parallax is seeking papers to be published in its themed issues in
2002-3.
These issues will be edited by Kurt Hirtler, Ola Stahl and Ika Willis.
Potential contributors are encouraged to contact the editors for
discussion.
Email: parallax_at_leeds.ac.uk

25: Having Sex
26: Writing (in) terror(ism)
27: Mourning Revolution

25: Having Sex
How is sex "had"? And what (or who) is to be done?

The imagery of sex as natural ground is used across multiple fields,
grounding arguments in sexed nature and subjects in a state of "being"
one sex or the other (or - more radically, it is claimed - a or "the"
third). A customary division between sex (as pre-social, concrete and
determined by prediscursive - genetic or animal - imperatives) and
gender (as a set of culturally determined practices), or between sex
and sexuality (as the discursive production of sex/es), is itself
grounded in a particular version of nature which is already sex(ed) and
leaves theory and practice unable ^V shall we say impotent? - to effect
radical change in desiring subjects in this contested (hardly virgin)
territory. Counting on sex leaves us stuck at one-two-three, or one-
two-many.

parallax solicits papers intervening in "sex". Of particular interest
would be readings of the imagery of sex in, for example, pornography;
discourses of territory, land, and ground; slash fanfiction; and
medical imaging technology. Papers could be readings of the ways in
which sexually explicit writings across
the arts and sciences imagine (define, construct, disseminate, re/
produce) sexual or reproductive organs or mechanisms, and subjects who
have (a) sex or are (a) sex; or of apparently "neutral" (neutered?)
theoretical or philosophical writings which still rely more or less
explicitly on sexual or reproductive terms and categories ("fertile",
"sterile", "seminal", "affiliation", "genealogy", "hymen", "ass-fuck").
Papers imagining how sex might be had otherwise are also desired.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: DECEMBER 2001

26: Writing (in) terror(ism)
What is the (t)error of terrorism (really)? What is (really) the
territory of the terrorist? Is there a way of thinking and writing
terror(ism) and the terror(ist) beyond the territory of its more
traditional representations? Can we effectively renew our approach to
this terrain of terror(ism) through alliance and affirmation rather
than through traditional modes of criticism?

parallax invites creative and critical submissions engaging with the
topic of terrorism; submissions that attempt to move beyond classical
ways of thinking and writing of(f)/on the (t)error of terrorism/
terrorist, towards a thinking and writing in (of) terror(ism), as (on
the ) terror(ist). We seek papers dealing with the ethical and
aesthetic dimensions of this field of practices, as well as with the
relation between such an ethico-aesthetic paradigm and the political.
Of particular interest would be papers dealing with the relation
between terrorism and cultural practices such as art, cinema,
literature, etc. as well as papers dealing with the (memory of) actual
practices referred to as terrorist.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 2002

27: Mourning Revolution
In recent left-wing writing revolutionary subjectivity struggles to
find a place. Since the failed revolutions of the century the modern
idea of a radical break with the past has been widely regarded as
metaphysical, relying on a fantasmatic structure. Critics have focused
on its arche-teleological implications, which ultimately support a
totalitarian and violent politics. At the same time, though, leftists
have argued that the lost faith in revolutionary activity has led to a
de-politicization of political and social theory. In concentrating on a
politics of recognition the Left has rendered crucial struggles for
freedom and equality invisible, thus reinforcing the existing socio-
economic order.

parallax invites contributions which engage with debates surrounding
the loss of revolutionary imagination and investigate the conditions
of possibility of emancipatory practice. Of particular interest are
considerations of the politico-theoretical nature and function of the
concept of revolution in left intellectual discourse beyond an ethics
of redemption and harmony. Papers may address the relation between
critique and hope, tradition and radicalism, writing, promise and
activism, as well as questions concerning passionate attachments and
the dangers of reoccupation.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: MAY 2002

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Received on Mon Apr 23 2001 - 15:58:52 EDT