The New ELN Announces Its Second Issue:

Photography and Literature

A respected forum since 1962 for new work in English literary
studies, ELN (English
  Language Notes) has undergone a change in editorship and an
extensive makeover as a
  biannual journal devoted exclusively to special topics in all fields
of literary and cultural
  studies. The new ELN is particularly determined to revive and
reenergize its traditional
  commitment to featuring shorter notes, often no more than 3-4 pages
in print, an attribute of
  the journal that will provide a unique forum for cutting-edge
scholarly debate and exchange
  in the humanities. Volume 2 of the new ELN (43.2, September 2006)
will address the
  subgenre of photographic and literary collaborations that has
emerged since Talbot's
  photographically-illustrated The Pencil of Nature first appeared in
England (1844-46). This
  ELN issue welcomes consideration of literary texts that directly
incorporate photographs as
  well as those whose engagement with photography's unique
representational characteristics
  is central to their epistemology. We also invite analyses of
photography that incorporates
  text. Finally, we solicit original poetry and photography that
engages the intersection of text
  and the photographic image.

Contributors may address formal issues, such as: what sorts of
instructions do texts provide
  for reading of images in texts and vice versa, and in what ways does
each respectively
  comply with or resist those instructions? How does the alleged
"truth" of the photograph
  infect the perceived status or genre of its accompanying text, and
renegotiate its rules of
  recognition, authenticity, or artifice? How do photographic images
delimit or enhance textual
  possibility and play? How is photography related to narrative? Under
what conditions does
  the text itself function as a graphical element, and with what
effects? Or they may address
  issues more directly related to the historical development of
photographic discourses and its
  dialectical engagement with optical truths and visual pleasures,
such as: how does
  photographic "evidence," from the medical to the pornographic, work
to redefine the truth of
  the body as a sight, or recodify the relations between self and
other? How does the
  photographic capacity for preservation collaborate with imaginary
possession, aesthetic
  consumerism, image addiction and fetishization, or the threat and
promise of machine
  technology? How is the imbrication of text and photographic images
tied to the projects of
  history making, memorialization, and nostalgia? How does the
photograph's discourse of the
  real parallel or diverge from the history of the novel in its forms,
its thematic preoccupations,
  and in the changing conventions of reading and perceiving?

Position papers, notes, essays, and provocations are invited from
scholars and artists in all
  fields of literary and visual studies; the editors would be
delighted to consider together two
  or more related contributions engaging one another on particular
themes to be published as
  topical clusters (for example, papers and responses presented at the
MLA or other
  conferences, provided they have been formatted for publication).

Please send contributions and/or proposals to The Editors, English
Language Notes,
University of Colorado at Boulder, 226 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0226. Deadline
for final submissions is February 1, 2006. Specific inquires
regarding volume two may be directed to the issue editor, Karen
Jacobs, via e-mail (karen.jacobs_at_colorado.edu).

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Received on Fri Nov 11 2005 - 08:46:06 EST