The l992 Program: week one
The l992 Novel of the Americas Symposium is partially a
lecture series, partially a writers' conference, and Partially a
scholarly conference. The first week, "American Voices," intends
to address a broad range of contemporary literary issues. as
articulated primarily by the novelists themselves. Given the
Quincentenniel moment, we prefer to hear the voices of an African
American (opening speaker Toni Morrison), several Native American
writers (Leslie Marmon Silko, Gerald Vizenor, Beth Cuthand, Linda
Hogan), two Asian-American writers (Maxine Hong Kingston,
Ruthanne Lum McCunn), and two Chicanos (Rolando Hinojosa and Juan
Bruce Novoa). Peter Matthiessen and William Styron will discuss
issues related to those articulated by these other "American
Voices" during the first week. One of the major writers of the
twentieth century in Brazil, Nelida Pinion, will bring special
meaning to a concept of 'American Voices".
Week two
The second week of the symposium is titled
'U.S./African/Caribbean Connections,' and returns to some of the
focus of the October l99O meeting on the Caribbean. Henry Louis
Gates, Jr., now at Harvard, will open the week with a lecture
titled "Cola Culturalism." He will be followed by Nobel Laureate
Wole Soyinka. One reason for the presence of an African writer
such as Soyinka is to make the connection with the African
cultural traditions that have had such an enormous impact over
the past five centuries in Caribbean culture in specific and the
cultures of the Americas in general. Highlights of the
remainder of the week will be a lectures by Paule Marshall (l989
participant), Puerto Rico's major novelist, Luis Rafael Sanchez,
the always provocative Ishmael Reed, the hermetic and playful
Severo Sarduy, and the major woman writer from the French
Caribbean, Maryse conde.
Week three
For the third week of the symposium, the dialogue continues
with the lecture format with numerous plenary lectures, but
incorporates the conference format withthe presentation of
academic papers by specialists in the novel of the Americas.
Writers come from nations as disparate as Colombia, Canada, and
Spain; critics from London and Quito, and Art Winslow of the
nation, who intended to come as an observer, has been lured into
a round-table discussion. Writers representing three major
language groups, several cultures, and fifteen nations will
participate this week. The major novelist of Spain, Juan
Goytisolo, Whom many readers consider a "Latin American writer,"
and the quintessential multiculturalist from Spain, joins in the
dialogue at the end of the week. The program at the beginning of
the third week centers primarily on issues of postmodernism and
metafiction, with William H. Gass, Linda Hutcheon, Robert Coover
and Larry McCaffery, as well as several others, in that
discussion; the latter part of the third week focuses more on
the politics of writing, with Fredric Jameson, Juan Goytisolo,
Amy Tan and Carlos Fuentes at the center of that discussion.