ABSTRACTS OF THE PAPERS

AILHLIN CLARK: Migration and communication in a modern Italian context

Migration has historically been an important phenomenon in the development of modern Italian society. It is something that has affected the lives of a high proportion of Italians, although the context of its impact varies depending on the precise circumstances surrounding both the particular migrant and form of migration and the social circumstances of individuals and families. This paper seeks to consider the communication which takes place between migrants and non-migrants in an Italian context. Through analysis of the types of migration which are most commonly encountered in Italian history and the traditional ways that this has taken place, and also been represented culturally, such as in the works of authors Maria Messina and Giovanni Verga, this paper will illustrate the ways in which migratory experiences can change daily and family life extensively, both where the migrant settles and in the place which they leave. In addition to this some thought will be given to the premise that such contact manifests not only through direct and indirect communications, but also through the formation of social groups and the adoption of new social behaviours. This will be considered in an attempt to reflect upon the long term impact of migration on both Italian society itself and in the new world, where Italian communities have been created through extensive settlement there.

HELENA CHADDERTON: Textual Creation and Social Construction in Marie Darrieussecq's Le Bébé

The work of Marie Darrieussecq highlights the power of language to produce meaning: to create, express and enact experience rather than reflect it. Le Bébé, Darrieussecq's sixth text, explores the roles of language and literature in social construction and demonstrates specifically how they position mother and baby in French society. Darrieussecq attempts to give value to the mother and baby as literary subjects, a process which involves the avoidance of stereotype, cliché and sentimentality. The diary form of the writing constitutes a meta-commentary on the limitations of language and discourse and their capacity to accurately record lived experience.

This paper will show how Darrieussecq uses textual strategy to challenge the position of mother and baby, both in literature and in society itself. I will demonstrate how she explores the link between socially constructed language and personal experience to posit alternative models for talking and writing about motherhood and thus alternative ways of being a mother. I will show how, through linguistic innovation, she battles with the cliché-ridden terrain of the new baby to destroy the myths surrounding it and explore the nature of parenthood and its relationship with creative work, as well as the performative and cultural roles of language.

MARIA PUJOL-VALLS: Bridging the gap between literature for children and adults: Catalan novels since the 1960s

Books addressed to children appeared at the end of the 17th century, at the same time as the awareness of childhood. Since then, they have commonly been regarded as a secondary literature, in contrast to that for adults. Partly in order to become a well considered literature, some specialists deny the existence of books specifically for children or at least defend that boundaries are blurred.

The evolution of children's literature is especially interesting in the Catalan context. In the 20th century, Catalan literature has evolved in accordance to the vitality or oppression of Catalan culture. During the Second Republic, in the 1930s, many cultural initiatives, international contacts and educational and publishing policies flourished in the Catalan-speaking lands. Publications for children in particular (magazines, novels, stories and translations) enjoyed great popularity and recognition. However, the end of the Spanish Civil War severed this prosperous

situation because Franco regime sought to eradicate Catalan culture and language.

Not until the late 1960s, when censorship timidly allowed publishing in Catalan, did Catalan literature start to recover, beginning to enjoy some degree of normality in the 1980s, after the return of democracy. Accordingly, since the 1960s, publishing for children and teenagers have had a notable role because it transmitted Catalan culture to new generations.

Some of the authors that have been writing novels for young readers since the 1960s also regularly publish fiction for adults. Comparing novels for teenagers and adults written by the same author offers the chance to detect similarities and differences between both writings and to prove that boundaries are very confused and sometimes artificial. Therefore, as I will propose in this paper, analysing works from writers such as Andreu Martín, Emili Teixidor and Josep Vallverdú contributes to defining the concept of children's literature and to reduce the gap between this literature and more generally prestigious literature.

FLORA LOPEZ-BRAY: Ambivalence within patriarchy in Latin American Women's Writings.

