CAL FOR PAPERS - RECONFIGURATIONS

Reconfigurations: Remaking Narrative, Reinventing Genre in Postcolonial and Diasporic Writing and Performance

10, 11 & 12 November.

The Pinter Centre for Performance and Creative Writing is delighted to invite expressions of interest for the final international conference in the 'Beyond the Linear Narrative' 3-year AHRC project.

Papers and panel proposals are invited on the following themes.

*Reinventing genres in contemporary postcolonial and diasporic writing and performances
*Fractured narrative as dissent
*Reconfigured forms, reconfigured identities
*Disassembling the grand narratives; telling stories after Empire.
*Multistranded pasts, multiple voices.
*Reshaping modes of life writing.
*Performing identities; identities as performance.
*Fragmentation as a rejection of patriarchy
*Poetry and its transformations in postcolonial and diasporic contexts.
*Reconfiguring the cultural scene; new presences in contemporary writing and performance.

Please send all submissions and queries to b.pester@gold.ac.uk

Please see our website for more details about the Pinter Centre and the Beyond the Linear Narrative project.

www.gold.ac.uk/pinter-centre

More about the conference:

This conference will be the third and culminating annual conference put on as part of the Goldsmiths Pinter Centre for Performance and Creative Writing AHRC-funded project, Beyond the Linear Narrative: Fractured Narrative in Writing and Performance in the Postcolonial Era. This research project has been exploring the links between inter-cultural and political change and the emergence, or re-emergence, of non-linear and fractured narrative, particularly in postcolonial and diasporic contexts. If these fractured and experimental forms are a response to the breakdown of the west's grand narratives of progress, we have asked, what forms of resistance or revision do they provide? In what ways can they be seen to emerge from the increasing interaction of different cultures in the colonial, post-colonial and post-Cold War world? How do such fractured narratives work in postcolonial and diasporic writing and performance?

The project has looked at these issues through three seminar strands offering in-depth studies of three different areas: African diasporic writing, theatre and performance, Caribbean/diasporic life writing, and gender and sexuality in contemporary British diasporic writing and performance. We have drawn in both scholars and creative artists, and our research has, we believe, already contributed new thinking to the understanding of postcolonial and diasporic literature and performance, their evolution and development, and to the assessment of the nature and impact of contemporary creative practices. This final conference will be a 'festival' of events as well as an academic interrogation of the nature of narrative, performance and genre in today's multiethnic, multicultural world. Its aim will be to investigate how postcolonial and diasporic writing and performance use fractured forms to explore our culturally diverse society's competing and conflicting narratives, and to explore, through creative practice as well as academic analysis, the way these art forms make and shape new and multiple identities, both in terms of cultural affiliation, and of gender and sexuality.

The programme will comprise academic papers, readings and performances, as well as workshops from our two artists in residence. The conference will be open not only to scholars, writers, performers, students from Goldsmiths and other universities, but to local participating schools and members of the general public. We aim to create an atmosphere in which scholarly research and artistic practice are made accessible to a wide audience. The conference will build on the work of the three seminar strands, though it will range more widely among diasporic groups, as well as on the successful conferences in 2009 and 2010, which each, over three-day periods, hosted over 100 participants and contributors, and included workshops, rehearsed play-readings, performed poetry and full theatrical performances in Goldsmiths' George Wood Theatre. The conference is particularly timely in the context of the transformations in the British as well as international cultural scene, where many of the richest contributions to artistic and cultural life come from the flow of traditions across borders, and the fusion of diasporic cultures with each other and that of their hosts. It is timely also in light of the current debate initiated by the Prime Minister into how we understand multiculturalism and cultural plurality today.


www.gold.ac.uk/pinter-centre
http://thepintercentre.blogspot.com

Egusi Soup - Rehearsed Reading

Hot on the heels of a packed David Shields event, we are delighted that Janice Okoh will be introducing and discussing a rehearsed reading of her play Egusi Soup on 23rd February.

