FRAMING THE OTHER
30 YEARS AFTER ORIENTALISM

26 APRIL 2008
Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

Call for Papers

'Out of this [opposition between the West and the Orient] comes a
restricted number of typical encapsulations: the journey, the history, the
fable, the stereotype, the polemical confrontation. These are the lenses
through which the Orient is experienced, and the shape the language,
perception, and form of the encounter between the East and the West'
Edward W. Said, Orientalism (1978:58)

The thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Edward Said's Orientalism
comes as a suitable opportunity to consider again the Western vision of
the Orient. This one-day conference will focus on the impact of Said's
legacy to analyse visual culture as a crucial component of Orientalism's
(and more generally imperialism's) political self-justification, in the
discursive construction of the Orient.

We welcome papers stemming from the nineteenth century, to the present
period. Addressing the vision of a 'plural' West, we wish to take up the
issues raised by both obvious and surprising 'Others', from the indolent
and submissive odalisque to the fierce and dehumanised suicide bomber.

Topics for discussion may include (but are not limited to):

- Display, memory and discourses of power
- Nationalism and Identity thinking; Self/Other; Subject/Object.
- Notions of progress and primitivism
- The Subaltern's voice and cross-representation
- Gender and sexuality
- Postcolonial theory: a crisis?
- Edward Said and his critiques
- Stereotypes and the Oriental Myth.

Keynote Speakers: TBC

Abstracts of no more than 250 words, for 20 minutes presentations, from
postgraduate students and academics, should be submitted to both
conference organisers by 20 December 2007:
Aliya Abykayeva-Tiesenhausen (aabykayevahotmail.com)
Melanie Vandenbrouck (melanie.vandenbrouckcourtauld.ac.uk)

For further details please visit the Courtauld Institute Research Forum
website at
http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/calls_paper/orientalism.shtml

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