Traditionally, female authors have been writing about women's issues for centuries. Issues such as femininity, sexuality, marginality, societal roles and patriarchal values, amongst others, have been dealt with in various ways in Latin American Women's fiction. Nevertheless, one recurrent theme seems to engage them all: that of domination and subordination in patriarchal societies. Women authors, from Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz in the seventeenth century to twentieth-century authors such as Rosario Castellanos, Isabel Allende, Angeles Mastreta and Gioconda Belli, have addressed this issue. In this presentation I will examine extracts of work by these authors and establish whether they acknowledge ambivalence within patriarchy and how this ambivalence is represented in their literature.

Gioconda Belli, a prolific Nicaraguan writer, is the subject of my research. She writes from a woman centred perspective. In her literary work, she reflects the multiplicity of women's roles and brings women back from the silence to which they have been relegated by a male-dominated society by giving a voice to their female characters in her fiction. Belli addresses issues unfamiliar or ignored by her male counterparts, subverting in this way patriarchal discourse. My aim here is to place Belli in the context of patriarchy and subalternity.

CLARE WYDELL: Heralding Heroes of Olympic Proportion; Commemorating the past, Creating the future in Spanish identity policies

In a speech commemorating the 300th anniversary of the British Act of the Union, Chancellor Gordon Brown stated "recent years have seen outpourings of patriotic sentiment, from commemorating VE day to the Queen's Jubilee and more recently winning the Olympics…" His statement highlights the multiple dimensions and sources for identity construction policy, linking the commemoration of the past with the celebration of future exploits. In this paper I will explore this merging of the past and the future in the policy construction of a Spanish identity for the present.

Many identity constructs at the beginning of the 21st century can face issues establishing continuity of the present with the past, and the development of that present into the future. The case of Spanish identity construct(s) can be included within that category, with policymakers continually searching for effective mechanisms for the promotion of Spanishness.

Commemoration is an element of cultural policy that seeks to 'personify' that Spanishness being searched for politically, through connection to previous examples of what can today be construed as 'ideal'. The 2005 fourth centenary celebrations of the publication of Don Quijote are one example of such a policy endeavour, which has held up the figure of Don Quijote as a hero with 'ideal' Spanish characteristics. Whilst 2005 saw a reworking of previous commemorations for a modern audience, Spanish cultural policy is composed of a long list of commemorative activities that run, almost uncomfortably, alongside the emphasis on 'cultural creativity' that the state defends. Such commemorations have present aims, but past foci. The balance to this type of 'past' commemoration are policies such as the bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, as highlighted by Brown. The traditions of the Olympic movement maintain consistency with themes of commemoration, yet their potential is for the present and also the future, creating great heroes, massive media attention and also the opportunity for the host nation to demonstrate their organisational capacity. This paper will analyse the way in which both policy initiatives concerning commemorations of the past and commemorations for the future combine like elements of attempted identity (re)construction.

ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION

'Uncontested identity: Remembering and Forgetting the Past in the British

Colony of Gibraltar' - Possible questions for discussion:

• What methodologies can be deployed in the investigation of identity?
• Can identity be the preserve of any traditional academic discipline?
• What is the role of elites in creating identity?
• Is identity and inclusive or exclusive concept?
• To what extent is nation's identity determined by its historical experience (i.e.conquest, outside domination, autonomy, specific commercial patterns) or by a cultural identity, such as language or religion?
• What do you define as postmodernism and how does it fit into your work?
• Can postmodernism only inform us about social, rather than economic, class?
• How does postmodernist understanding of identity construction position the individual?
• Does postmodernism fuel only hegemonic identity construction?
• In the case of Gibraltarian identity, to what extent are the examples of forgetting class from the Civil War period part of a larger pact of forgetting?
• Can remembering/forgetting for identity construction be anything but selective and creative?
• How has the projection and self-representation of a nation's identity been shaped by 'what is left out rather than what is left in' in the case of the nation(s) you research?