Fwd: 2nd CFP - Multisession workshop - AHA 2015 - Slavery as History, Slavery as Fiction

From: Araujo, Ana-Lucia <[email protected]>

129th American Historical Association Meeting
New York City
January 2 =96 5, 2015

Multi-session Workshop
Slavery as History, Slavery as Fiction

Convenor
Ana Lucia Araujo
Associate Professor
Department of History
Howard University
Washington, DC

At least since the 1960s scholars have discussed the boundaries between
history and fiction, including the specific features that characterize
these two forms of discourse (Barthes 1967, Hayden White 1973). Whereas
literary critics like Patricia Waugh have argued that =93writing of history
is a fictional act=94 (Waugh 1984: 48), Linda Hutcheon has forged the term
=93historiographic metafiction=94 to discuss novels that combine self-refle=
xion
and historical events and characters, by questioning the status of what
historians call =93facts=94 (Hutcheon 1988, 122). Likewise, historian Hayde=
n
White has pointed out that writing of history relies on narrative, a mode
of representation that remains deeply attached to the archives that exist
in textual forms (White 1984). Although during the 1990s, the postmodernist
debate on history as narration gradually lost its visibility, other
scholars continued developing the dialogue between history and fiction, by
underscoring the role of fiction in producing knowledge (Schaeffer 1999)
and insisting on how visual images can serve as historical evidence (Burke
2001). Today, scholars face the challenge of making histories of slavery
understandable to wider audiences either in scholarly books or museum
exhibitions. At the same time, movies and television series (Roots,
Quilombo, Xica da Silva, Amistad, Tropiques Amers, Lincoln, Django
Enchained, and Twelve Years a Slave) as well as books and novels (Beloved
by Toni Morrison, Rough Crossings by Simon Schama, Island Beneath the Sea
by Isabel Allende, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill) have been
portraying slavery and the Atlantic slave trade in various ways. This
workshop explores the use of fiction in writing history and the use of
history in works of fiction like novels, films, and various kinds of
artworks. How historians of slavery appropriate or allegedly reject
fictional devices to write their works? How fiction and imagination can
help filling the gaps left by primary sources? How the historical mode of
discourse is employed in novels, films, and artworks exploring slavery as a
theme in order to sustain the motto =93based on a true story=94? Focusing o=
n
any time period and geographical areas, this workshop will discuss the
intersections between history and fiction. Papers exploring narrative and
fictional dimensions of primary sources (letters, diaries, travelogues,
wills, photographs, drawings, and others) and the historical dimension of
films, novels, plays, television series, paintings, installations, and
other artworks are particularly welcome. The workshop will comprise the
traditional formal panels, as well as roundtables.

References:
Barthes, Roland. =93Le discours de l=92histoire.=94 Social Science Informat=
ion 6
(1967): 63-75.
Burke, Peter. Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images As Historical Evidence.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001.
Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. New
York: Routledge, 1988.
Schaeffer, Jean-Marie. Pourquoi la fiction? Paris: =C9ditions du Seuil, 199=
9.
Waugh, Patricia, Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious
Fiction. London: Methuen, 1984.
White, Hayden. =93The Question of Narrative in Contemporary Historical
Theory.=94 History and Theory 23, no. 1 (1984): 1-33.
White, Hayden V. Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in
Nineteenth-Century Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973.

Please send your paper proposal no later than February 1st 2014 to:
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> or [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>

Paper proposals must contain:
- Paper=92s title
- Abstract (maximum 300 words)
- Biographical paragraph (up to 250 words, no curriculum vitae, please)
- Correct mailing and e-mail address
- Audiovisual needs, if any

Chairs and commentators, please send:
- Biographical paragraph (up to 250 words, no curriculum vitae, please)
- Correct mailing and e-mail addresses

Please note:
- Abstracts of proposals accepted by the AHA committee will be posted on
the AHA program website.
- Papers must be submitted on December 1st 2014
- Each presenter is responsible to fund his/her travel expenses

Ana Lucia Araujo
Associate Professor of History
Director of Graduate Studies
Howard University
Department of History
Frederick Douglass Memorial Hall
2441 6th Street N.W.
Room 316 B
Washington D.C.
United States
20059
Phone number : 202-806-9365

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