Fear, Risk and Safety: Post-Millennial Cultures of Fear in Literature (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023) 

This volume will bring together original articles studying cultures of fear in literature with a specific emphasis on postmillennial texts and will investigate such subtopics and fields as post-millennial political fiction, post-postmodern rewritings, “the culture of fear,” “world risk theory,” the postcolonial novel, post-humanist writing, trauma narratives, literary disaster discourses, environmental literature, apocalyptic scenarios, and personal apocalypse writing in the 21st century.

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In an essay on Karl Kraus, Walter Benjamin wrote in 1931 about the press being an instrument of power, which acquires its value through the character of the power that it serves. The proliferation of (social) media and available venues to circulate information in our times has created partisan cultures in which each side creates a narrative in which the other side, overtly or covertly, is dismissed, belittled, discredited, or demonized. Examples of such discursive polarizations include 9/11, Trumpism (MAGA), climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The divided, inimical discursive environment invites a focus on risk, safety, and fear. It is a common human behavior to try to avoid risks to stay safe. When discourses underscore how making the wrong (political, social, or environmental) choice will increase risk and minimize safety, the element of fear is added and complicates matters. The words “risk,” “safety,” and “fear” have been used to define our contemporary age and they have also been construed as a valid narrative in the human sciences against which most other narratives, imaginative or otherwise, can be read.

• The Editors invite submissions that consider risk and safety in the context of fear and are particularly interested in post-millennial literature. Theoretical and methodological approaches can be grounded in risk theory, postcolonial theory, trauma narratives, disaster discourses, or (personal) apocalypse writing. Contributions should be between 8,000 and 11,000 words in length and include an extended abstract of 600-800 words and at least 5 keywords. Referencing should be in Chicago style. All submissions should conform to the grammar and formatting guidelines provided by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, which can be viewed here: https://www.cambridgescholars.com/pages/forms-guidelines.
• Any work submitted for publication should be free of copyright restrictions, and a statement should be submitted in support of this. Contributions should be scholarly based, rather than anecdotal or unverifiable. Contributions must be wholly in English, excluding footnotes, appendices, and short extracts for translation. While we will perform pre-press evaluations on the collection, we do not provide full copyediting services, so we ask that works are submitted to us in their final, ‘ready-to-go’ form.
• The Editors ask for an extended abstract of your proposed chapter to be involved in the book proposal and for the completed chapter by 28 February, 2023. You should submit to the Editors a completed proposal form, alongside a copy of your work for their review. This submission should be made directly to mkirca@gmail.com