cfp.english.upenn.edu

Bondage and Power

We are in bondage to the law in order that we may be free. -- Marcus Tullius Cicero

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth. -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Bondage is the life of personality, and for bondage the personal self will fight with tireless resourcefulness and the most stubborn cunning. -- Aldous Huxley

The representation and experience of bondage and power is a complex, multifaceted issue in the humanities: the definition and re-definition of these terms and the nature of their interaction has been debated by philosophers, literary theorists, sociologists, novelists, poets, journalists, political theorists, and other scholars of the humanistic sciences across various time periods. Schuylkill graduate journal is seeking submissions from all disciplines for our 10th volume of critical essays and book reviews to be published in Spring of 2012 (online and in print) which seek to push against, transform, or invigorate traditional and standardized notions of bondage and power, exploring how these variables act upon each other to produce layered and complex combinations. We are seeking papers on the relationship between bondage and power, 10-15 pages in length; double spaced; MLA format; no footnotes. Current graduate students should send their work to Jennifer McKim at skook@temple.edu by 15 January 2011. No simultaneous submissions please.

The Schuylkill invites submissions from across the humanities and social sciences that reflect on the relationship between bondage and power, in the broadest interpretation of these terms. We invite submissions from a diverse range of disciplines, critical perspectives, and time periods.

Topics could include, but are not limited to, the following:

The bondage of labor: wage labor, domestic labor, sweatshops, sex work, debt bondage, social justice

Slavery: narratives of captivity in literature, film, video games and other media; psychological enslavement; Hegelian master-slave dialectics; imperialism and colonial appropriation; fiscal or agricultural enslavement; modern-day slavery; human rights

Visual/auditory representations of power and/or art as resistance to power

Power and the environment: electricity, wind power, steam power, solar energy, nuclear power, sustainability

Bondage to hegemonic structures or systems that foster racism, sexism, ageism, heterosexism, jingoism, ableism, xenophobia, religious persecution, genetic discrimination, linguicism, reverse discrimination, or any other form of intolerance

Power of the digital humanities and/or its limits

Cultural representations of sexual bondage, erotica, and sadomasochism

Institutional bondage and power: incarceration; social mobility; marital and family bonds; religion and power; intellectual bondage; spatial bondage and hyperghettoization; pedagogical power

The relationship between bondage and power on warfare and torture; for example, Abu Graib, its media coverage/ the impact of its iconography

Performances of power

Acts of resistance, subversion, and protest to various forms of bondage and power-based relationships

Power over control/dissemination of information via journalism, blogs, government agencies, television news media, censorship, and propaganda

The Schuylkill is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal founded, edited, and run by graduate students at Temple University in Philadelphia. We are looking to publish the scholarly work of graduate students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences from around the globe. We are especially interested in work that, in presenting a rich and nuanced perspective on the topic of the relationships between bondage and power, blurs the boundaries of the disciplines (literary theory; philosophy; linguistics; sociology; history; political theory; religious studies; cinema studies; women’s studies; classics; art history; geography and urban studies, etc.)