Articles are sought for a special issue of the Palimpszeszt, a literary
journal on Orientalism in Latin American culture, literature, and arts.
"Orientalism" for our purposes is defined as influences and perceptions of
primarily the Middle East, but also the Far East, in the Latin American
tradition. Many Latin American writers and poets, among them Severo
Sarduy, Lezama Lima, Homero Aridjis, Rubén Darío, Octavio Paz, Pablo
Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges, have demonstrated a great fascination with
oriental themes in their works, often searching in Eastern mythology,
history, and, culture for non-European paradigms. Their representation of
the Orient intriguing because it depicts the Orient as an exotic place of
great consolation and mystery which is also the home of obscure powers.
Such ambivalent representation invites the postulates of Edward Said’s
seminal study, Orientalism that analyses the way European (in some cases,
Eurocentric) discourse represents other cultures, particularly the Orient
with which it came into contact through imperial expansion. Said argues
that the West produced through discourse these other cultures as the Other
according to Western norms assigning an important role to exoticism.
According to Said, Western discourse created this particular Orient in
order to justify its economic, intellectual and moral superiority over its
territory and its subjects. Articles that explore orientalist discourse or
representation in Latin American literature, culture, or arts are welcome.
Deadline: Februar 29th, 2004.
Questions, submissions: Silvia Nagy-Zekmi:
snzekmi@comcast.net
