Sanata Dharma Univ.
English Department
About Yogyakarta
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Introduction

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The RAFIL Conference Consortium is the result of collaboration among literature departments of universities across  Asia. The aim of the consortium is to gather together literature researchers, educators, policy makers, practitioners, and professionals at an international conference held once every two years in Asia.

These international conferences locate the ground where literature and the region's concern for plural yet pronounced Asian identities interact as concurrent discourses. The conferences look at the reading experience across Asia - what Asia reads, the languages and forms in which its literatures flower, the collective interests thet the region projects on the literary screen, and intriguing analogues of culture, politics, and the postcolonial struggle that Asia gleans from literature.

The following institutions have initially signified their interest in participating in the RAFIL conference series: Ateneo de Manila University, the Philippines, National University of Singapore, Universitas Sanata Dharma, Indonesia, La Trobe University, Australia.

Objectives

The Introduction of English and other western languages to Asia has introduced not only their function as a means of communication but also their rich literature. Through various literary works, Asian Readers have been exposed to new human experiences and values, which are not always in line with their own and which might end up in new interpretation different from the original. On the other hand, many Asian literary works have been presented in English and others western languages, either directly by the authors of through translation. Similarly, Asian experiences and values presented in English and other languages have been exposed to readers beyond their traditional domains and thus might be perceived slightly different from the original.

The above literary encounter deserves close studies, whose perspectives are not limited to Eastern or Western cultures but must involve both. This aspect is the concern of the present conference, whose objectives are not only to bridge the cultural gap between the two worlds but more importantly to promote better understanding and comprehension of each. These objectives are very relevant particularly to English literature because English has become a world language with varieties different from those spoken in English-speaking countries. Accordingly, each localized variety has developed in their own way to adjust itself with the local culture and foreign literary works might be locally interpretes. On the other hand, local literature in English while aiming at global readers cannot leave behind its local characteristics.

This conference aims to provide researches, teachers, administrators and those interested in the dialectic and dynamic interaction of Western and Eastern experiences and values as presented in literary works written in English and other languages to share research findings, ideas, and experiences on matters relating to literary East-West Encounters.

Theme and Sub-Themes

With East-West Encounter as the Theme, this confernce will focus on a number of sub-themes, including, but not limitedto, the following:

• Eastern values and experiences in Western language literary works
• Eastern literary works written in Western languages
• presentation of English literature in mass media an the Internet
• translation of Eastern literary works into Western languanges
• the use of literary works for language teaching, and
• approaches, methods, and strategies in the teaching of English literature to Asian students.