JOURNAL ISSUE

Call for Papers

Tribal Literature

Editor: Dr. Animesh Roy

Concept Note

Historically, academia has generally tended to explore tribal expression as a static artefact of the past­ ̶ primarily as folklore to be preserved, rather than an independent literary genre. Relegated for long to the periphery, primarily as folk studies or anthropological data, the dominant academic gaze has often refused to view tribal literature as active sites of theoretical and aesthetic intervention. The indigenous voice, generally read through the lens of an idealised, pre-modern past, has suffered a sort of temporal exile in mainstream criticism. Furthermore, the tribal subject, usually read through the outsider gaze, has more often than not been reduced to the tropes of the “ecological Indian” or the “noble savage”, thereby refusing the individual, political, and cultural autonomy they deserve. Such reductive romanticisation silences the internal hierarchies of caste, gender, and region that often characterise tribal realities.

Tribal literature ̶ a distinct body of indigenous oral and written narratives ̶ embedded in a symbiotic, yet contested relationship with ecology, serves as an archive of cosmological myths, communal resilience, historical oppression, and ecological wisdom that fundamentally subverts dominant paradigms of literary thought. Crucially, this body of literature is not a passive site of abstract romanticisation. It is an active site of resistance, instead.

This issue seeks to deconstruct the English literary canon by moving beyond mere commemorative or purely descriptive modes of engagement that have historically characterised the study of tribal texts. Instead, it proposes to delve into the ontological foundations of tribal literature, recognising that the “text” in the tribal context is often a multidimensional entity ̶ comprising of oral performances, ritual practices, and communal memory thereby essentially destabilising Eurocentric, print-centric conception of the “text”. This shift forces one to confront the politics of language and reception: for while writing in or translating into English can offer a global platform for resistance on the one hand, it also risks the containment of localised, vernacular epistemologies on the other.

Rigorous, academic essays that essentially problematise these issues are invited from serious scholars for the inaugural issue of the journal of the Department of English, St. Xavier’s College, Simdega. Papers may reflect on (but not limited to) the following sub-themes:

• How do concepts such as “Tribal” and “Adivasi” in contemporary Anglophone writings alter the text’s radical potential, and what political potential do they offer?

• In what ways does the transition from orality to the textualisation of orality constitute an epistemic containment? How does it alter tribal storytelling?

• How does tribal literature explore the problems of representation and representability, negotiating the tension between them?

• Can we move toward a distinct tribal aesthetics beyond the normativity of Western postcolonialism or subaltern studies?

• How does tribal literature negotiate issues of displacement, migration, and the fragmentation of tribal identities within metropolitan spaces, moving beyond traditional passive environmentalism?

• How do tribal literature and storytelling articulate issues of ecology, the climate crisis, land alienation, and environmental toxicity?

• How does tribal literature explore the ‘triple marginalisation’ of gender, class, and indigenous identity of tribal women, and what role does it serve in critiquing patriarchal structures within their community?

• In what ways does digital orality reshape tribal memory and questions of authority in digital spaces?

• Tribal issues, visual cultures, and graphic narratives.

• Does tribal literature propose different epistemologies of health, the body, and illness that challenge mainstream biomedical hegemonies?

• What are the aporias of translating tribal texts into English?

Submission Guidelines

 • Essays should be between 5000 to 7000 words typed in A4-size pages.

• The title of the paper should be in sentence case and centre-aligned.

• The main body of the essay should be in left-aligned. Please do not justify the text.

• Double spacing should be used between lines.

• The MLA Handbook (9th Ed.) should be followed for references and citations.

• Please do not use Foot Notes. Use End Notes instead.

• Each paper must be accompanied by a single attachment indicating:

i. A declaration that the submission is an original work (free from plagiarism and AI usage), has not been published elsewhere, nor is it currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

ii. An abstract of the paper of not more than 400 words.

iii. A short biographical note about the contributor(s) indicating their name(s), institutional affiliation, postal address, contact address, and e-mail id as a single attachment.

Mode of Submission

Contributors are requested to send their finished essays (along with the abstract and declarations) to roy.english82@gmail.com by August 15th, 2026. Please indicate “Tribal Literature” in the subject line for all e-mail correspondences.

Selection Procedure

The final selection of papers will be made by the editor. Details regarding the selection of papers would be communicated through e-mail. The editor reserves the right to make editing changes to the selected papers for the sake of conceptual clarity, and formatting, if required.

For further information, you may contact Dr. Animesh Roy at +919547258878.