"STILL WATERS RUNNING DEEP": IMAGES OF WATER IN U.S. LITERATURES

Panel Chair:

Silvia Martínez Falquina (Universidad de Zaragoza)

smfalqui@unizar.es

A broad range of images of water and fluidity have traditionally been associated to and consequently vindicated by women and ethnic groups: for Steinbeck, man "lives in jerks," whereas woman is "all one flow, like a stream, little eddies, little waterfalls [...], the river, it goes right on"; Chopin's Edna Pontellier follows the invitation of the waves in her awakening; Hughes' Negro speaks of rivers, whereas Cullen's black blood, though dammed, is "like great pulsing tides of wine," surging, foaming, fretting. References to water, rivers, oceans or rain also abound in contemporary ethnic and women's writing in the United States, emphasizing continuity and a holistic understanding of identity in opposition to the masculine, colonial individual self.

On the other hand, the world at the beginning of the twenty-first century makes the creative association to water and its meaningful possibilities something all human beings should aspire to. An ethical relation to the environment, as that examined and proposed by ecocritical thought, requires a holistic view of the world characterized by flowing collaboration, whereas any ethical perception of the other--whose alterity may be determined by gender, ethnicity, nation, class, etc.--needs to focus on interaction and relation and not solely on differences and fence-building.

With these observations in mind, it is the aim of this panel to analyze a diversity of writings from both minority and mainstream literature, in order to examine the multiple associations of water to identity, and its various articulations in symbolism, themes or genre.

Suggested topics:

- How can water be understood as a metaphor of communication of the individual with the other, of the body with nature, of the present self with the past?

- If we can never bathe in the same river twice, how does water illustrate repetition with a difference, transformation and continuance, cyclic images of birth and rebirth, life and death?

- How do we relate to others like flowing water, as opposed to building fences? Is it desirable and ethical to do so, or not to do so? How can we preserve the individual self whilst blending in such a holistic worldview?

- Are the associations of water to women and ethnic groups a socio-political, constructed connection? To what extent does such an association confirm or subvert the culture vs. nature, civilized vs. primitive binaries?

- Is narrative instrumental in individual and group attempts at going with the flow? On the other hand, how does knowing that still waters run deep affect our understanding of narrative?

- To what extent can narrative be understood as flowing, as opposed to going in jerks? How can the flow of storytelling heal, becoming a response to walking wounded, to trauma, fragmentation, loss?