cfp.english.upenn.edu

Call for Papers: Special Issue, The Comparatist

We welcome contributions that examine the representation and staging of antagonism in comparative studies and literary theory. How might one conceive of antagonism today? Why are certain forms of antagonism readily made visible while others remain hidden—or simply disavowed? How does the field of literary studies manage its own antagonism(s)? Is antagonism—antagonistic rivalry between critics—a hindrance to the faithful work of interpretation? Or is it better understood as, or in terms of, the field’s engine of change? Topics of interest could include:

Theories of antagonism
Manifestos
The included and the excluded
Islamophobia
Postcolonial critique
Global flows and frictions
The incommensurability of ethics and aesthetics
Dialogics and its discontents
Antagonism versus dialectics
Antagonistic narratives
Feminism and sexual difference
The rivalry of psychoanalysis and deconstruction
The antagonism of ideologies/the ideology of antagonisms

Interested contributors should submit a 1-page abstract by April 1, 2012 to zallouz@whitman.edu. Deadline for completed articles will be September 1, 2012.