CFP: Asian Gothic Literature (12/31/03; collection)

full name / name of organization: 
ng hock soon

CFP: Asian Gothic Literature (31 Dec. 2003, Collection)
=20
I am soliciting for ABSTRACTS at this stage for a monograph of scholarly
essays on Asian Gothic Literature. Despite its Anglo-centric literary
heritage, I believe that the Gothic, in its ambivalence and
susceptibility to polyvalent interpretations and theorising, is a
helpful way of reading and understanding the vast output of powerful
Asian texts that carry strong strains of the forbidden, the
extraordinary, the fantastic, the supernatural and the uncanny (amongst
other =91Gothic=92 concerns). Furthermore, a vast majority of =
contemporary
Asian writers have been exposed to turn-of-the-century Western
literatures (Kafka, Beckett, Mann) and philosophies (Existentialism,
modernism, deconstruction), which have more or less influenced their
writing. In this, I am not suggesting that a wholesale borrowing or
appropriation of Western literary and philosophical traditions has been
made by Asian writers, and it is part of this book=92s concern with the
way Asian writers have also reshaped such ideological =91otherness=92 to
address their immediate cultural, social and/or political climates. I am
interested in the way Gothic as a theory and a poetics of reading can
help elucidate some crucial insights into the complexity of some Asian
writing (of course, argument for a particular text to be read as Gothic
must be staged first). I am therefore seeking essays that would
encompass the following topic(s):
=20
* How useful is the Gothic as a theory and mechanism for
reading certain Asian literature, and how would this reading performance
extend and expand the Gothic.=20
* The similarities/differences between =91Asian Gothic=92 and
=91the Gothic=92. In what way does cultural/social/political/ideological
uniqueness complicate and/or inform readings and understanding of
=91Gothicity=92?
* Application of the Gothic to close reading of individual
writers (here is a short list of writers who can be classified as
=91Gothic=92: Tanizaki Junichiro, Kobo Abe, Haruki Murakami [Japan]; Su
Tong, Mo Yan, Hong Ying, Can Xue [China]; Orhan Pamuk [Turkey]; indeed,
any literary writings from Asia [India, Pakistan, South East Asia, etc.]
which manifest strains of the Gothic is welcomed)
* Any other pertinent issues.
=20
I want to stress, however, that only twentieth- and twenty-first century
texts will be considered. This is because it is within this era that
important awareness provoked by studies in literature, postmodernism,
postcolonialism and psychoanalysis, and the impact of globalisation,
have significantly transformed the way texts are thought about, read,
constructed, and used. One hope of this project is to enable a kind of
dialogue between East and West with Gothic as a theoretical and literary
conduit. This would foster a better understanding of (Asian) texts, and
a much more =91postmodern=92 and hybrid exploration and expansion of the
Gothic.=20
=20
Please send your abstracts (500 =96 800 words) and a very brief CV, or =
any
further enquiries, to Andrew Ng at Ng.Hock.Soon_at_engsci.monash.edu.my or
andrwng_at_yahoo.com by 31 Dec. 2003.=20
=20
Andrew Ng Hock Soon
School of Communications
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Monash University Malaysia.

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Received on Fri Sep 19 2003 - 17:47:04 EDT