Thursday 15 January 2015

MADNESS IN CARIBBEAN LIT: SCHOLARS & WRITERS MEET


The University of Liège in Belgium will hold a symposium titled “Altered States: Configuring Madness in Caribbean Literature” in April, with renowned international scholars and Caribbean writers participating.

The event is being hosted by CEREP (Centre d’Enseignement et de Recherche en Etudes Postcoloniales / Centre for Teaching and Research in Postcolonial Studies), one of the first research units in Europe to focus on postcolonial and formerly Commonwealth studies. Founded in 1968 by Prof. Hena Maes-Jelinek, an acclaimed academic and author, the Centre frequently organizes seminars, lectures and conferences at the University of Liège.

Current director Bénédicte Ledent says that the symposium takes as its main starting point the "ubiquitous representation of various forms of mental illness, breakdown and psychopathology in Caribbean literature" and the fact that this topic has been relatively neglected in criticism, especially in Anglophone texts, apart from scholarship devoted to Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea.

“While acknowledging a small number of recent publications on the topic … we believe that much remains to be done to rethink the trope of ‘madness’ across Caribbean literature by local and diaspora writers,” she said.

Those interested in attending the sympsium can find registration information here: http://www.madness.ulg.ac.be/programme.html