AfroLab International Symposium 2023

Afrodescendant Writings

9th and 10th November

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Call for papers

The research project AfroLab – Building African Literatures. Institutions and consecrations inside and outside the Portuguese-language space 1960-2020 (PTDC/LLT-OUT/6210/2020) invites communication proposals for the AfroLab 2023 International Symposium – Afrodescendant writings, taking place on  November 9th and 10th. 

 

Introduced in the 1990’s by intellectuals and activists to refer to an ancestral African subjectivity, the term “Afrodescendant” has been gaining traction in recent years. The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in 2001, has cemented “Afrodescendancy” as an analytical and political category, recognizing not only the existence of these populations, but mostly the socioeconomic disparities that affect them.  As we approach the end of the International Decade of People of African Descent (2015-2024) proclaimed by the UN General Assembly, we find it necessary to rethink this polymorphous and heterogeneous concept, while simultaneously considering the difficulties and challenges faced by communities today. 

 

Following our symposiums held in November 2022 and May 2023 on the circulation of African literature in Portuguese and on their translations, respectively, we are now concerned with the third line of action of the AfroLab project, aimed at investigating the theoretical framework of authors of African descent and the way in which they position themselves (or are positioned) in the literary and editorial grid.

 

The creation, circulation and consumption of epistemological and literary categories such as “Afrodescendant”, particularly relevant in the Portuguese context (Calafate, 2022), or “Afropean” (Hitchcott and Thomas, 2014; Pitts, 2019; Miano, 2020) and “ Afropolitan” (Gikandi, 2011; Selasi, 2013; Harris, 2020; Hodapp, 2020; Mbembe and Chavet, 2020), the latter more expressive in the so-called «Francophone» or «Anglophone» universes, forces us to rethink discursive and critical transits and phenomena within the national literary production. On the other hand, as Bucaioni points out (2023a, 2023b), although it is too early to state that Portuguese Afrodescendant literature is “replacing” or “occupying” the locus in which Portuguese-speaking African literature was previously installed, there seems to be a tendency on the part of the publishing market, institutions and cultural agents, as well as academia and the public, towards an increasingly renewed interest in the former to the detriment of the latter.

 

It is also important to denote the way in which, in other European countries, trends and tensions are similar or parallel to those experienced in Portugal. Thus, in recent years, there has been a growing interest in the writings of authors of African descent, whether in contexts of already rooted Afrodescendant literary presence (such as the United Kingdom or French-speaking European countries), or in contexts of more recent immigration (such as Italy or the German-speaking area). Finally, it is imperative to highlight the translation of works by Afrodescendant Portuguese-speaking authors into other languages ​​– a phenomenon that establishes possible bridges of dialogue between various experiences and different Afrodescendant aesthetics in a broader and European context.

 

Abstracts can be presented in Portuguese or English.

 

Here is a list of topics, which is not exhaustive:

• Theoretical frameworks on the categories “Afrodescendant”, “Afropean” and “Afropolitan”

• The juxtaposition and relationship between African literature in Portuguese and Portuguese Afrodescendant literature

• Afrodescendant writings in a compative perspective in different European realities

• The translation of literary works by Portuguese Afrodescendants into other languages

• The publication and circulation of these works in different contexts

• Reflections on contemporary Afrodescendant artistic-performative production

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Timetable

• September 10th, 2023: deadline for abstract proposal presentation, via online form at https://forms.gle/oudKTaABbN94ofdq5

• September, 20th, 2023: notification of acceptance/refusal by the colloquium organisation team.

• November 9th-10th , 2023: symposium dates.

 

The event will be carried out in person at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Lisbon, even if we are prepared to include one or two panels that take place online, similarly to what happened with the previous symposiums.

 

References

Bucaioni, Marco. 2023a. “Literatura afrodescendente em Portugal. Algumas questões”

 ———. 2023b. “Como se diz “afropolita” em português. Literaturas africanas, literatura negra portuguesa e afropolitismo”

Calafate, Margarida. 2022. “O Sentimento de um(a) Ocidental Declinado no Feminino”. Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies, 34/35.

Gikandi, Simon. 2011. “Foreword: On Afropolitanism”. In: Jennifer Wawrzinek and J.K.S. Makokha (eds.). Negotiating Afropolitanism: Essays on Borders and Spaces in Contemporary African Literature and Folklore. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 9-12.

Harris, Ashleigh. 2020. Afropolitanism and the Novel. De-Realizing Africa. London and New York: Routledge.

Hitchcott, Nicki e Thomas, Dominic. 2014. Francophone Afropean Literatures. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

Hodapp, James. (ed.). 2020. Afropolitan Literature as World Literature. New York/London: Bloosmbury.

Mbembe, Achille e Chavet, Laurent. 2020. “Afropolitanism as ethico-political stance”. NKA Journal of Contemporary African Art, 46: 56-61.

Miano, Léonora. 2020. Afropea. Utopie post-occidentale et post-raciste. Paris: Grasset.

Pitts, Johny. 2019. Afropean. Notes from Black Europe. London: Allen Lane.

Selasi, Taiye. 2013. “Bye-bye Barbar”. Callaloo, 36 (3): 528-530.