CFP: Stardom and Celebrity in Contemporary India

The forthcoming issue of The Indian Journal of Comparative Literature & Translation Studies (IJCLTS) will seek to decode the politics of stardom in post-1990s India. The informing assumption is that there is no single culture of celebrity and the issue will endeavor to highlight the co-existence of multiple domains of celebrity culture in India. The journal invites scholars all over the world to submit critical essays that are analytic and that are informed by the extant work on celebrity studies. The areas of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Theorizing the Indian celebrity
  • The global circulation of Indian celebrities such as Shahrukh Khan, A.R. Rahman etc.
  • The apparatuses of the Celebrity Industry in India: The media (magazines, websites, TV shows), the events (Film launches), product tie-ins etc.
  • The conventional domains of stardom: Authors, Filmstars, Sports Stars etc.
  • Crime and Celebrity: Criminals and victims, especially the fame (or notoriety) accrued in conjunction with rape cases.
  • The public intellectual/activist as celebrity.
  • Fandom: Study of Fan identities across various domains of celebrities, including the study of Fan Clubs (online as well as ‘real life’)

The pertinent master categories of India studies – class, caste, gender and region – could inform the prospective contributions. The journal especially welcomes comparatist approaches to celebrity studies and would welcome works that focus on regional language representations and analysis of celebrities whose fame circulates within certain regions.

IJCLTS invites original, unpublished and innovative work from across the disciplines and across the world. The extent of the essays should be between 3000-5000 words. The journal also welcomes shorter but rigorously analytic pieces (500-1500 words) whose scope is less extensive than that of an essay but which raises a pertinent point regarding celebrity culture. IJCLTS also invites translations, interviews, book reviews, etc. on any area.

All submissions should adhere to the MLA 7th edition style sheet. Papers can be sent to ijclts2013@gmail.com by August 31, 2014. No paper will be accepted after the dead line. For further enquiries please feel free to contact the issue editor (rakeshmoorthy@gmail.com). More details can be found at visit http://ijclts.wordpress.com/