Africa Writes Abstract Submission Calls seeks submissions from Ph.D. students, early career scholars and independent researchers on ideas and approaches to African literatures. Africa Writes is an annual festival organised by the Royal African Society, which aims to promote contemporary African writing and writers as well as to explore Africa’s long literary past and its future.
Academic discourse on African literatures is characterised by a continuous process of debate, reassessment of theories and redefinition of terms. The very concept of ‘African literature’ is a problematic one because it conveys a certain homogeneity, ignoring the wide diversity of written and oral literature stemming from the continent and the diaspora. By bringing together a range of exciting new scholarship, this session hosted at the British Library aims to open up the ideas of and approaches to ‘African literature’ represented at the festival.
Africa Writes particularly is keen to receive submissions relating to these broad areas:
- 50 years since the publication of texts such as Flora Nwapa’s Efuru and Grace Ogot’s The Promised Land and Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino.
- The presence and contribution of African women in literature and literary practice (including publishing) over the last 100 years.
- ‘Disruptive writing’ looking at texts or practices that trouble binaries of gender and sexuality.
- Themes of border crossing, migration, displacement and identity.
- Literature across genres, media and forms: romance, crime, newspapers, popular culture, blogging, young adult, speculative and sci-fi.
- Contemporary oralities: spoken word, Youtube poetry and neo-traditional genres.
Africa Writes hopes to showcase works that explore African literature in African languages with a long historical view as well as present-day African narratives that reflect on the changing landscape of the publishing industry.
Submit a 200 words or less abstract with your name and affiliation to Caitlin Pearson, panel coordinator at Royal African Society, at ras_events@soas.ac.uk.