Symposium Outline   |   Programme   |   Registration  

Organizing Committee  |   Scientific Committee

Symposium Outline

This  symposium aims to bring together junior and senior scholars in the discipline of African literary studies from different universities across Europe and the UK, who will present the results of their latest research. The primary purpose is to stimulate  intergenerational conversations on African and Afrodiasporic authors and their works, exchanges which are expected to offer a reflection on key theoretical and methodological developments in the field of African Literatures and on its future paths.

The participants, with varied academic backgrounds, expertise and research interests, will explore African literary production from different periods and geographical regions, thus crossing linguistic borders and genres (the latter including fiction, comic books, and performance), and contrasting and comparing the literary features of the works selected, such as the stylistic and thematic issues they bring to light. In this respect, particular attention will be paid to, among other things, the importance of the authors’ gender in literary analysis.

The symposium thus attempts to provide an opportunity to collectively appreciate the range, richness, and complexity of contemporary African literary creativity, which has not ceased to grow since the publication of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958). A major aim of this academic meeting is precisely to reflect on such development with a focus on the progressive incorporation of other disciplines and areas of knowledge into the field, such as ecocriticism and affect studies, which has allowed progress in textual interpretation and enhanced our understanding of, and capacity for critical thinking on, African realities and experiences on and beyond the continent.

Moreover, as the participants show in their interdisciplinary research, through the use of theories originally considered to belong to the social sciences, psychology, or geography, those very theories are evolving and becoming more nuanced. For example, their use in African studies allows to pinpoint their limitations, which are mainly due to their habitual use in Western(ised) contexts, using Western-centric paradigms. In this sense, the symposium will also underline the particular and fundamental role that African literatures and African literary criticism are playing in the project of decolonising knowledge and knowledge production.

Finally, and linked to this last point, a key question our conversations will address, considering the tradition of activism and protest among African and Afrodiasporic authors, is the power of contemporary African literatures to push forward Africa’s sustainable development. By sharing our views on this issue in the light of results in our different yet complementary literary analyses, it is expected that this symposium will develop a greater interdisciplinary dialogue in the field of African literary studies.

Provisional Programme

Venue: Room 0/3, Building L5 (rue de Pitteurs, 18, 4020 Liège)

09.30-10.00 Coffee and registration

10.00-10.30 Welcome and introduction

10.30-11.45 SESSION 1

Chair: Daria Tunca (University of Liège, Belgium)

• Isabel Carrera Suárez (University of Oviedo, Spain), “Solidarity Routes in Spanish Afrodescendant Diasporas: ‘Those who dared’”
• Ángela Suárez Rodríguez (University of Oviedo, Spain), “Examining Contemporary Afrodiasporic Novels from an Emotional Perspective: Literary Strangers and Solidarities”
• Yasmine Ait Abbou (University of Liège, Belgium), “Interrogating Narratives of Fatness in African and Afrodiasporic Literatures”

11.45-12.00 Coffee break

12.00-13.00 SESSION 2

Chair: Ángela Suárez Rodríguez (University of Oviedo, Spain)

• Shola Adenekan (Ghent University, Belgium) “Samuel Ajayi Crowther and the Early Literary Network of Yoruba Print Culture”
• Emilia Maria Durán-Almarza (University of Oviedo, Spain), “Decolonizing the Archive: Ibeji Politics in Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s Provenance”

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00-16.00 SESSION 3

Chair: Yasmine Ait Abbou (University of Liège, Belgium)

• Sara Buekens (Ghent University, Belgium), “The Literary Representation of Ecology in Sub-Saharan Africa”
• Claudia Sackl (University of Zurich, Switzerland), “Moving by Public Transport While Black: Poetics and Politics of (Im)Mobility in Olivia Wenzel‘s 1000 Serpentinen Angst”
• Madhu Krishnan (University of Bristol, UK), “Literary Activism and Networks in Africa: Notes on Commons, Publics and Method”
• Dima Barakat Chami (University of Bristol, UK), “Northern Nigerian Literary Ecologies”

16.00-16.30 Coffee break

16.30-18.00 SESSION 4

Chair: Ángela Suárez Rodríguez (University of Oviedo, Spain)

• Tara Brusselaers (Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium), “Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa’s Multimodal Celebration of Black Women through Poetry, Dance, and Movement in Cane, Corn & Gully”
• Elisabeth Bekers and Katrijn Van den Bossche (Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium), “Bernardine Evaristo’s Fusion Fiction: Putting Presence into Absence t hrough Self-Reflexive Forms in Girl, Woman, Other”
• Janine Hauthal and Yanrong Wang (Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium), “Towards Hybridization: Multiplicity and Heterogeneity of Black Experiences in Wayde Compton’s The Outer Harbour”

19.00 Dinner

Registration

Registration is now open. You can register by filling in this Google form. The deadline for registration is Thursday 23 November 2023.

The registration fee for audience members is €25.00, to be paid in cash on the day of the event; it covers a sandwich lunch and coffee breaks. Dinner is to be paid for separately (also in cash) at the restaurant.

Attendance is free for ULiège staff and students, but registration is still required via the above Google form.

Organizing Committee

Ángela Suárez Rodríguez (University of Oviedo)

Daria Tunca (University of Liège)

Véronique Bragard (Catholic University of Louvain)

Martine Delavignette (University of Liège)

Yasmine Ait Abbou (University of Liège)

Scientific Committee

Ángela Suárez Rodríguez (University of Oviedo)

Daria Tunca (University of Liège)

Véronique Bragard (Catholic University of Louvain)

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