Coloniality, (In)justice, and the literature of the Global South
Special Issue Call for Papers
Bandung: Journal of the Global South
Link to download the CFP: https://brill.com/fileasset/downloads_products/37598_BJGS_CfP_2024.pdf
Coloniality, (In)justice, and the literature of the Global South
Goutam Karmakar (lead guest editor)
Honorary Research Associate
Faculty of Arts and Design
Durban University of Technology
Durban, South Africa
Payel Pal (guest co-editor)
Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal Institute of Information Technology,
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Pak Nung Wong
Editor-in-Chief, Bandung: Journal of the Global South,
Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies,
University of Bath, Bath, UK
p.wong@bath.ac.uk; bandung.editorial@gmail.com
Objective
This special issue aims to address and probe the representations of diverse forms of injustice that have been produced due to the colonial histories and influence of coloniality in the countries of the Global South. The focus of this issue is to highlight how the prevalence of Western paradigms of knowledge and the associated epistemic violence have been incremental in marginalising non-Western voices and forms of knowledge through detailed analyses of contemporary literature from the Global South. Epistemic violence, in multifarious ways, has been detrimental to the conceptualization or articulation of pluralistic worldviews, thereby posing a threat to the assertion of equality and justice for all. The consequences have been oppressive and hideous, aggravating injustices of many kinds — economic, social, political, environmental, and epistemological. These injustices often coalesce and intersect with each other, either to reinforce the established paradigms or to create new, disguised forms of hierarchies. In recent times, the literature of the Global South has increasingly addressed the ingrained and enhancing discrepancies that have led to these varied forms of injustices against the vulnerable and the disadvantaged. Writings on and of the Global South serve as potent critiques of the capitalist versions of progress, monolithic developmental goals, commodifying ethics, consumerist drives, and neo-colonial and masculinist attitudes of nation-states. In this context, the present issue seeks to bring together the Global South’s significant and diverse literary expressions, enunciate how these works substantially counter the functionalities of coloniality and capitalism and advocate for inclusive modes of epistemic representation and collective development.
Context
Coloniality pertains to enduring power dynamics that originated from colonialism yet extends beyond the confines of colonial administrations to shape culture, identities, intersubjective connections, and knowledge production. While colonialism refers to a socio-political and economic dynamic wherein a nation’s autonomy and authority are subjugated to another nation's dominion, the notion of coloniality is about the persistence of colonial ideologies and power beyond the era. It is worth noting the multifaceted dynamics of coloniality and how it is distinguished from colonialism, emphasising that coloniality persists after colonialism and is evident in various forms in literary works, cultural norms, the creation of knowledge, and social structures. The concept of coloniality is intricately associated with the notion of colonial modernity, which is attributed to the Western Renaissance and Enlightenment. The dualistic thinking endorsed by the philosophical and scientific discourses of Western Enlightenment has been crucial in attributing primacy to certain categories and relegating others to secondary or non-essential positions. In so doing, the frameworks of colonial modernity, which eventually evolved into coloniality and were promoted by capitalist agencies, have played a crucial role in propagating patterns of dominance and subordination. Consequently, throughout the years, even the period after colonialism, the objectives related to development and representation have been determined by the colonial perspective, thus consolidating the economic and political dominance of the developed countries.
The pervasive impact of coloniality in shaping developmental priorities has had adverse effects on environmental, ecological, and socioeconomically disadvantaged issues in formerly colonised nations. Specifically, the natural environment and resources of the countries in the Global South have been continuously transformed into commodities and regarded as objects to fulfil the needs of the capitalist system in the Global North. For instance, the massive construction projects and capitalist ventures under the aegis of neoliberal multinational corporations in India have led to the dispossession and suppression of huge populations. In India and largely the other countries of South Asia, the state and political authorities have been adhering to capitalist interventions and coercion, so enabling the prolonged dominance of coloniality and the preservation of deeply rooted power dynamics. The extraction of oil and mineral resources in African countries is a pressing and concerning issue, as it disproportionately impacts the impoverished and marginalised communities of Africa, with escalating levels of toxicity and risks. Similar instances of environmental inequities are prevalent in numerous other areas of the developing world, exacerbating the marginalisation of already disadvantaged populations. Various ethnic, religious, and racial minority groups in developing regions have been victims of extensive global capitalist initiatives. Along with this, they have experienced injustices that were officially sanctioned by the state, leading to tremendous suffering, deprivation, and forced relocation. Furthermore, in addition to the socio-economic inequities, the impoverished communities in the Global South lack the opportunity to participate in decision-making or policy execution regarding growth, welfare, and sustainability. This deficiency primarily pertains to the reinforcement of epistemic dominance that prioritises the knowledge of those in positions of power while disregarding the testimonies of the underrepresented and the impacted.