The reading will be followed, as ever, by refreshments and discussion of the work and its influences.

We hope to see you all there.

http://www.gold.ac.uk/pinter-centre for more info.

David Shields

http://www.davidshields.com/

On February 16th, David Shields will be reading at Goldsmiths from his new 'Manifesto' Reality Hunger.

For more information visit the Pinter Centre Website: www.gold.ac.uk/pinter-centre.

Conference Announcement

Transformations of Narrative in the Postcolonia Era

Conference 11th, 12th, 13th November 2010

Proposals for papers are invited on the following themes:

This will be the second in a series of three international conferences produced by the Pinter Centre as part of our AHRC-funded research project entitled
'Beyond the Linear Narrative: Fractured Narratives in Diasporic Writing and Performance in the Postcolonial Era'

Through performed papers, academic papers and workshops, the goal of the conference will be to address the central question:

'Is fracturing central to postcolonial narrativity?'

Proposals for performed and academic papers welcome.

* Is fracturing central to postcolonial narrativity?

* How has the use of non-western forms transformed aesthetics in
postcolonial writing and performance?

* Locations, Dislocations & Postcolonialisms

* Are diasporic identities the same as fractured identities?

* Narrative hybridity & heteroglossia in the global world

* Transformations of narrative in new technology

* Contesting the post- in Postcolonial [writing and performance? BP]

* Intersections of diasporas and diasporic writing

* First nation/Indigenous writing and performance and the Transformation
of narrative

* Postcolonial/postmodernism revisited


All proposals and enquiries to be sent to b.pester@gold.ac.uk

Deadline for proposals: 30th August
Deadline for papers: 30th September

More about the research project:

The AHRC is funding a three-year research project which is being led by Professor Robert Gordon as Principal Investigator, Professor Helen Carr as Research Consultant, and Professor Blake Morrison and Dr Osita Okagbue as Co-Investigators. Research will be undertaken by a number of scholars and practitioners working in the departments of Drama and English and Comparative Literature, but there will be creative and critical input from a number of other disciplines. Taking Pinter's work as a starting point for, or symbol of, the fracturing of narrative across many art-forms in twentieth and twenty-first century work, this research project asks a series of questions about the links between inter-cultural and political change and the emergence, or re-emergence, of non-linear and fractured narrative. Focussing on literature and performance, particularly in postcolonial and diasporic contexts, it will ask why non-linear narrative has been such a feature of this period's artistic production. If these fractured and experimental forms are a response to the breakdown of the west's grand narratives of progress, what forms of resistance or revision do they provide? In what ways can they be seen to emerge from the increasing interaction of different cultures in the colonial, post-colonial and post-Cold War world? How do such fractured narratives work in postcolonial and diasporic writing and performance? How can these fractured forms explore our culturally diverse society's competing and conflicting narratives?

More about the Pinter Centre for Performance and Creative Writing:

The College-based Pinter Centre for Performance and Creative Writing was formally inaugurated in June 2003, with Harold Pinter as Honorary President.
This is an interdisciplinary research centre, involving principally the Departments of English & Comparative Literature and of Drama, the latter organising and hosting the Centre, and with links with Media and Communications, Music, PACE and the Digital Studios.
Though he is best known as a playwright, what distinguishes Harold Pinter is his achievement in several different media – as a poet, novelist, screenwriter, dramatist for television and radio, and polemicist for freedom of expression and human rights. In keeping with this, through its projects the Pinter Centre initiates and promotes research into all aspects of the theory and practice of creative writing and performance.
In line with Pinter's keen awareness of the centrality of political issues, the Centre is particularly committed to looking at postcolonial and diasporic literature and performance, and the ways in which contemporary creativity is forging new forms that respond to the cultural diversity of the world in which we live. It also has a strong interest in questions of gender, and writing and performing the body.

Chimalum Nwankwo reads from and discusses his work

Reading and Discussion : 109 Deptford Town Hall Building, Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:30:00 BST

We are delighted to announce our latest event at the Pinter centre for Performance and creative Writing.

