On Strangeness

SPELL 5 contains papers delivred in May 1989 at the University of Basel, where linguists, literary historians and critical theorists were invited by the conference subtitle to present their views on strangeness as "the breaking of conventions and the disruption of norms. "The range of conventions examined included linguistic parameters, semiotic codes, generic and cultural boundaries, dramatic conventions, and biographical as well as autobiographical strategies, while the geographical and chronological range of the studies extended from Elizabethan England to Chicano America. Taken together, these contributions on speaking and writing as refraction and reflexion (of language, the precursor or the self) have confronted the issue of strangeness in a manner consonant with Angela Carter´s "Curious Room," which concludes the present volume.