On September 2-4, 2021, the Department of English is hosting the International Online Conference “Narrative Encounters with Ethnic American Literatures,” convened by Alexa Weik von Mossner, Marijana Mikić, and Mario Grill within the framework of the FWF Narrative Encounters Project. https://narrativeencounters.aau.at/conference/

Taking a cue from pioneering efforts at the intersection of context-oriented approaches in race and ethnicity studies and post-classical narratology, this conference is interested in the relationship between narrative, race, and ethnicity in the United States. Reading so-called “ethnic” American literatures means encountering characters and storyworlds imagined by writers associated with various minority communities in the United States.

How do ethnic American literary texts use narrative form to engage readers in issues related to race and ethnicity? What narrative strategies do they employ to interweave these issues with other important identity markers such as class, religion, gender, and sexuality? How do they involve readers emotionally in their storyworlds and how do they relate such involvements to the racial politics and history of the United States? And how does paying attention to the strategies and formal features of ethnic American literatures change our understanding of narrative theory? These are some of the questions we hope to address at this conference.

Keynote Speakers:

Frederick Luis Aldama, Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas, Austin Paula Moya, Danily C. and Laura Louise Bell Professor of the Humanities, Stanford University Patrick Colm Hogan, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, University of Connecticut

The program is available here. https://narrativeencounters.aau.at/conference/conference-program/

You can register for the conference here. Registration is free of charge. https://narrativeencounters.aau.at/conference/registration/

For any inquiries, please contact narrative [dot] encounters [at] aau [dot] at