[UPDATE]: CFP: European Writers in Exile

full name / name of organization: 
Jeff Birkenstein & Robert Hauhart

CFP: European Writers in Exile

We seek essays of 5,000 to 6,000 words for an anthology that explores the work of some of the more popular and/or influential European writers in nineteenth, twentieth- and twenty-first-century exile. The volume will become a part of a popular literary series published by a major press.

While we understand the term "exile" to refer typically to European writers who have either been forced to leave their home country or region or chosen self-exile, this term need not be defined so narrowly. That is, various countries in Europe have long been both a refuge for people and writers from many countries and, as a continent, a strife-torn region which has forced many to flee within the continent or beyond it. Thus, in our view, the phrase "in exile" involves writers moving across borders in multiple directions and for multiple reasons, including for reasons of duress (official or personal) or personal quest. Besides the famous exilic Paris years before, between, and after the world wars, you might consider Irish writers, from James Joyce to Colm Toibin; to German writers (especially those of the German exilliteratur) such as Thomas Mann, Lion Feuchtwanger and Stefan Zweig; French writers who had to escape yet further south to escape the Vichy government, including Andre Malraux and Andre Gide. Neither should we forget the many Russian writers who have been in exile from their homeland during one or more historical eras, including Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Bunin, Khodasevich, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak, Nabokov, Mandelshtam, Solzhenitsyn, and Brodsky. Naturally, writers from east-central Europe (the Balkans and more), including Witold Gombrowicz, Paul Goma, Milan Kundera, Monica Lovincescu, Milo Crnjanski, Herta Müller, or even, perhaps, the "internal exile" of Imre Kertèsz. Of course, this is necessarily a partial list and we urge you to consider other relevant, well-known European writers who may have voluntarily or involuntarily left their home countries (or been forced underground) for a significant period of time to write in cultural exile.

In line with the expectations of the Critical Insights series, we seek essays that:

1. Provide undergraduate and advanced high school students with a comprehensive introduction to works and aspects of European writers in exile that they are likely to encounter, discuss, and study in their classrooms;

2. Help students build a foundation for studying the works and aspects in greater depth by introducing them to key concepts, contexts, critical approaches, and critical vocabulary found in the scholarship relating to European writers in exile.

This collection of transnational, globalized European literature studies envisions understanding the intersection of our contemporary world and various writers in exile in new cultural, historical, spatial, and epistemological frameworks. How does literary production in an increasingly globalized world—when seen from exile—affect a view back towards a country or region left behind? Or, conversely, how does exile push a writer to look outward to new (trans-) nationalized space(s)? How does (do) your chosen text(s) construct meaning at/in/against the context of a globalized, dehumanizing, suffocating, and endless movement of goods and services and ideas across significant regional and international boundaries? These and other questions are important to investigate about European writers in exile and, taken in sum, we intend to have a academically rigorous, interesting, and cohesive volume on the topic.

The volumes follow a uniform format, including four original introductory essays as follows:

*a "critical lens" chapter (5,000 words; offers a close reading of the topic embodying a particular critical standpoint)

*a "cultural and historical context" chapter (5,000 words; addresses how the subject at hand influences the theme(s) of European writers in exile across different time periods and cultures, as well as what makes the concept relevant to a contemporary audience)

*a "compare/contrast" chapter (5,000 words; analyzes the topic of European writers in exile with regard to two or three different works, or authors, with some reference to the similarities and differences of their exile experiences contrasted with author(s) who did not leave their home country.)

*a "critical reception" chapter (5,000 words; surveys major pieces of comment or criticism of the topic and the major concerns, or aspects, that commentators on the topic have attended to over the years)

The book will also include ten chapters that analyze the themes that pervade the experience of European writers in exile and focus specific attention on some of the best works and/or authors in the "genre." Each essay will be about 5,000 words. Together, these chapters will offer readers a comprehensive introduction to the essential themes that arise from the lives and works of American writers in exile and reflect major critical approaches to the topic.

Writers are expected to:

Center their essays on works, topics, and critical approaches that are commonly studied, or perhaps should be, at the advanced high school and undergraduate levels and are representative of foundational and mainstream critical discourse about European writers in exile. Topics and critical approaches should be neither dated, nor so cutting edge as to risk becoming dated in 5–10 years.

For the introductory critical reception and cultural/historical context essays, writers should not devote their essays to selective critical approaches or contexts. Rather, the introductory critical reception essay should offer readers a comprehensive overview of the body of criticism or comment on European writers in exile, and the introductory cultural/historical context should consider a variety of contexts in which the topic is commonly situated. If you wish your proposal to fulfill one of these overarching thematic goals, please say so in your communication to us.

Abstracts of about 500 words & CV by January 20, 2016 to:

Jeff Birkenstein, Ph.D., & Robert Hauhart, J.D., Ph.D.
Saint Martin's University
5000 Abbey Way SE
Lacey, WA 98503
jbirkenstein@stmartin.edu
rhauhart@stmartin.edu

To the extent that you are working on author(s) that would be relevant to this volume, and have an interest in our CFP, please contact us to discuss the possibilities. The co-editors have extensive editorial experience (see http://store.salempress.com/products/9781619255173), including successful preparation of the companion text Critical Insights: American Writers in Exile (forthcoming 2015), to be released by Grey House/EBSCO shortly.

Completed first drafts of around 5,000 words by March 20, 2016