Call for Papers

Title of the proposed edited collection:

Green Memories: The Temporal and Sensory Landscapes of Plant Life in Cultural Narratives

We invite submissions for Green Memories: The Temporal and Sensory Landscapes of Plant Life in Cultural Narratives a forthcoming edited collection dedicated to exploring how the temporal and sensory landscapes of plant life shape cultural memory across literature, folklore, and storytelling traditions. This collection seeks to investigate the role of plants and landscapes as vibrant vessels of memory, tying together heritage, identity, and environmental awareness through the imaginative realms of fairy tales, myths, and oral histories.

Themes and Scope:

Green Memories aims to connect a wide range of perspectives, with a focus on how plants, with their distinctive sensorialities, evoke a sense of place, nostalgia, solastalgia, and cultural belonging. We welcome contributions that explore the following themes:

• The role of specific plants, with their vivid sensorialities, in shaping cultural and historical memory through literature, folklore, fairy tales, and oral histories.
• Nostalgia and solastalgia in response to disappearing landscapes and ecosystems, examining the emotional impact of plant loss in art, folklore, and storytelling.
• Ethnobotanical perspectives on plants as symbols of identity, community, and shared memory, showcasing both individual and collective nostalgia through the lens of mythology and folklore.
• Stories of plants as emblems of heritage and continuity within shifting landscapes and traditions, underscoring their resilience and enduring connection to personal and cultural legacy.
• Cultural, literary, cinematic, performative, and media narratives of plants as keepers,  bearers, and disseminators of collective, cross-species memory
• The temporalities of plant life in response to imperial, colonial, and hegemonic modes of time
• Interdisciplinary approaches combining environmental studies, anthropology, and the humanities to explore how plants serve as carriers of memory, deeply rooted in the imaginative narratives of fairy tales and mythic landscapes.
• Case studies of plants and natural landscapes in literature, film, performance, music, and folk tales that embody cultural resilience, nostalgia, solastalgia illustrating how their colors, smells, sensations, tastes, sounds, forms, and symbolic settings enrich our collective memory of place and identity.

Submission Guidelines:

We welcome contributions from scholars, researchers, and practitioners across environmental humanities, folklore studies, anthropology, botany, literary studies, and cultural history. We are especially interested in papers that bridge scientific and humanistic perspectives, illuminating the ways plants and landscapes serve as stewards of memory and cultural heritage.

Publisher: A strong interest from the editor of the Critical Plant Studies series, published by Lexington Books, an academic imprint of Bloomsbury Books, has been received. 

Key Details:

• Abstract Submission Deadline: [20 February 2025]
• Notification of Abstract Acceptance: [28 February 2025]
• Full Paper Submission Deadline: [To be notified to the accepted contributors later]
• Email Id for submission and query: greenmemoriesbook@gmail.com

Submission Process:

Please submit an abstract with 300-500 words, along with a brief bio (up to 150 words). Accepted contributors will be invited to submit a full-length paper (6,000-7,000 words). The modalities of full-length paper submission will be notified with the invitation.

About the Edited Collection:

Green Memories will foster a dialogue on the vital role of plants, colors, and landscapes in cultural preservation, bridging the natural and imaginative worlds that define human heritage. This collection will serve as a resource for scholars, educators, and readers interested in the profound connections between plants, memory, time, and the sensory landscapes of folklore, fairy tales, and personal narratives.

Editors:

Goutam Majhi, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Sadhan Chandra Mahavidyalaya, India.

Dr. Barbara Gabriella Renzi, Lecturer, Berlin School of Business and Innovations, Germany.

Dr. Kaddour Chelabi, Senior Lecturer, Berlin School of Business and Innovations, Germany.