Within this background, this special issue seeks to explore the vital role that literary works can play in critiquing the oppression of marginalised groups and individuals of the Global South, and constructing meaningful discourses to rethink the concepts of development, knowledge, and justice. This issue looks forward to investigating multiple types and practices of exclusion that are being imposed on non-dominant individuals, tribes, indigenous, and minority communities of the developing and under-developed regions of the global South. Some of the pertinent questions that this issue tries to decipher are:
• What are the exclusionary methods that are cultivated and utilised by neo-colonial state leaders and capitalist powers in the nations of the global South in contemporary times?
• What strategies might be employed to increase awareness and stimulate collective cognitive improvement in addressing everyday injustices in the context of global integrity and solidarity?
• Can employing innovative and imaginative methods of communication help to accommodate the narratives of repressed and affected individuals from developing regions?
• Can retrieving side-lined stories be a potential pedagogic technique to facilitate critical thinking on issues and injustices that otherwise look normal?
This special issue thus centralizes how engaging with narratives of the oppressed might help endorse plural and multifaceted forms of knowledge, which are imperative for accomplishing social justice and solidarity. The emphasis is on understanding how alternative literary approaches and methods of analysis can unravel improved comprehension of layered social realities and provide spaces
for developing dialogues and situational responses to the entrenched forms of injustices in the contemporary Global South.
Submission Guidelines and Work Schedule
Papers should be original and must not be submitted to another journal or publisher for consideration of publication. The possible themes for this special issue include but are not limited to:
• Coloniality, critique, and the emerging narratives of Global South
• Colonial modernity and gender notions in the Global South
• Decolonial feminism and thinking beyond borders
• Representation of ethnic injustices in the literature of the Global South
• Labour and displacement in the literature of the Global South
• Injustices on the refugees and the fiction of the Global South
• Colonial ecological violence and Global South’s responses
• Alternative epistemologies in the Global South
• Critical thinking and collective justice
• Storytelling, counter storytelling and justice
• Coloniality, injustice and subaltern resistance
• Injustice, human rights and (de)colonial intervention
• Colonial capitalist system and notion of degrowth in the Global South
• Global South literature and thinking beyond epistemic provincialism
• Settler colonial injustice and indigenous notions
Abstracts of 500-word length (excluding bibliography) together with the author’s biographical note (maximum 100 words) will be sent by email to this call’s guest co-editors, Goutam Karmakar (goutamkrmkr@gmail.com) and Payel Pal (payel.pal@lnmiit.ac.in), with a copy to the journal’s Editor- in-Chief, Pak Nung Wong (p.wong@bath.ac.uk; bandung.editorial@gmail.com), no later than August 31, 2024. For question and informal inquiry, prospective authors should not hesitate to email-contact the named editors directly.
The responsible editors will review and select abstracts based on their quality and relevance and communicate the decision by September 30, 2024. Submissions must be written in lucid and accessible English, with scholars, activists, and practitioners as the main intended audience. We are also planning to organise an online symposium with contributors regarding what we and the journal in general require in the full manuscripts. The date of this symposium will be decided later and communicated.
Full manuscripts should be within 7500 words in length (including an abstract and list of works cited) as per the author submission guidelines of the journal and need to be submitted by email to this call’s lead and co-editors, Goutam Karmakar and Payel Pal, with a copy to the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Pak Nung Wong, no later than January 31, 2025. Manuscripts should be prepared with consideration for the aims, magnitude, and objectives of the special issue, and they should be written in clear and understandable English. The manuscripts must be original and not be under consideration for publication by another journal or publisher. Manuscripts will undergo evaluation by the guest editors based on their quality and relevance. Subsequently, each manuscript will undergo the double-blind peer review procedure.
Authors will receive notification of the outcomes once the reviewers’ reports are accessible. Once a revised piece is accepted for publication, it will be scheduled for inclusion in this particular special issue.
Author’s instructions can be found at: https://brill.com/fileasset/downloads_products/37598_BJGS_CfP_2023.pdf
Planned publication date: Volume 12, Issue 3 (October 2025).