CFP: [Postcolonial] Collection of critical essays on the Caribbean short story
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: COLLECTION OF CRITICAL ESSAYS
The Caribbean Short Story: Contexts, Theory, Practice [working title],
ed. by Lucy Evans, Mark McWatt & Emma Smith. Forthcoming with Peepal Tree
Press (Winter 2009/10)
According to Kenneth Ramchand, 'the history of Caribbean prose fiction
before 1950 is essentially the history of the short story'. This
collection posits the Caribbean short story not only as vitally
influential in the development of the region's literary tradition, but
also as a site of continuing reinvigoration. It investigates the
significance of short stories to Caribbean cultural production in the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries, asking: What makes this literary
form so compelling for Caribbean writers? How have they employed it, and
how has it been transformed in the process? At the core of the collection
is an inquiry into: 1.) the historical and socio-political contexts
within which the Caribbean short story has developed (its 'ecology'); 2.)
the cultural specificity of its aesthetics; 3.) up-to-date critical
perspectives on significant texts by established and emerging voices,
which might range from the early stories of C.L.R. James, Seepersad
Naipaul or Jean Rhys to the contemporary innovations of Opal Palmer
Adisa, Robert Antoni or E.A. Markham. Responding to gaps in critical
attention both to the short story within Caribbean studies, and to the
Caribbean within short story studies, this collection will provide a
unique and valuable resource for both research and teaching.
Suggested topics might include, but are not limited to:
- Publishing history, especially the politics of regional/metropolitan
publishing and the diverse modes of literary production (from BIM or Kyk-
over-al, to Caribbean Voices, to new internet resources)
- Reception and reading audiences
- Island-specific literary cultures, archipelagic and diasporic
perspectives, and the tensions in between
- Francophone and Hispanic Caribbean short story writing; comparative
inter-linguistic approaches
- Socio-political contexts: e.g. im/migration; tourism; global/local
economies; island environments; urban/rural spaces; sexual identities and
taboos
- Excavating the tradition: forgotten or marginalised voices, early
anthologies, uncollected stories, belatedly published collections
- Formal and stylistic specificities: generic conventions (and their
transgression), narrative architecture, strategies of narration, use of
creole, etc.
- The relationship of Caribbean short story writing to: colonial and
creolised literary practices, island/regional popular culture, folktales,
orality, other short story traditions
Abstracts of 300â€"500 words should be emailed to the editors at:
caribbeanshortstory_at_googlemail.com (Alternatively, post to: Lucy Evans,
School of English, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.) Abstracts
are due by Friday 7 November 2008. Invited authors will be notified by
early December, and completed papers of 4000â€"6000 words will be due by
the end of May 2009.
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Received on Wed Sep 24 2008 - 03:55:49 EDT