cfp.english.upenn.edu

Ruminating, or chewing and digesting information, stands as the hallmark of literary criticism. This journal aims to provide a place for masters’ students to publish work that wrestles with the foundational problems of literature and literary study in creative, challenging and innovative ways.

For our inaugural issue, we are calling for papers that look at blasphemy and blasphemous literature. The Oxford English Dictionary defines blasphemy as “profane speaking against God or sacred things, impious irreverence,” and “slander, evil speaking, defamation.” Particularly since the rise of the novel in the 18th century, literature has reflected and flaunted social norms forcing readers to think through what they hold to be sacred. It is part of the power of the novel that it makes profane the most sacred things with impious irreverence and often with critical intent. We are looking for papers that explore the ways in which blasphemous literature, poetry, pamphlets and writing of all sorts challenge social conventions and upset the boundary between the socially sacred and the profane. Submissions that offer creative critical approaches to the questions of blasphemy in literature and literature from a wide range of time periods and cultures will be most welcome.

Submission guidelines: Please submit paper along with a title, a brief bio and an abstract via email attachment (Microsoft Word only) to ruminations.submissions@gmail.com. Submissions should be between 20-25 pages. Please use MLA citations guidelines. Deadline is January 15, 2010.