"What Countrey’s This? And Whither Are We Gone?": Papers presented at the Twelfth International Conference on the Literature of Region and Nation (Aberdeen University, 30th July – 2nd August 2008) - Tapa dura

In the summer of 2008, the twelfth in a series of biennial conferences on the Literature of Region and Nation was held at Aberdeen University in the North-East of Scotland. Over fifty scholars, representing no fewer than twenty different countries, convened for the occasion; and twenty-two of the papers presented are included in this volume.As at previous conferences in the series, the papers range widely in approach, in subject-matter and in geographical coverage: readers of this book will find explorations of literature from all five continents. The papers are arranged thematically: the central concepts of region and nation are examined in the first section; and subsequent sets of papers go on to consider literary and pictorial representations of places and peoples, literature of diaspora and exile (a keynote topic of the conference), the use of language (particularly non-standard languages) in literary texts, and artistic interactions between cultures. All the papers have been peer-reviewed, and some extensively revised. The collection demonstrates the vitality of scholarship in the field of regional literary studies.

J. Derrick McClure, Chairman of the conference and principal editor of this volume, is Senior Lecturer Emeritus in the School of Language and Literature, University of Aberdeen. He edits the annual journal Scottish Language, and is author of four books and nearly a hundred articles on Scottish literary and linguistic topics, Scotland o Gael an Lawlander (a volume of Scots translations from contemporary Gaelic poetry), and a variety of other Scots poetic translations from Gaelic and other languages. From 1991 to 2009 he was Chairman of the Forum for Research in the Languages of Scotland and Ulster, and is currently Chairman of the Scottish Government's Ministerial Advisory Group on the Scots Language. In 2002 he was awarded an MBE for services to Scottish culture.Karoline Szatek-Tudor is Associate Professor at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts, USA, where she teaches Shakespeare and Seventeenth-Century Literature. In addition to co-editing this volume, she has also co-edited From Around the Globe: Secular Authors and Biblical Perspectives, in which her article, "The Measure of Unmarked Vows" appears. In press is her current volume, Spatial Discourse in English Early Modern Pastoral Drama. She has also co-authored and published "Women and Crowds at the Theatre," and has published "The Merchant of Venice: The Politics of Commerce," "Teaching Shakespeare to the Unprepared College Student," and "Engendering Spaces: A Study of Sexuality in Pastoral Borderlands." Finally, Szatek-Tudor is a contributing editor for the "Table of Contents" column of the Shakespeare Newsletter.Rosa E. Penna taught English Literature at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (National) until March 2010, and is now Professor of English Literature and Director of the Instituto de Literatura Inglesa y Norteamericana at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina, Buenos Aires. She is editor of Cuadernos de Literatura Inglesa y Norteamericana, Senior Field Bibliographer for the MLA International Bibliography (New York) and a member of the International Advisory Board for European Romantic Review. She has published articles and chapters of books on a wide variety of authors, in Argentina and abroad. She is also a founding member of the RNLA, and one of the co-editors of the present volume. Her current research interests focus on the use of space and place in nineteenth and twentieth century English literature.