Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies Vol. 42 No. 1 | March 2016
Call for Papers: Memories on the Move: Asian Connections
In the last ten years memory studies has experienced a gradual shift towards comparative, interdisciplinary, and border-crossing perspectives. Studies on cosmopolitan memory (Levy and Sznaider), multidirectional memory (Rothberg), transcultural memory (Crownshaw), travelling memory (Erll), or transnational memory (De Chesari and Rigney) highlight the circulatory, competing, overlapping, fluid and dynamic nature of the processes of remembrance and cultural memory.
This special issue attempts to further the inquiry into the dynamic nature of memory cultures by forging dialogue between mnemonic contexts in/about Asia and those in Europe, North America, Australia, etc. How do forms of memorialization and cultural memories from/about Asia inflect or how are they inflected by various forms of transnational communication and exchange, or, more generally, the structures of global interaction? How do memory discourses from or about Asia circulate, migrate, or travel, and to what end? What “connective” relations (Hirsch) and convergences between national, regional, and global contexts are articulated in cultural texts (literary, media) when remembering landmark historical events across continents? Alternatively, what forms of disjuncture, ideological, and material blockages prevent connections and the circulation of memory in the global age?
The editors welcome contributions that examine how the “past within us” (Morris-Suzuki) or East Asia’s “difficult pasts” (Kim and Schwartz) resurface in representations across spaces, media or archives, and the ways they produce and/or subvert official state narratives. The editors are interested in new forms of “perilous memories” (Fujitani et al), individual or collective remembrances of “ruptured histories” (Jager and Mitter) embodied in fiction, memoirs, graphic narratives, documentaries, films or memorializing objects at large and their convergences across time and space. They invite research that broadly engages with memories on the move as well as the analytical frames about “memory in the global age” (Assmann and Conrad) and their possible junctions with or within Asia.
Please send submissions of 6,000 -10,000 words, notes included (the bibliography is not counted), an abstract of no more than 250 words with 5-8 keywords, and a brief bio as Word attachments to concentric.lit@deps.ntnu.edu.tw. Please also attach a cover letter stating that the manuscript is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts should follow the latest edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Except for footnotes, which should be single-spaced, manuscripts must be double-spaced throughout and typeset in 12-point Times New Roman. For further instructions on documentation, consult the style guide at http://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/submissions.php
Deadline for Submissions: June 30, 2015
For submissions or general inquiries, e-mail concentric.lit@deps.ntnu.edu.tw
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Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, currently indexed in Arts and Humanities Citation Index, is a peer-reviewed journal published two times per year by the Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. Concentric is devoted to offering innovative perspectives on literary and cultural issues and advancing the transcultural exchange of ideas. While committed to bringing Asian-based scholarship to the world academic community, Concentric welcomes original contributions from diverse national and cultural backgrounds. Each issue of Concentric publishes groups of essays on a special topic as well as papers on more general issues. The focus can be on any historical period and any region.