Nigerian Scholar and Poet Chimalum Nwankwo will be reading from his latest collection of poems Of the Deepest Shadows and Prisons of Fire on 29th June
at 5:30pm.

The reading will be followed by a chance to discuss the work with the author.

This is the last in this years series of seminars presented by the Pinter Centre for Performance and Creative Writing as part of the AHRC-funded
project: 'Beyond The Linear Narrative'

The event is free and drinks & snacks will be provided.

Event to be held in Deptford Town Hall building room 109. 5:30. 29th June.

About Chimalum Nwankwo

Born in Anambra State, Nigeria, Chimalum Nwankwo was educated in Nigeria
and the United States of America. He holds a Ph.D in English from the
University of Texas, Austin, and is currently a Professor of English at
North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro. His other publications
include the following poetry collections:

Feet of the Limping Dancers (1987), Toward the Aerial Zone (1988), Voices
from Deepwater (1997), The Womb in the Heart (2002),

Professor Nwankwo won the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry prize in
1998 and again in 2002. He was awarded the senior Fullbright Scholarship
for scholarly research and teaching in Nigeria.

Aminatta Forna reads from The Memory of Love

Award-winning author Aminatta Forna will be reading from her new book The Memory of Love (Bloomsbury 2010) as part of the Pinter Centre’s ongoing AHRC-funded project ‘Beyond the Linear Narrative’.
The reading will be followed by a chance to discuss the work with the author. Wine and refreshments will be served.

April 28th, 5:30pm, Senior Common Room, Goldsmiths, University of London

About The Memory of Love
“Delivering to us a common centre, no matter where we happen to have been born, Aminatta Forna tackles those great human experiences of love and war, of friendship, rivalry, of death and triumphant survival. Often darkly funny, written with gritty realism and tenderness, The Memory of Love is a profoundly affecting work” KIRAN DESAI, winner of the Booker Prize

“A subtle and complex exploration, daring in depth and scope, of both the psyche of a war and the attractions which it holds for an outsider. Forna is a writer of great talent who does not shy from tackling the toughest questions about why humans do the things they do: from the smallest acts of betrayal to the greatest acts of love.” MONICA ALI

About the author
Aminatta Forna was born in Scotland and raised in West Africa. Her first book The Devil that Danced on the Water was runner-up for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2003. Her novel Ancestor Stones was winner of the 2008 Hurston Wright Legacy award, nominated for the International IMPAC Award and selected by the Washington Post as one of the most important books of 2006. In 2007 Vanity Fair named Aminatta as one of Africa’s most promising new writers. Aminatta has also written for magazines and newspapers, radio and television, and presented television documentaries on Africa’s history and art. Aminatta Forna lives in London with her husband.

New Event - 17th March

Exotics, Visitors, Immigrants and Citizens: Africa on the British Stage

Dr. Osita okagbue and The Pinter Centre for Performance and Creative Writing are delighted to announce the third event in our strand on African Diasporic Theatre and Performance. As part of the three year AHRC –funded project ‘Beyond the Linear Narrative’
Entitled “Exotics, Visitors, Immigrants and Citizens: Africa on the British Stage” the event will feature three papers by performers, writers and practitioners followed by discussion and refreshments.

The event will be held in the seminar rooms 3/4 of the Ben Pimlott Building on March 17th at 5:30pm.

Please contact b.pester@gold.ac.uk to reserve your place

Presentations will be from

Inua Ellams – 'The 15th Tale: How the centre holds' More information about Performance poet and artist Inua Ellams can be found here: www.phaze05.com
Alex OMA-PIUS African Theatre & Culture in British Schools - Alex is the artistic director of Iroko Theatre www.irokotheatre.org.uk
Reginald Ofodile - Being an African Actor on the British Stage
Dr Dipo Agboluaje – 'It's as if I'm in Nigeria: Concerns of Writing Nigeria in the UK'