DISCOURSES OF SLAVERY AND ABOLITION:
WRITING IN BRITAIN AND ITS COLONIES, 1660-1838

A Two-Day International Conference
at the Institute of English Studies
University of London, United Kingdom
6-7 April 2001

Proposals are invited for short papers.

SUBJECT AREA:

This conference aims to bring together scholars working on the literature of
slavery and abolition in the long eighteenth century. For almost two
centuries, between the formation of the Royal Adventurers to Guinea in
1660 and the complete emancipation of slaves in British colonies in 1838,
the effects of slavery and the slave trade were evident at every level of
British society.

Accordingly, there existed by 1838 a considerable body of literature
concerned with slavery, abolition and emancipation, a body which included
political tracts and pamphlets, newspaper and periodical reports, biography
and autobiography, and novels, poems and plays. This literature is often
viewed merely as historical source material, an approach which often
precludes a more subtle discussion.

The conference will raise questions about its form, genre, rhetorical
strategy, its place in the wider context of literature in the long
eighteenth century as well as its historical, political, and theoretical
context.

POSSIBLE THEMES FOR PAPERS:

* Fiction, drama, and poetry of slavery and abolition
* Journals, letters and diaries
* Individual authors
* Individual abolitionists
* Black self-representations
* Rhetoric of abolition
* Theories of race and empire
* Slavery and Augustan, sentimental, or Romantic literature
* Race and gender
* Newspapers and periodicals.
* Pro-slavery writing
* Travel writing
* Images of Africa and Africans
* Writing the Caribbean
* Colonial encounters
* Women and the abolition movement
* Slavery beyond the Atlantic

PROPOSALS:

Proposals should be approximately 300-400 words for 20 minute papers.
They should be submitted to the conference organisers by 31 October 2000.
E-mail proposals are preferred, but typewritten copy is also acceptable.

Informal enquiries can also be made to the organisers.

SUBMISSIONS TO:
[email protected]

or
Brycchan Carey
Discourses of Slavery and Abolition Conference
School of English and Drama
Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London
Mile End Road
London E1 4NS
United Kingdom

FURTHER INFORMATION:
The conference webpage will be regularly updated:
http://sites.netscape.net/brycchan/dsa.htm

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