YOUNG RESEARCHERSNATIONAL CONFERENCE

on
INTERDISCIPLINARITY AND ENGLISH LITERARY STUDIES
organized by
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH & CULTURE STUDIES
THE UNIVERSITY OF BURDWAN
on
16 & 17 December 2014
The inclination towards interdisciplinarity displayed by academics engaged with English literary
studies possibly originated as a reaction by Marxists, Historicists and New Historicists against
the critical engagement with exclusively literary texts characteristic of the New Critical,
Structuralist, and Post-Structuralist schools of the mid-twentieth century. The inflexible
departmental structure of universities and the claims made by English departments were
confronted by the groundbreaking Victorian Studies, a journal edited by four English professors
and launched in the 1950s. The title of the journal suggested that its concern was not with
literary studies alone, but also with the various cultural, social and political dimensions of the
age. Since then, it has become fashionable, indeed necessary, for English departments to
examine historical and cultural issues.
This does not imply that academic departments in universities have ceased to be disciplinespecific. Faculty members of English departments, as professionals, still hold primary identities
as specialists. Academic departments today possess the peculiar quality of being
simultaneously productive and restrictive. The restrictive and confining quality of academic
departments, or, even the very notion of a department, suggests a continuing resistance to
interdisciplinary projects. The influence of Foucault, New Historicism and Cultural Materialism in
the last two decades of the twentieth century has neutralized and subverted the a-historicity of
Formalist critical approaches. The steady rise in the number of journals encouraging
interdisciplinary scholarship bears testimony to the recognition of the importance of
interdisciplinary research. Today Formalism is dated; it has been almost ruthlessly overtaken by
historical and cultural modes of study. Still, the conspicuous scarcity of independent and fullblown culture studies departments is a measure of the endurance of single disciplines and the
infancy, if not fragility, of interdisciplinarity. In their present stage, interdisciplinary formations are
offshoots that, at best, support and add variety to existing disciplines. Importantly, they widen
the scope of academic research and possibly have futures as independent disciplines and
departments in an increasingly postmodern situation that may eventually witness the

dismantling of existing disciplinary and departmental structures. Several English departments

now teach the standard courses along with a mix of culture studies, and much of the research
undertaken today in English departments is inflected towards a concern with culture studies.
With time, the current generation of research scholars may hold significant academic and
administrative positions in independent culture studies departments; the paradox lies in that
foreseeable future possibly retaining the notion of academic departmentalization and continuing
to resist the imagined autonomy of interdisciplinarity.
Papers may address, but need not be restricted to, the following areas:
English literature and cultural practices
English literary studies and the performing arts
English literary studies and the study of history
English literary studies and politics
English literary studies and the environment
English literature and animal studies
English literary studies and the conditions of the diaspora
Postmodernism and interdisciplinarity
Postcolonialism and interdisciplinarity
The possibility of the autonomy of culture studies
Marxism, New Historicism, Cultural Materialism and interdisciplinarity
The relevance of the Formalist schools in the age of interdisciplinarity
English literary studies, interdisciplinarity, and the future of English departments
The future of research in English studies
Interdisciplinarity and the new literatures in English
We welcome students and research scholars of different universities and institutions to the
conference. They should send their abstracts to the organizers and if selected they will get 15
minutes for their presentations and 5 minutes for questions on their papers. Last date for receipt
of abstracts is 16 November 2014. Acceptance will be conveyed by 22 November 2014.
Abstracts within 300 words should be sent to the following mail id: buenglishyrc@gmail.com.
Registration fee details:
Rs 600 (without accommodation)
Rs 800 (with accommodation)

Venue:
The University of Burdwan, Golapbag, Burdwan 713104

Conference Convener
Dr Arpita Chattaraj (Mukhopadhyay)
Associate Professor
Dept of English & Culture Studies
The University of Burdwan