CALL FOR PAPERS

Edited Volume 

Traumatic Geographies.

Marginal Voices in Central and Eastern European Literatures

Editors: Alina Bako (Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu), Merritt Moseley (University of North Carolina at Asheville), Iris Rusu (Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, University of Bucharest)

We invite full chapter proposals for an upcoming edited collection titled Traumatic Geographies: Marginal Voices in Central and Eastern European Literatures. Located at the intersection of humanistic geography and trauma studies, this volume offers an interdisciplinary analysis of how physical and symbolic spaces become nexuses for articulating traumatic and marginalising experiences in Central and Eastern Europe.

The concept of “traumatic geographies” serves as our analytical framework to examine the relationship between place, memory, and identity. We proceed from the premise that places are never neutral; they are laden with histories of violence, marginalisation, or exile, which are reflected in cultural and literary representations.

The volume seeks to move beyond a static reading of setting. Drawing on Robert T. Tally Jr’s concept of topophrenia – defined as a “place-mindedness” that frequently manifests as spatial anxiety or uneasiness – we examine how the post-traumatic subject navigates the tension between Yi-Fu Tuan’s topophilia (affective bond to place) and Dylan Trigg’s topophobia (fear of place).

We are particularly interested in how marginalised voices, defined by ethnicity, gender, social status, or a medical condition, construct “cognitive maps” (Fredric Jameson) to orient themselves within the disorienting “totality” of post-socialist, post-imperial, or transitional landscapes. Furthermore, we invite analyses that scrutinise Marc Augé’s non-places (spaces of transience and anonymity) and how these sites function as specific “moral ecosystems” (Tally Jr) that shape the agency of the traumatised subject.

From the “grey zones” of history to the intimate confinement of the hospital room, this collection explores how imaginative geographies (Aïda Hudson) and mental maps (Kevin Lynch) project internal ruptures onto the external world, transitioning from sites of trauma to potential spaces of resilience.

Suggested Topics

We welcome contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following thematic axes:

1. Concepts and Revisitations: Theoretical Frameworks

• Topophrenia and spatial anxiety: Applying Robert T. Tally Jr’s concepts to Central and Eastern European literatures.
• Cognitive mapping: How marginalised subjects navigate the “unrepresentable” totality of traumatic history.
• Post-memory and space: The spatialisation of intergenerational trauma (Marianne Hirsch, Eva Hoffman).
• Nostalgia: Svetlana Boym’s “reflective and restorative nostalgia” and the reconstruction of territories.

2. Traumatic Spaces: Concrete Representations

• Navigating illness: Mapping the hospital and the spaces of convalescence while dealing with the “traumatic body” (David Gurevitz).
• Non-places and atopias: The border zone as sites of displacement.
• The peripheral: Rural vs. urban tensions; abandoned cities; the “grey zones” of conflict.
• Marginal communities: Representations of Roma, Jewish, or other minority experiences in Central and Eastern European literatures.

3. The Healing Power of Space: Resilience and Life Writing

• Life writing: How autobiographical writing reconfigures the spaces and places to process trauma.
• Children’s and YA Literature: The role of geographical imagination in healing childhood trauma.
• Poetic geographies: Experimental poetry and the re-mapping of forgotten or repressed spaces.
• Gendered spaces: Women’s voices and the spatial articulation of illness, memory, and recovery.

Submission Guidelines

We invite interested contributors to submit their full papers by the deadline below. All submissions will undergo a peer-review process.

• Full paper: 7,000 -11,000 words (including notes and bibliography).
• Keywords: 7 - 10 keywords.
• Bio note: Approx. 200 words, detailing affiliation, research interests, and contact details.
• All chapters must be submitted in English (consistent British or American spelling is accepted).
• The volume will follow the MLA Handbook (9th Edition) style.

The editors have been encouraged to submit the volume proposal to Bloomsbury Academic for their Environment and Society series or their Spatial Dynamics series.

Important dates:

• Deadline for full papers: 30 June 2026
• Notification of acceptance: August 2026
• Publication timeline: Winter 2027

Please send your proposals to: alina.bako@ulbsibiu.ro and iris.rusu@ulbsibiu.ro