I INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE LANDSCAPES OF THE SELF
Identity, discourse, representation
24-26 November 2010
CONTACT – landscapesoftheself@gmail.com
REGISTRATION FORM http://home.uevora.pt/~birrento/CONFERENCE
Venue: University of Évora – Portugal
Keynote speakers – Chris Weedon – University of Cardiff; Two other keynote speakers to be announced
The Centre for the Study of Letters of the University of Évora and the research team of the project
‘Landscapes of the self’ invite scholars, theorists, researchers, and practitioners of autobiography in all
media to attend the I International Conference LANDSCAPES OF THE SELF, proposing as its inaugural
theme IDENTITY, DISCOURSE, REPRESENTATION.
We envisage to develop discussion and to enhance the appearance of edging theories and practice on
the issue.
The conference aims to discuss the tangled web of critical positions regarding the study of
autobiographical documents which has, over decades, opened debates about the autobiographical act, as
well as about the range, structure and essential features of the autobiography. We would like to
encourage reflection on the process of representing the self as a selective and imaginative construction
of who we have been and who we are. Autobiographies are positioned within discourses that construct
identity and power, and inasmuch as the individual is a discursive formation, autobiography is one of the
major discourses through which it is produced. Autobiographical representation is an act of
interpretation, where the lived experience is shaped, constrained and transformed.
Representing the self in a filigree of ontological, epistemological and organizational principles of identity,
any autobiographical act can be read as geography of the possible (Probyn 1993) where the self is
represented by means of several technologies of power, like memory, and several trajectories,
materializing itself through discourse. To represent the self through an autobiographical discourse can be
considered a political act where the autobiographer chooses to draw a map of meanings of his life and of
his/her self, a self that is multiply coded in a range of discourses and conditions and represented by
means of several metaphors and modalities, asserting the right to speak rather than to be spoken for.
To read autobiographies as landscapes of the self is to understand them as a canvas where the images
of the self are represented; it is to understand autobiographies as a space of communication, where
author and audience articulate meanings – where the audience has to make sense of the identity of the
author in a simultaneously produced and productive relationship; a relationship which is constitutive of
communication as a social practice, and in which the audience has to understand to whom the author is
creating, why, how and when.
This conference invites 20-minute papers addressing the topics of identity, discourse and representation
from a wide range of interdisciplinary critical perspectives, as well as self-referential works in all media.
Although other topics may be considered, we welcome papers dealing with, but not being limited to,
issues such as the following:
Discourse Analysis;
Autobiographical Studies;
Memory;
Place;
Referentiality vs. fiction;
The invention of the self;
Construction/representation of identity;
Individual and collective representations of the self;
Gender studies;
Post-colonial studies
The self and the other(s);
Social and cultural identities;
Human geography;
Visual arts/visual culture;
Identity/Representation and genre;
Political Discourse/Political identity;
Ethnical issues;
The self in literature;
Egodocuments
Autobiographies in translation;
Theorizing identity and representation in life writing;
The emergence of the self in the social context,
The self and history
CONFERENCE LANGUAGES:
Papers may be presented in English, French or Portuguese
Conference Convenors
Ana Clara Birrento
Maria Helena Saianda
Olga Gonçalves
IMPORTANT DATES
SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS (300 WORDS) - landscapesoftheself@gmail.com
Deadline – 15th June 2010
NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE – 15th July 2010
SUBMISSION OF FULL PAPERS – 30th September 2010
REGISTRATION
EARLY BIRD – Until 30th July 2010 – 150 Euros
AFTER 30th July 2010 – 250 Euros
Members of the University of Évora/CEL – 75 Euros
Students – 25 Euros (document needed)
TRAVEL INFO
Useful links
Évora City Council Tourist Guide -http://www2.cm-evora.pt/guiaturistico/Ingles/itinerary.htm
Portugal Virtual - Evora - http://www.portugalvirtual.pt/_tourism/plains/evora/
Buses Network - http://www.rede-expressos.pt/default.aspx
National Railway Network – http://www.cp.pt
Accommodation - http://www.portugal-info.net/hotels/evora.htm
Restaurants - http://www.portugal-info.net/restaurants/evora.htm