Monday 5 July 2010

University of Oxford



In Spanish American literature, science is often a locus for socio-political commentary, self-discovery, and narrative/poetic experimentation. This conference aims to explore the roles of scientific discourses in shaping the poetics and politics of Spanish American literature, with hopes of better understanding how the convergence of these seemingly separated areas of knowledge and expression has impacted on the cultural production of the continent. What is the place afforded to ostensibly universal and irrefutable scientific discoveries, which (in large part) do not originate in Spanish America? How is the relationship between cultural history and

scientific discourses explored and reworked in literary texts?



Possible areas of investigation include, but are not limited, to:

• The dynamics between science and the imagination
• Imperialism and science; science and (post)colony
• Literary representations of scientific discoveries and theories
• Literary applications of scientific theories
• The use of scientific language in literary discourses
• Scientific enigmas - or - ideas that can be explained by literature but not by science
• The implementation of, importation of, and exportation of scientific ideas in Spanish America

We welcome proposals that deal with the overlap between Spanish American literature and any branch of science: biology, chemistry, ecology, mathematics, medicine, physics, and beyond.



Please send 250 words proposals for papers of no more than twenty minutes in length to sarah.roger@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk, or

olivia.vazquez-medina@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk

by Friday 23 April 2010.

Submissions from both established academics and graduate students are welcome.