LINGUIST List 7.408

Tue Mar 19 1996

Calls: English & Islam, Ling anthropology

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. Linda L. Erwin, Call for Papers: English & Islam
2. "Gary B. Palmer", Call for Papers for Session at AAA meetings

CALL FOR PAPERS

"English and Islam: Creative Encounters"
An International Conference organized by the Department of English
Language and Literature of the International Islamic University,
Malaysia, December 20-22, 1996

The important historical links between literature in English and
Islamic creativity and thought have been long established. In
addition, the relationship between the English language and Islam has
great significance in contemporary times as the English language
continues to play an important role as a conveyer of knowledge about
Islam to the international community. Further, Western and global
cultures, often accessible in English, will no doubt continue to
connect with the Muslim world in diverse ways.

This international conference hopes to explore both the historical and
contemporary manifestations of these linguistic, literary, and
intercultural connections, to provide a platform for exchanging ideas,
knowledge, and aspirations, and to project future directions for
relating English language/literature and Islamic creativity. Topics of
interest might include (but are not limited to):

Critical assessment of literature in English by Muslim authors;
interpretations of the image of Islam in different eras of English-
language literature; the impact of Islamic culture on the development
of the English language; the genesis, development, and prospects of
"Islamic English"; a critical survey of translations of the Quran;
analyses of the style and content of Islamic religious texts in
English (translated and original works); the influence of Islamic
texts on English-language writers; the application of Islamic literary
theory and criticism to English-language literature; Islamic
perspectives on linguistic theory and the Muslim scholar's
contribution to this field; the teaching of English language and
literature in an Islamic educational environment; the teaching of
Islamic literature in an English-language educational environment;
English-language works and the Muslim author: a study in
intertextuality; Islamic input into the field of comparative literary
theory and criticism; the contribution of English language and
literary studies in developing awareness of self- and social
responsibility among Muslim students.

The conference will be held in Kuala Lumpur at the new permanent site
of the Institute of Islamic Understanding--Malaysia.

Abstracts of approximately 250 words and the applicant's biodata of
not more than 50 words (both in English) should be sent by April 30,
1996 to:

Dr. Nur Nina Zuhra, Acting Head, Department of English Language and
Literature, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan
Universiti, 46350 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

OR e-mail to:

englishits.iiu.my

Visit our web page at:

http://www.iiu.my/IIUM/nina.htm

Notification of acceptance will be sent by June 15, 1996. Inquiries
may be addressed to Dr. Nur Nina Zuhra, fax (03) 757-6045.

 Dear members of linguist list:
 Debra Occhi and I are organizing a session
 on "Languages of Sentiment" for the AAA meetings
 to be held in San Francisco Nov. 20-24, 1996.
 and we are looking for participants. If you
 would like to join our session please send me
 an abstract of 250 words or less and I will
 respond with complete information within one working day.
 Our session proposal has to be submitted by April 1.
 Gary Palmer

 ----------------------------------------------------
 Gary B. Palmer
 Department of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies (5003)
 University of Nevada, Las Vegas 89154

 fax: 702-895-4357, phone: 702-895-3379
 http://www.nevada.edu/home/6/gbp
 ----------------------------------------------------


 Volunteered Session on Languages of Sentiment for the 95th
 Annual Meeting of the AAA, submitted to the Society for
 Linguistic Anthropology.

 Organizers: Gary Palmer and Debra Occhi
 Chair: Debra Occhi

 LANGUAGES OF SENTIMENT

 ABSTRACT

 Since Radcliffe-Brown's 1922 study of social sentiments in
 the ceremonial life of the Andaman Islanders, culturally
 defined emotional dispositions have been studied by
 anthropologists from various perspectives. In addition to
 the structural-functionalism of Radcliffe-Brown,
 anthropologists have studied emotions from the standpoints of
 configurationalism and psychological anthropology. In
 general, previous studies of emotions in non-Western
 societies have been criticized by Lutz (1988) for
 essentializing emotions as psychobiological universals and
 reifying a culture-bound distinction between emotion and
 cognition (Lutz 1988; Abu-Lughod and Lutz 1990).

 During the 1980s and 1990s, cognitive and cognitive
 linguistic approaches have argued for emotional relativism in
 which emotions are not regarded as mere feeling states, but
 are governed by dimensions of cognition or rationality (Lutz
 1988; White 1992; Kovecses, 1987, 1988, 1990; Lazarus 1995;
 D'Andrade 1995; Wierzbicka 1986) and pragmatism (Lutz 1988;
 Abu-Lughod and Lutz 1990). Meanwhile, interpretivist and
 postmodernist anthropologists have studied the ideology of
 sentiments and the relationships between sentiments and
 perceptions of identity. For example, they have described
 the veiled sentiments of longing for forbidden lovers
 experienced by Bedouin wives and anger-like emotions of
 Ilongot headhunters (Abu-Lughod 1986; Rosaldo, M. 1989;
 Rosaldo, R. 1980, 1989).

 Cognitive approaches are often criticized as static,
 ignoring the crucial role of discourse as the locus of
 meaning. On the other hand, interpretivism and postmodernism
 are regarded by many as subjective, solipsistic, and
 methodologically unsystematic. These tensions in
 contemporary theory suggest interesting problems: How might
 they be reconciled to provide a more comprehensive
 understanding of feeling states, emotions, and social
 sentiments? And how might cognitive approaches contribute to
 the study of questions raised by postmodernists concerning
 the inscription of culture on the feeling body, the social
 diffuseness of identity, and the hegemony of discourses of
 power over human abilities to feel and express emotions?

 The papers in this session begin with the premise that
 emotions are represented cognitively as culturally
 constructed discourse scenarios that comprise social actions,
 speech, and feeling states. It is these "scenarios of
 sentiment" that underly performance in the discourses of
 politics, economics, kinship and religion. Scenarios of
 sentiment enable us to appraise events and participate as
 performers in emotional discourses. Our identities as social
 agents are embedded in these scenarios of sentiment.
 Depending upon the location of communities and persons at
 privileged or marginalized sites in our increasingly diffused
 and distressed world culture, such scenarios, and the
 identities that exist through them, may be either clearly
 formed or fragmented, multifarious, and indistinct. The
 emotional meanings that emerge in actual discourses depend on
 the clarity of reigning scenarios of sentiment. If clearly
 formed, scenarios of sentiment may be abstracted and
 organized by schemas such as personal honor (dangal) and
 social respect (galang) in the Philippines.

 The papers present pertinent data obtained through
 interviews or participant observation. Such data may
 include, but is not limited to, verbal descriptions of
 emotion language, narratives of emotional events, patterns of
 metaphor and metonymy, and segments of actual discourse.