Richard Wright: The Centenary Celebration

The American University of Paris announces the International Richard WrightCentennial Conference.

It will be held 19-20 June 2008 at The AmericanUniversity of Paris and at the Musée des années trente (Museum of the NineteenThirties), in Boulogne-Billancourt.

The Conference will encourage broad international and interdisciplinaryexplorations of Wright's life and writing, with a special emphasis on the Paris heinhabited (1947-1960), both what it was and what it is today as a result ofthe marks he left behind, and on his experiences in Africa.

Stressing theimportance of Richard Wright, the conference hopes to be an international point ofintersection for all those interested in Wright's work from literary andcultural critics, to political activists, poets, musicians, publishers andhistorians.

We seek the widest range of academic and public intellectual discussionaround Wright's work which has influenced so many and so much.Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Wright in the Black Atlantic: Transnationalism and Transatlanticism
Wright and expatriate ParisWright as exile and travel writer
The reception of Wright's work in various non-U.S. settings
Wright and African American Satire, Irony, and Comedy
Wright and the African American Literary Canon
Wright, Whiteness, and Black Masculinity
Wright and African American Confinement Literature
Wright, Gender, and the Political Use of Modernism
Wright's Cultural Criticism
Wright and Literary Friendships and Influences
Wright and FilmsWright and Teaching Pluriculturalism
Wright's Influence on the World Today

Paper/presentation proposals should include:1. A brief (250-300 word) abstract.2. A brief (1-2pp.) vita.

The deadline is January 15, 2008.

Submit abstracts to:Alice Craven atAlice.Craven@aup.frORWilliam.Dow@wanadoo.fr