Please find below a CFP posted on behalf of a colleague in Croatia:
The Fantastic in the Fin de Siècle
Deadline for proposals: 31 January 2011
Editors: Irena Grubica & Zden?k Beran
Deadline for proposals: 31 January 2011
Fin de siècle produced the biggest gamut of masterpieces brimming with
fantastic and gothic elements, which has only recently been brought
under closer critical scrutiny and re-evaluated from various
theoretical and interdisciplinary perspectives. We invite
contributions for a volume of essays contracted with the Cambridge
Scholars Publishing from scholars who orient in their work at this and
related issues and who are interested in various discourses the term
itself generates. Since we define our topic from the historical
perspective, we would appreciate discussions of the fantastic in the
light of the development of the idea, challenging traditional
historical contexts and offering new ones. In this respect we are
especially interested in the relation of the fin-de-siècle fantastic
to the genesis of aesthetic ideas, the concept of terror/horror, the
sublime, to Gothic and sensation fiction, to the Aesthetic Movement
and Decadence, etc.: in what way does fantastic literature (as well as
art) of the last decades of the 19th century reflect the dynamic and
all too often controversial development of these concepts? At the same
time, it seems to be of the equal importance to investigate a broader
context of specific social, political and economic conditions of the
late Victorian society along with the development of science and
scientific discourses, including psychology and sexology. Special
emphasis may be put on how fantastic texts reflect issues brought
forth by Darwinism, Krafft-Ebing or Nordau's theory of degeneration
and to what extent they play the role of subversive forces themselves
or, on the contrary, that of safeguards of conservative attitudes and
assumptions. Closely connected with this are the issues of colonialism
and imperialism where the original binary opposition of masters and
subjects is disrupted by the ever-growing awareness of the ambiguities
that threaten to cause a collapse of these simple models. On the other
hand, the fantastic is also a realm of what Stephen Arata calls ?the
pathology of everyday life? (in Fictions of Loss in the Victorian Fin
de Siècle), addressing more private issues such as personal identity,
body or sanity. In view of the above mentioned the topics may also
include but are not limited to the following:
? The fantastic and various aspects of the fin-de-siècle aesthetics
? The fantastic and the challenging of the fin-de-siècle canon;
genres and sub-genres, popular literature
? The fantastic and gender
? The fantastic and narrative manipulations, temporality,
scientific development and progress, cultural anxiety and social
crisis, cultural subversion
? The fantastic and visual in the fin-de-siècle; literary in
relation to other modes of representation, visual and performance
? A single author/text: e.g. O.Wilde, Vernon Lee, Grant Allan,
George Egerton, etc.
? We would particularly welcome papers on the fin-de-siècle
fantastic as reflected cross-culturally in Scottish, Welsh, Canadian,
Australian, New Zealand, American, Caribbean writing, emphasising
specific predominant cultural or generic aspect, the genesis of the
fin-de-siècle fantastic in these cultures and literatures and their
relations to wider historical and cultural framework, possible
relation to the issue of postcolonialism
We also invite papers, though in a very limited number, where the
research goes beyond the period of fin de siècle and explores the
legacy of the term for the following decades, especially its
application to literature and culture of the end of the 20th century,
raising or challenging parallels and questioning the very idea of end
(fin).
Detailed proposals (500-1,000 words) for articles of c. 6,000 words
minimum (the length of a particular chapter is subject to the editors?
decision), as well as all inquiries regarding this issue, should be
sent to both editors:
- Irena Grubica <[log in to unmask]>
- and Zden?k Beran <[log in to unmask]>.
The deadline for proposals is 31 January 2011, with delivery of
completed essays by 15 September 2011. Please add a short bio blurb.
The volume will appear in 2012.
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