call for papers(submissions closed on 08/31/2022)

The AfroLab research project The Construction of African Literatures. Institutions and Consecration inside and outside the Portuguese Language Space 1960 2020 (PTDC/LLT OCT/6210/2020) invites the academic community to submit work proposals for the AfroLab International Symposium 2022 (November 10th and 11th).

The call welcomes communication proposals that focus on African language literatures
Portuguese, with a theoretical approach centered on the concept of the institution as a regulatory entity
(agent) responsible for the consecration process of a literary body, applied to African literatures
of Portuguese language in perspectives based on World Literature (Moretti 2000 and 2003,
New House 1999, Warwick Research Collective 2015, and more immediately linked to the project: Helgesson and Vermeulen 2016).

Communications with comparative approaches are especially welcome. Abstracts can be submitted in Portuguese or English. The topics of interest for the Symposium are:

– The institution of African literatures in Portuguese within the space of the Portuguese language, in
Portuguese-speaking African countries, in Portugal and Brazil, with special attention to agents
responsible for bringing them to the forefront of the literary field, as editors, academics and
public institutions;

– Publications on facts and histories of Portuguese-speaking African literature in the Portuguese, Brazilian and African publishing markets, with particular emphasis on the conditions of inequality between the different areas;

– Public and private institutions that contributed to the construction of the literary canon of literatures
Portuguese-speaking African communities, such as government bodies, literary agencies, cultural institutions,
writers' associations, etc.;

– The academic dimension of the construction of the canon in the Portuguese-speaking world, considering the
protagonism of some outstanding scholars and other intellectuals in the appearance of such literatures.



registration fee
Soon, the organizing committee will provide information regarding registration and payment