Call For Papers

MEJO: The MELOW Journal of World Literature

ISSN 2581-5768

Volume 9, February 2025 

Echoes of the Earth: Interplay of Literature and Landscape

Throughout history, terrestrial landscapes have captivated human curiosity, serving as a significant muse for creative practitioners. Whether it be the enigmatic allure of towering mountains, the mystical charm of dense forests, or the vast expanse of oceans, the natural environment has served as a symbolic platform for portraying human existence, emotive expression, and contemplation of the human condition.

The dynamic relationship between literature and landscape is multifaceted, serving as both a backdrop for narrative events and a vehicle for emotional expression. In fictional works, landscapes such as the untamed wilderness in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and the tropical setting of Kerala in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things not only provide a physical setting but also reflect the thematic elements of the narratives. Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones exemplifies how the landscape, like the jungle, can symbolize the psychological state of characters. In poetry, the landscape serves as a vehicle for memory and emotional expression, as seen in William Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" and Siddhicharan Shrestha's "Mero Pyaro Okhaldhunga." Additionally, in argumentative writings such as Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, the relationship between humans and nature is explored, emphasizing the urgency of environmental conservation.

The theme of the journal aims to explore the relationship between literature and landscapes, investigating both the depiction of landscapes in literature and literature's role in enhancing our understanding of landscapes.

Sub-themes:

1.     Theoretical considerations

2.     Environment, indigeneity, and spirituality

3.     Forests and fantasies, woods, and wilderness

4.     Landscapes –urban and rural: aesthetics and identity

5.     Low-lying locations: plains and possibilities, deserts and desolation

6.     Mountains, mountaineering, mystery and menace 

7.     Water bodies: rivers and reflections, oceans, and odyssey

Important Dates

Call for Paper: 4 October 2024  

Paper Submission: 20th November 2024

Notification to Authors: 30th November 2024  

For further inquiries, please email: melusmelowjournal@gmail.com

Our website: www.melow.in 

Further Details for Authors:

• Email your paper to melusmelowjournal@gmail.com 
• Mention “Paper Submission, name of author” in the subject line.
• The academic paper should be written within the 5000-word limit.
• The paper should contain an abstract of approximately 200-250 words. 
• Please write 5-8 keywords after the abstract.
• Please adhere to the MLA9 edition for formatting your academic paper.
• Please make sure your work is an original piece of writing and isn’t plagiarised or sent elsewhere for consideration. A strict plagiarism and AI check will be performed before acceptance. 
• The submission of the paper does not ensure its publication. The paper undergoes a double-blind peer-review process. The publication of your paper depends on the result sent by the peer-reviewing committee. You will be informed about the selection of your paper for publication. 
• Since MLA 9 introduces a whole new chapter on using inclusive language in academic writing, we urge writers to focus on relevance, precision, respectfulness, thoughtfulness, and awareness of exclusionary pronouns, judgment, and offensive terms. 
• Please avoid using footnotes and convert them to notes to provide commentary or additional information.
• Please run a thorough grammar check before sending us your paper. A lot of assistive tools like Grammarly can help you in this regard. 
• Please ensure that your paper has a 4-10% similarity index (limit quotes; if a quotation runs no more than four lines, put it in double quotation marks and incorporate it into the text. Put single quotation marks around quotations that appear within those quotations. Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical reference. Other punctuation, such as question marks and exclamation marks, should appear within the quotation marks if they are part of the quoted passage but after the parentheses if they are part of your text. (Please refer to MLA9 for more information)
• Please mention your name and your affiliation in the last.  
• It would be advisable to consult the previous journal at https://melow.in/journal.html for the formatting style.