As a vital medium of resistance, literature has long served as a cultural expression of oppression, displacement, censorship, and violence, offering both testimony and critique. Resistance narratives respond to the structures of domination that are colonial, patriarchal, racial, economic, and ecological. These texts often articulate alternative modes of existence, agency, and solidarity. While resistance may take multiple forms, it remains grounded in a shared ethical impulse: to challenge authority, expose injustice, and envision transformation.

           The term “resistance” (mukāwama) in relation to literature was first applied by Palestinian writer and critic Ghassan Kanafani in his seminal 1966 study “Literature of Resistance in Occupied Palestine: 1948–1966.” Kanafani’s framing of literature as a mode of resistance to colonial occupation laid the groundwork for later theoretical interventions, most notably Barbara Harlow’s Resistance Literature (1987), which extended the term to encompass a wide array of literary and cultural production arising from liberation movements across the Global South. Harlow emphasized the inseparability of literature and politics, arguing that “the theory of resistance literature is in its politics” (p. 30) and calling for critical approaches attentive to geopolitical and historical specificity. 

            Building on these foundations, this project seeks to revisit the category of resistance narratives in light of recent developments in literary criticism. From anti-colonial fiction and prison memoirs to feminist dystopias, Indigenous storytelling, and climate justice narratives, resistance literature today confronts old and new forms of domination. We invite papers grounded in well-articulated theoretical frameworks that investigate how resistance narratives operate as forms of political practice, challenging structures of oppression.

We particularly welcome papers that engage with, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Anti-colonial narratives (Literary responses to colonialism, occupation, apartheid, or war)
• Queer, trans, and feminist resistance literatures
• Environmental resistance
• Anti-corporate-ism
• Silenced, censored, and banned literary voices
• Indigenous narratives as resistance
• Graphic novels, zines, and radical visual narratives

 Submission Guidelines

• Title
• Abstract of paper (up to 500 words)
• 5 Keywords
• Author information: Brief bio (150 words)

Submissions to be sent on resistanceandliterature@gmail.com.

For questions please contact resistanceandliterature@gmail.com or seraydizard@topkapi.edu.tr.

Important Dates:

• Deadline for abstract submissions: September 25, 2025

• Notification of acceptance: October 5, 2025

• Deadline for final chapter submission: December 19, 2025

Length of chapter: 5000-7000 words

References

Harlow, Barbara. Resistance Literature. New York: Methuen, 1987.

Kanafani, Ghassan. Literature of Resistance in Occupied Palestine: 1948–1966. Beirut: Institute for Arab Research, 1982.