cfp.english.upenn.edu

Andrew Monnickendam and Aránzazu Usandizaga, editors of Back to Peace: Reconciliation and Retribution in the Postwar Period (2007), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title, are looking for contributions for a project entitled Embattled Desires. The volume aims to show how the literary expression of desire is modified and gradually expanded as a result of the political and ethical disruption brought about by conflict. War creates a space in which communal values become simultaneously enforced and eroded in a radical way, exacerbating the instabilities of individual identity. Contributors to this book investigate how this unique context affects desire, destabilizing and reconstituting it in new ways that reveal the impact on individuals of the generalized state of violence in which war-torn societies exist.
Due to a few failed commitments, we are still some chapters short. We would be particularly interested in contributions on the early modern period (Shakespeare is already covered); the nineteenth-century (Scott, Thackeray and Dickens are already covered), and more contemporary literature, particularly postcolonialism and fiction published in the last twenty years. Essays should be approximately 5,000-6,000 words long, MLA format preferred. The English and American literary traditions are the centre of attention, though proposals from outside this sphere will also be considered.
We will try and reply to abstracts (150-200 words) as soon as possible, but would require the full article by November 15.