First Call for Papers

What does it mean to pay attention to geology in Southern African literature?  How do the fundamental underpinnings of rock and soil influence how we structure and express our various senses of belonging?  How does our literature represent the relationships between indigeneity, post-colonialism and the growth of modern geological sciences?  How do varieties of geological knowledge articulate with imaginative poetics of time and narrative?

The Colloquium invites papers on any of the following possibilities or other related subjects.  As always, the Colloquium concentrates on Southern African literatures, but does not exclude relevant contributions concerning other parts of the world.

Geology, ecology and literatures of the environment

Gondwana, continental drift and seismic events: narrative continuities and ruptures

Fossils, palaeontology, the geologist and/in literature

Literature and the idea of the Anthropocene as a ‘geologic’ age

Rock surfaces represented as art- and spirit-surfaces

Geology, roads and the art of the travelogue

Mines and miners, cuttings and quarries, tailings and toxicity

Caves, caverns, sinkholes and the literary psyche

Soils, sands, farming and the novel

Coal, oil, gas and the literary fuels of capital

Mountains, ridges, valleys, vleis in narrative structure

Geology, poetics and landscape aesthetics

Queries and abstracts of 250 words to Dan Wylie, Dept of English, Rhodes University: d.wylie@ru.ac.za .  Deadline for abstracts: 30 August 2017.

See our website: http://www.ru.ac.za/english/literatureandecologycolloquium/

Last Modified: Wed, 31 May 2017 12:50:59 SAST