MOVEABLE TYPE: THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON ENGLISH JOURNAL

SUMMER 2018 –– PERIPHERIES

In recent years, the dominant narratives of ‘Western’ thought and society have taken a rather serious beating. What do we make of the autonomous individual subject in a world of rapidly accelerating media systems? Does the neoliberal consensus of the ‘end of history’ hold true in the face of new, antagonistic historical actors? How is continuous climate crisis affecting our relationship to the earth upon which we stand? And how are the aftershocks of the long twentieth century disrupting and dismantling hegemonic accounts of empire, nation and identity? Such questions are ever-present, intertwined and increasingly difficult to answer. More and more, contemporary scholarship finds itself drawn towards the peripheries for narratives that might re-examine previously central tenets that seem, by now, not fit for purpose.

This shift in thinking raises a series of questions in the minds of scholars today. How do we locate the periphery? Is the periphery a site for radical openness, or just the ground upon which an impenetrable border might be erected? Does a ‘peripheral subject’ have agency? To what extent is a periphery defined by its relation to a centre, or vice versa? To what extent does modern scholarship ventriloquize the experience of those who have existed on the periphery and whose voices are not recorded? How does one communicate discourses outside of one’s common set of references? Does the privileging of a periphery negate its status as peripheral? Are ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’ even ontologically stable categories to begin with? The tenth volume of the UCL English Department’s journal, Moveable Type, seeks to unpack these ambiguities.

Moveable Type is an interdisciplinary, double-blind peer reviewed journal and encourages responses from across the humanities and social sciences. In addition, we also seek artistic responses and invite poetry, flash-fiction and short stories. Submissions may relate, but are not limited to:

– Unclaimed or unacknowledged histories.

– Biopolitics and states of exception.

– Noncanonical authors and literary movements.

– Migration and the politics of borders.

– Countercultures and cultures of resistance.

– Network theory and decentralised organizational structures.

– The representation of ‘peripheral’ groups and spaces in the arts.

– Marginalia studies.

– The suburbs.

– ‘Social mobility’ and class conflict.

– Optics.

Please send submissions to editors.moveabletype@gmail.com by the 8th January 2018 (docx. files only), with a short abstract and bio in the main body. Academic articles are limited to 3,000 – 5,000 words and should subscribe to MHRA referencing guidelines. Authors are limited to only one submission. We ask that creative responses do not exceed 5,000 words but can be an interlinked series of poems or prose pieces. All academic submissions will be double-blind peer reviewed and feedback will be provided for all submissions.

We are also accepting submissions for reviews. Please contact editors.moveabletype@gmail.com if you wish to recieve a list of preferred titles—or indeed if you wish to pitch your own title, preferably related to the theme of 'Peripheries'. If this is the case, please provide in your email the full bibliographical information and a few sentences explaining why you want to review the book by the 1st December 2017. We do not limit pitches to academic texts only, and welcome pitches for reviews of all genres and media.

In case of any queries, feel free to contact us at the above email address.