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Host: University of Freiburg
Organizers: Prof. Dr. Christian Mair
Description:
After Växjö 1997 and Lincoln 1999 this will be the third MAVEN
meeting. It will take place in conjuction with the annual meeting of
ASNEL/ GNEL, the German Association for the Study of the New
Literatures in English. The decision to bring together the two
meetings has obvious practical advantages, for example in reducing the
cost of conference infrastructure and the like. More importantly,
however, the decision responds to a convergence of interests -
mostly unacknowledged in institutionalised academic frameworks -
between linguists working on English as a World Language ("EWL") and
scholars in the field of postcolonial literary studies. Books such as
Alastair Pennycook's The Cultural Politics of English as an
International Language (1994), or the massive collection of essays on
Post-Imperial English edited by Fishman, Conrad and Rubal-Lopez (1996)
have made the point that the spread of English has not taken place in
a social and cultural vacuum. In studies of postcolonial literature,
language issues have always been prominent - an emphasis that has
increased rather than abated in recent years. It is the aim of this
conference to explore the interdisciplinary territory linking EWL
studies and scholarship on postcolonial literatures. Contributions
are invited on issues such as Varieties of English, (New) Norms and
Standards in World English, Multilingualism/ Language Planning,
Creolisation, English and Human Rights, and Language and Identity/
Ethnicity.
Date received: December 08, 2000
© 2008 Atlas Conferences Inc.