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In Informe contra mí mismo Eliseo Alberto appropriates and configures as literary genre the political informe that Cuba's socialist government has solicited from thousands of its citizens over the years. In Alberto's informe (originally "commissioned" by the Cuban government, but elaborated and marketed for the international literary community some twenty years later) the state ideological apparatus becomes, literally, the pre-text for a narrative of disillusionment. Alberto's text is more, however, than an instance of revisionist history, since the ambitious experimentation with narrative form and historiographical convention represents a serious inquiry into the nature of these discourses. Indeed, while the binaries of literature and history, poetry and politics, storytelling and argumentation structure the narrative, they are not resolved, ultimately, in favor of one term over the other, but rather performed and deconstructed. Informe contra mí mismo is published in a historical juncture in which Cuba appears to face just two choices, represented by the metanarratives of socialist revolution, on one hand, and of the inexorable globalization of capital, on the other. These choices, however, offer Cuba a national narrative either of protracted resistance to global capitalism under a totalitarian regime or of wholesale capitulation. Informe contra mí mismo begins to lay the discursive groundwork from which alternative

En Informe contra mí mismo Eliseo Alberto imagina de nuevo el "informe" que el régimen cubano le solicitara en los años setenta, convirtiendo el estratagema gubernamental en pleno género literario. Por lo tanto, el informe original representa, literalmente, el pre-texto para la narrativa de desengaño que en los años noventa el autor lanza al mercado internacional. El texto de Alberto es, sin embargo, mucho más que una instancia de historia revisionista, puesto que su innovador manejo de la forma literaria y de las normas historiográficas representa una profunda indagación retórica y epistemológica en estas prácticas discursivas. Por cierto, en vez de resolver a favor de un término u otro las consabidas dicotomías de literatura e historia, poesía y política, estética e ideología, Alberto indaga en las dicotomías mismas, llevando a cabo su deconstrucción. Informe contra mí mismo se edita en una coyuntura histórica en la que al parecer Cuba enfrenta dos posibilidades, representadas por las "metanarrativas" de revolución socialista y de la globalización capitalista-estadounidense. Estas metanarrativas, sin embargo, ofrecen a Cuba dos caminos derrotistas: el de una lucha perpetua contra el capitalismo global — bajo un régimen totalitario— o el de una capitulación absoluta ante el mismo fenómeno. Informe contra mí mismo representa nada menos que una contribución importante al proyecto discursivo del cual podrán surgir narrativas alternativas.

Among the numerous Malay writers of our time Shahnon Ahmad stands as one of the most famous. Several points can be mentioned in that respect. First, he has published fourteen novels in twenty-five years apart from dozens of short stories. One of his novels, Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan (translated into English under the title "No harvest but a thorn") is a household name in Malaysia as it has been for years a textbook for secondary school children. He has been awarded numerous literary distinctions such as Hadiah Sastera for his novel Srengenge (the sun) in 1973, Hadiah Pejuang Sastera (Prize for Literary Fighters) in 1976 and, finally in 1982, he was awarded the most prestigious literary award in Malaysia, i.e. Anugerah Sasterawan Negara which is the Writer Laureate Award and he was among the very first Malaysians to receive it. His most famous novel, Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan has been translated into several languages such as English, French, Dutch, Russian, Japanese and Danish. Dozens of articles have been written about him not only by Malaysian critics but also by foreigners. Finally several theses have been written on Shahnon Ahmad. So it appears that this writer is probably the most talked about author in Malaysia at present.

There is still-growing interest in narrative in the context of offender rehabilitation. Recent moves towards a 'narrative criminology' have referenced literary theory and the tools of literary criticism, and have demanded exchange with other disciplines. This article responds with an examination of how a humanities-informed literary critical analysis might complement and extend social science's understanding of narrative work with offenders. The article analyses how and to what effect literary fiction is used in prisons and probation. Against the broader background of findings from prison literature programmes, it offers an in-depth analysis of the work of the Berlin prison theatre company aufBruch, from a literary critical as well as a narrative criminological perspective. With reference to Maruna's notion of the 'redemption script' and more recent narrative criminology, as well as to literary and cognitive theory and experimental psychology, it is suggested that an understanding of how literary fiction 'works' may enhance the theory and practice of narrative work with offenders.

