are the relationships among culture, history, and storied lives?

·         How do our notions of text, including textual production and reception, affect our understanding of transformation?

·         What are the  possibilities and constraints on the transformative potential of invoking Indigenous narratives  that implicate settler readers in the light of Episkenew’s (2009) assertion that such texts serve a “socio-pedagogical function” (p.17) if a goal, as she suggests, is to educate settler readers about the Indigenous perspective on Canadian history?  

·         Within the field of life-writing, therapeutic concepts are implicit in such terms as "scriptotherapy" and "trauma narratives."  Within the field of psychotherapy, concepts of narrative are implicit in such terms as "talking cure" and "narrative therapy."  What kind of “connected understanding” do these disciplines contribute to the discourse of storied healing?

 

Please send one copy of the proposal (up to 250 words) by January 10, 2010. Your submission should be accompanied by a cover page containing the following information: name; full mailing address; e-mail, phone and fax numbers; the title of your paper; a 50-word biographical note; a description of any audio-visual support you may require.

Please send your submissions to

 

Tara Hyland-Russell, President, ABAL,

Humanities Area, English Faculty

St. Mary’s University College,

14500 Bannister Rd.SE

Calgary AB T2X 1Z4

 

tara.hyland-russell@stmu.ab.ca

 

Please note that conference presenters must be paid members of ABAL.

Membership inquiries can be forwarded to Allison Hargreaves, Secretary/Treasurer, ABAL:

 

Allison Hargreaves, Assistant Professor

Department of Critical Studies

3333 University Way

UBC Okanagan

Kelowna BC  V1V 1V7

 

Phone: 250-807-8446

allison.hargreaves@ubc.ca