The Asian Conference on Literature 2017 (LibrAsia2017)

Join us in Japan next spring for The Asian Conference on Literature 2017 (LibrAsia2017), March 30-April 2, 2017. ***LibrAsia2017 at a glance... The Asian Conference on Literature 2017 (LibrAsia2017) will be held alongside The Asian Conference on the Arts & Humanities 2017 (ACAH2017) in the beautiful and historic city of Kobe, Japan. Submit your abstract now to participate in this international, interdisciplinary and intercultural event. **Location: Art Center Kobe, Kobe, Japan **Dates: Thursday, March 30 to Sunday, April 2, 2017 **Extended Abstract Submission Deadline: January 15, 2017 **Enquiries: librasia@iafor.org SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT: iafor.org/librasia2017-call-for-papers Already had your abstract accepted? Register now: iafor.org/librasia2017-registration To find out more about registration packages, presentation options, conference events and more, please visit the conference website: librasia.iafor.org ------------- ***LibrAsia2017 Conference Theme: "History, Story, Narrative" Historians are far from the only interested party in writing history. In a sense it is an interest we all share – whether we are talking politics, region, family birthright, or even personal experience. We are both spectators to the process of history while being intimately situated within its impact and formations. How, then, best to write it? Is it always the victor's version? Have we not begun increasingly to write "history from below", that lived by those who are not at the top of the power hierarchy? Are accounts of history always gender-inflected, hitherto at least men rather than women? Who gets to tell history if the issue is colonialism or class? How does geography, the power of place, intersect with history? What is the status of the personal story or narrative within the larger frame of events? This conference addresses issues of writing history from literary and other discursive perspectives. That is to say: novels, plays, poems, autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, travel logs, and a variety of styles of essay. One thinks of Shakespeare's history plays, Tolstoy's War and Peace, Shi Nai'an's The Water Margin, Balzac's La Comédie Humaine. It also addresses oral history, the spoken account or witness, Hiroshima survivor to modern Syrian migrant. Which also connects to the nexus of media and history. The great "historical" films continue to hold us, be it Eisenstein's October: Ten Days That Shook the World (1925) or Gone with the Wind (1940). We live in an age of documentaries, whether film or TV. There is a view that we also inhabit "instant" history, the download to laptop, the app, the all-purpose mobile. How has this technology changed our perception, our lived experience, of history? What is the role of commemoration, parade, holiday, festival or statuary in the writing of history? The different modes by which we see and understand history, flow and counter-flow, nevertheless come back to certain basics. One asks whether we deceive ourselves in always asking for some grand narrative. Can there only be one narrator or is history by necessity a colloquium, contested ground? Is national history a myth? And history-writing itself: is it actually a form of fiction, an artifice which flatters to deceive? What, exactly, is a historical fact? This conference, we hope, will address these perspectives and others which connect and arise. In conjunction with our global partners, we look forward to extending you a warm welcome in 2017. – The Organising Committee (iafor.org/librasia2017-committee) ***Programme **Featured Panel: Art and Narrative in the Public Sphere Panellists: Yutaka Mino & Tan Tarn How Drawing on the conference theme of "History, Story, Narrative", this panel will examine art as a medium for telling stories and creating narrative, and how curation can be used to contextualise and situate works of art. In a comparative analysis encompassing divergent cultural perspectives, the panellists will discuss the politics and role of art, drawing on examples from both Singapore and Japan, and comparing and contrasting with other countries. The panel will focus on the importance and continued relevance of art in the public sphere, addressing questions of how public art and public spaces can create stories and narratives, and how these narratives can assist in the construction and structuring of a national identity, including the following: How can art create a public dialogue? How can this dialogue be harnessed for the good of the community? And what is the role played by curation in contributing to the development of a local, regional and national community and economy? **Plenary Panel: History, Story, Narrative – Constructing History Panellists: Dr Brian Daizen Victoria, Professor Georges Depeyrot, Dr A. Robert Lee & Professor Myles Chilton This interdisciplinary history and literature panel will look at how histories are created and propagated and the difficulties involved in the inherently political act of writing of history. How does the "truth" act as heuristic and guide, and how is the concept abused to stifle dissent and impose order? This panel will draw on contemporary controversies and invite participation from delegates from around the world to address questions that include the following: How important is the construction of national history in the creation of personal and national identity? How does history shape our political decisions today? How do we go about building, revising and deconstructing history? This panel will feature both historians and literary scholars and will explore the relations and tensions between fictional and historical narrative that are in many ways vital to definitions of literature, raising questions as to the "truth" of the history registered in literary texts as opposed to that of historical texts. The panel will also examine literature as alternative history, whether Fredric Jameson's call to "always historicize!" is still relevant, the aliterary subversions of "official" history, the historicity of fiction, and, of course, the fiction of historicity. ------------- ***IAFOR Publishing Opportunities **Peer-reviewed journal: IAFOR Journal of Literature & Librarianship The IAFOR Journal of Literature & Librarianship (jolal.iafor.org) is an editorially independent journal associated with LibrAsia. The Editor of the journal will select the strongest papers from associated conference proceedings for consideration. This open access journal, which conforms to the highest academic standards, reflects the interdisciplinary and international nature of our conferences. **Conference Proceedings If your abstract is accepted and you have registered for the conference, you are encouraged to submit a full paper for inclusion in the official conference proceedings. Our conference proceedings are open access research repositories, which act as permanent records of the research generated by IAFOR conferences. Submit your paper: iafor.org/librasia2017-final-paper-submission ------------- ***Join IAFOR at LibrAsia2017 to: – Present to a global audience – Have your work published in the Conference Proceedings and considered for peer-reviewed, open-access journals – Benefit from IAFOR's interdisciplinary focus by hearing about the latest research in Literature, Arts & Humanities, and more – Participate in a truly international, interdisciplinary and intercultural event – Take part in interactive audience sessions – Network with international colleagues **Register now to take advantage of Early Bird Registration and save over 20%. Early Bird Registration is open until the end of December 14, 2016. Lunch is included in all conference registrations. Please see the registration page for details: www.iafor.org/librasia2017-registration ***Registration includes lunch on full conference days, as well as twice daily refreshments and light snacks. *If you have attended an IAFOR conference within the past year, or belong to an affiliated university or institution, we offer additional discounts in appreciation of your support. Please contact us at librasia@iafor.org for details. ------------- ***About IAFOR To learn more about IAFOR, please visit www.iafor.org. For enquiries please contact librasia@iafor.org.