Through consideration of Bessie Head's fiction and essays, the paper that follows investigates Head's use of fiction to challenge the hegemony of South African history, a history that fails to represent black South Africans except as "objects of abuse and exploitation" (Head, A Woman Alone 66). The absence of a subject position in history for black South Africans betokens a need for critical reevaluation of the structures and language of that history. History should document and create a people's identity; however, Head contends that South African historical discourse has obliterated the historical identity of black South Africans. The imaginative freedom that fiction allows provides Head with a radical means for reinscribing an alternative historical identity. Through four interrelated sections, then, this paper describes and evaluates the way in which Head's works challenge existing historical discourse by working through literature to establish an alternative set of historical structures. The Botswana land, offers Head, a space for experimentation with writing styles that evade reproducing an account of historical oppression and also for the practical construction of a new world. This construction includes agricultural reform that would give power over the forces of production to the workers of the land and which would in turn provide these workers with both economic and spiritual independence. The novels, however, display an incongruous duality wherein the construction of Head's new world is interfered with by the dominating voice of South African history. Hence, the subject and the problem of the novels becomes a conflict for the authority of history. Head's efforts towards constructing a new world also seek to implement women as a primary labor force in both material and creative production, thereby further challenging a history that has rendered women as sexual commodities. The Collector of Treasures offers a culmination of this conflict. Here, Head offers a strategy of narrative fragmentation interrelated with a dialogic, multi-voiced discourse that dismantles the single-voiced structure of a history determined by the politics of repression. Fiction offers a freedom of structure and thought unavailable to the historian; therefore fiction transgresses the boundaries created by a repressive history and is able to establish an original and self-sustaining historical world.

Virginie Despentes has become one of France's most commercially successful and celebrated novelists. However, while the French press has often labelled Despentes' novels as crime fiction ('polars'), there has been little in-depth scholarly discussion of how her work engages and transforms the conventions of the genre. Studies of Despentes' queer/feminist themes and rhetoric would benefit from a more sustained attention to her ambivalent appropriations of the masculinist tropes of brutal crime fiction, and studies of French crime fiction would benefit from considering Despentes as key figure in the development of French queer/feminist crime fiction. Examining novels ranging from Baise-moi to Apocalypse bébé, this article argues for the interest in reading them as crime fiction, and notably as works that underline the risks that accompany efforts to rewire masculinist genres from within and orient them towards feminist and queer concerns.

Alice Te Punga Somerville introduces the Global Native Literary Studies panelists. Global Native Literary Studies: This panel provides an opportunity to reflect on Indigenous worlds and Indigenous literary worlds. Through their fiction as well as their political, institutional, scholarly and cultural work, each of the panelists has explored the range of ways and reasons for Indigenous engagement with literary arts. Chantal Spitz's character Tetiare (in English translation) "washes away… dirt by writing." Albert Wendt's character Alapati is encouraged for his ability "to story our lives history and refusal to become nothing." Daniel Justice's character Tobhi recalls Strivix counseling a Dragonfly who claims "I don't know how to be a Dragonfly" with the suggestion "All ye got to do it tell yer people's story, and ye'll figure it out." What questions, aspirations and political 'lines in the sand' have underpinned 'Global Native Literary Studies'? What lessons have been learned in Indigenous and Pacific worlds about writing, regionalism and 'the global'? What strengths and dimensions of Indigenous Studies and Pacific Studies could contribute to scholars and students grappling with the notion of 'World Literature'? What Samoan, Tahitian and Cherokee concepts could contribute to scholars and students grappling with the notion of 'World Literature'? Rather than proposing how or why Indigenous and Pacific texts might be included in a concept of (and classes about) 'World Literature' on the basis of the fact these too are 'part of the world,' the panelists will be invited to suggest how 'World Literature,' Pacific and Indigenous Literary worlds might mutually engage. Moderator: Alice Te Punga Somerville Panelists: Chantal Spitz, Daniel Justice, Albert Wendt

Viele Archive bewahren Zeugnisse zum Schrecken des Holocaust, die in historische und sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungsarbeiten Eingang gefunden haben. Zusätzlich zu Dokumenten, die deskriptiv verfasst wurden mit Blick auf ihre wissenschaftliche Nachnutzung, existieren Zeugnisse, die in literarischer Intention verfasst wurden: Sie haben zum Ziel, Erfahrungen in den Konzentrationslagern nachzuvollziehen, ohne dass notwendig Fakten beschrieben werden. In diesen Arbeiten verschwimmt die Grenze zwischen Geschichte/Wissenschaft und Literatur, denn sie greifen, obwohl sie als literarische Werke konzipiert sind, auf autobiografische Zeugnisse zurück; die Verfasser/innen versuchen, das Grauen der eigenen Erfahrungen zu erklären, indem sie diese fiktionalisieren. Es sind Arbeiten, in die wahre Begebenheiten einfließen, die aber in literarischer Intention erzählt werden, Arbeiten, die sich an ein breites Publikum wenden und teilweise erheblichen Einfluss gewonnen haben. Dies ist der Fall für das Werk von Jorge SEMPRÚN, ein spanischer Autor, der versuchte, die Wahrheit in seiner literarischen Arbeit "zu erfinden". Seine autobiografischen Novellen sind in dem Niemandsland der Autofiktion angesiedelt.