*A symposium to be held at CRASSH, University of Cambridge,*
*11-12 April 2017*
http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/26941
<http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/26941>
**
*Conveners*
Jenny Mander (University of Cambridge)
David Midgley (University of Cambridge)
Maya Feile Tomes (University of Cambridge)
*Summary*
*
*
The discovery of the ‘New World’ is one of the standard reference
points for defining ‘modernity’ from a European perspective. It is
also a historical event that has had manifest repercussions for the
interaction of human cultures around the globe. This symposium will
provide the opportunity for a comparative inquiry into the ways in
which key aspects of the conquest and colonisation of Latin America by
Europeans have been represented and transmitted in writing, in visual
culture, and in performance culture down the centuries and across a
range of national cultures.
Two keynote speakers will provide the symposium with perspectives that
run beyond the European. Dr Stefanie Gänger (Assistant Professor at
Cologne University) is the author of /Relics of the Past. The
Collecting and Studying of Pre-Columbian Antiquities in Peru and
Chile, 1837–1911/ (2014), and she will be speaking on the historical
constraints on understanding the native cultures of Latin America
througharchaeologyand ethnography. Professor João Cezar de Castro
Rocha (Rio de Janeiro) is President of the Brazilian Association of
Comparative Literature. His latest book is /Shakespearean Cultures.
The Challenge of Mimesis /(forthcoming 2017), and he will speak on the
role that reflections of European traditions have played within the
development of Latin American cultures.
*Call for papers*
**
The aim of the conference is to discover, by comparing a selection of
particular cases, where there is common ground among the national
cultures of Europe and Latin America in the treatment of key issues,
where there are significant differences, and what the nature of those
differences is. Proposals from scholars at any career stage and with
expertise in any relevant area,including areas of research that are
currently in the process of development, will be welcome. We
particularly invite contributions oncases that have presented
themselves, within the cultures in which they have arisen, as
innovative, provocative or controversial with regard to the long-term
significance of the conquest and colonisation of Latin America. The
following list is a guide to the broad areas that particularly
interest us:
1.Representations that relate to the perception of a utopian potential
in the settlement of South America.
2.Representations of the slave trade with Africa, particularly those
that relate to the unsuccessful attempts to extend the principles of
the French Revolution to the West Indies.
3.Representations of the landscape of South America, its wild life and
its indigenous human populations that relate to the accounts of
European explorers from the 16^th to the 20^th century.
4.Representations from within the cultures of Latin America, including
the native cultures, that challenge or complement European treatments
of the issues.
5. Commemorative practices relating to historical events associated
with the conquest, and the critical or revisionary approaches to
established historiography that may be reflected in such practices.
Proposals, with an abstract no longer than 200 words please, should be
sent to legaciesofconquest@gmail.com
<legaciesofconquest@gmail.com> by 30 November 2016. Inquiries
may be sent to the same address, or to any of the conveners.
This conference is being funded by CRASSH, the Modern Humanities
Research Association, and the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages
at Cambridge University. It is anticipated that a publication in a
peer-reviewed series will arise from the symposium.
http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/26941
<http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/26941>