Workshops > Native American verbal arts: theoretical issues and case studies

 NATIVE AMERICANS VERBAL ARTS : THEORETICAL QUESTIONS AND CASE STUDIES

Friday, October 3rd from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM 

Centre des Colloques, room 3.03

Organization : Brigitte Thiérion (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) and Rita Olivieri-Godet (Université Rennes 2).

Speakers : Isabel Maria Fonseca (Universidade Federal de Roraima, Brasil), Brigitte Thiérion (CREPAL, Sorbonne Nouvelle), Sheila Praxedes (Universidade Federal de Roraima, Brasil), Rita Olivieri-Godet (ERIMIT, Université Rennes 2), Bethania Mariani (Universidade Federal Fluminense), Fábio Almeid Carvalho (Universidade Federal de Roraima, Brasil), Roberto Mibielli (PPGL-UFRR), José Luís Jobim (Universidade Federal Fluminense)

Abstract :

Mayan critic Emilio Escalante (2015) recently organized a compendium on theorizing contemporary indigenous literatures in the Americas, asserting that there is no doubt that the resurgence and visibility of literatures by indigenous authors - often published in bi - or multilingual editions - today represent one of the most recent cultural phenomena in the Latin American space, including texts attached to genres such as the novel, poetry, testimonio, essay and theater (2015, p. 2).

This statement already raises the question of recognition across literary genres. As we know, the two main literary genre classification systems have a well-known history in the West, but many scholars of Asian and African literatures have pointed out that this division of genres ignores a range of text types that have no place in Western classification systems. So Escalante's observation implies that :

1) there is a common transcultural element that enables both producers and receivers of Amerindian texts to recognize, within the Western typology, some of these texts as novels, poetry, testimonio, essays and plays;

2) there are probably some "unrecognizable" texts, because they don't fit into any of the textual typologies constructed to classify texts in the West. In this workshop, we will include theoretical questions that address the frame of reference in studies of Amerindian verbal arts and specific case studies.

Reference:

ESCALANTE, Emílio del Valle (org.) Teorizando las literaturas indígenas contemporâneas. Raleigh, NC: Editorial A Contracorriente, 2015.