Thomas Falcon Marshall, ‘Emigration – the parting day’ (1852). Art Gallery of South Australia
In close collaboration with Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada), the University of Grenoble Alpes (France) is organizing an international conference on seas and oceans in the Colonial and Postcolonial World. This conference will examine how seas and oceans have shaped and reshaped cultural identities, spurred stories of reunion and separation and redefined entire nations. In the history of human migration, entire communities have crossed seas and oceans, voluntarily or not, to settle in foreign lands and undergo identity, cultural and literary transformations. Deleuze and Guattari once wrote that, even though the sea has often been considered a smooth space, it is nevertheless a space that humans attempt to striate, transform and submit to the land. As a result, seas and oceans have always been at the heart of political (narratives of exploration, cartography), international (maritime law), identity (insularity) and literary issues (survival narratives, fishing stories).
The conference is organized around four thematic clusters: Crossing, the Harbour, the Island and the Environment.
We encourage proposals from scholars in all disciplines: History, Literature, Environment Studies, Visual Arts, etc.
Deadline for proposals (300 words) and bios: October 15th, 2017
André Dodeman (University of Grenoble Alpes) and Nancy Pedri (Memorial University of Newfoundland)
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