cfp.english.upenn.edu

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS

‘Palestine and the Postcolonial: Culture, Creativity, Theory’

Special Issue of the Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 50:2 (2014)

Editors: Prof Patrick Williams, Dr Anna Ball
(Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, Nottingham Trent University)

Despite the prominence of the great Palestinian-American critic Edward Said within the postcolonial academy, Palestine has often been considered ‘off-limits’ in postcolonial studies – a context too polemical, too unfashionably nationalistic or too ambiguous in terms of its (post)colonial status. Yet an increasing number of postcolonial scholars (Massad, Shohat, Lavie, Bernard) are urging attention to Palestine, not only on the grounds of its on-going anti-colonial struggle, but also due to the rich and growing body of cultural production available for analysis. This special issue seeks to expand the place of Palestine on the postcolonial agenda by inviting scholars to consider Palestinian cultural expression and creativity in relation to the broad remit of the postcolonial. It is particularly interested in exploring the varied forms of Palestinian cultural production: literature (the novel, poetry, personal account literature, travel writing, drama), film, art, music, dance. It is also interested in essays that seek to theorise Palestinian culture in creative ways. The special issue is attentive both to the ways in which postcolonial scholarship might enhance our understanding of Palestinian cultural politics, and to the challenges that Palestinian cultural expression might present to our understanding of postcoloniality.

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

- The relationship between culture, politics and postcoloniality in Palestine,
- Acts of creative expression by canonical and emergent Palestinian authors, poets, playwrights, filmmakers, artists, musicians,
- The politics of Palestinian creative expression within the international landscape (including the politics of film and literature festivals, the politics of translation, and the politics of reception),
- Palestine within the post-Saidian postcolonial academy,
- Postcolonialism within the Palestinian academy,
- Theorising Palestine (through the tools of postcolonial theory, and beyond),
- Creative representations of Palestine’s colonial condition and postcolonial aspirations,
- Creativity and resistance / revolution / activism,
- Creativity and the ‘imagining’ of national, diasporic, pan-Arab and international communities,
- The politics of self-representation, and the relationship between the personal and political,
- Interviews with Palestinian creative practitioners.

Deadline for papers: 1st February 2013.

Papers should be no more than 6500 words in length, including references and notes.
Authors should follow the style guidelines for the Journal of Postcolonial Writing, which requires MLA referencing to be used. Further information available on the journal website: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjpw20/current

Please submit papers either to patrick.williams@ntu.ac.uk or anna.ball@ntu.ac.uk.