The intellectual traffic between East and West within Europe seems to be
most often one-way traffic: it is as if ideas and intelligence can only move
eastwards, as though from East westwards almost nothing (intellectually
valid) is to be expected or desired. As such, the face of the "new Europe"
that the West most often sees is that of "le plombier polonais."
The originality of thinkers such as Slavoj Žižek, Julia Kristeva, Tzvetan
Todorov, Jan Patočka, Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran or Leszek Kołakowski, who
have at different times made a significant contribution to the shaping of
the Western intellectual discourse, is somehow taken for granted, and the
character of the world they have come from is passed over in silence....
SEE THE FULL STATEMENT BELOW
-----Original Message-----
From: ESRCs East West Programme [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Serguei A. Oushakine
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 3:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Final Call for Papers: "The Unbearable Charm of Frailty.
Philosophizing in/on Eastern Europe." (A Special Issue of ANGELAKI)
Final Call for Papers: "The Unbearable Charm of Frailty. Philosophizing
in/on Eastern Europe."
A Special Issue of "ANGELAKI - The Journal of the Theoretical Humanities"
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/routledge/0969725x.html
Guest Editor: Costica Bradatan (The Honors College, Texas Tech University)
ANGELAKI hereby invites contributions on the topic of "Philosophizing in/on
Eastern Europe."
This special issue is scheduled for early 2010.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Over the last several years European Union has welcomed a number of new
member countries, most of which used to belong to the "Eastern bloc." While,
thanks to the influence of mass-media, tourism, immigration, etc., Western
Europe has come to acquire some general geographic knowledge about these
countries, relatively little is known about what happens there in terms of
production of knowledge and cultural artifacts, in terms of intellectual
debates and marketplace of ideas. Although all of them are now part of the
same "European family," there is comparatively little knowledge in the
countries of the Western Europe about the cultural physiognomy of the
East-European newcomers.
The intellectual traffic between East and West within Europe seems to be
most often one-way traffic: it is as if ideas and intelligence can only move
eastwards, as though from East westwards almost nothing (intellectually
valid) is to be expected or desired. As such, the face of the "new Europe"
that the West most often sees is that of "le plombier polonais."
The originality of thinkers such as Slavoj Žižek, Julia Kristeva, Tzvetan
Todorov, Jan Patočka, Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran or Leszek Kołakowski, who
have at different times made a significant contribution to the shaping of
the Western intellectual discourse, is somehow taken for granted, and the
character of the world they have come from is passed over in silence. It is
as though these people come from nowhere - out of nothing. No significant
attention is being paid to their complex backgrounds, to the specificity of
their cultural origins, to the unique blend of intellectual challenges and
ethical concerns that shaped their thinking, strengthened their
personalities and, in the end, made them who they are.
The special issue we are proposing addresses precisely this situation in an
attempt to bridge this gap of intellectual communication between Eastern and
Western Europe. Its plan is to map out the complex intellectual landscape,
the major intellectual debates and their historical origins, as well as the
current marketplace of philosophical ideas in the countries of the Eastern
Europe. This issue aims at offering insights into the recent (or not so
recent) history of "the East-European mind" and its many facets, as well as
into what takes place philosophically right now in these places. It also
seeks to point to the specific contributions that East-European thinkers
might have to the shaping of a new, more comprehensive European intellectual
project.
More importantly, this special issue will pay special attention to what
connects these countries, giving them as it does a certain "family
resemblance." One important thing that these East-European newcomers to the
EU have in common - despite their many cultural, linguistic, political and
social differences - is the fact that all of them shared, not long ago, the
same historical failure: the failure of the Communist project of Soviet
inspiration. Whether you are in Prague or Budapest, Riga or Bucharest, Sofia
or Warsaw, you cannot help noticing the traces of this major historical
event: they are everywhere, in the public discourse as well as in the
private conversations, in the ways people articulate their thoughts, in the
language itself. For people living in Eastern Europe simple words such as
"freedom," "human rights," "Communism," "capitalism," "left" and "right,"
"poverty" and "inequality" mean something different from what they do for
someone who has been living in Western Europe. Much of what happens
intellectually and philosophically in these places is deeply marked by the
haunting memory of this historical failure of grand proportions, with its
accompanying sense of immense collective suffering, frustration and
bitterness.
That being said, it might be precisely this failure, frustration and
bitterness, that place the East-Europeans - somehow paradoxically - in a
philosophically interesting and potentially creative position. It is exactly
the point that Václav Havel made in a speech in 1990. For him, the failed
Soviet system left behind "a legacy of countless dead, an infinite spectrum
of human suffering, profound economic decline, and above all enormous human
humiliation. [...] At the same time, however unintentionally, ... it has
given us something positive: a special capacity to look, from time to time,
somewhat further than someone who has not undergone this bitter experience.
A person who cannot move and live a normal life because he is pinned under a
boulder has more time to think about his hopes than someone who is not
trapped in this way. [...] We too can offer something to you: our experience
and the knowledge that has come from it."
The philosophizing that takes place in Eastern Europe is highly relevant
today not only because it has gained some privileged access to the topics of
historical failure and frailty, collective suffering and trauma, but also
because it comes to bear a special relationship with the notions of hope and
political renewal, ethical openness and the reinvention of the human.
We invite submissions dealing with the history and the current state of
philosophy and the philosophically minded disciplines in the countries of
the Eastern Europe, some aspects of which have been pointed to above.
Interdisciplinary approaches (combining, for example, philosophy, critical
theory and intellectual history) are particularly encouraged.
Here are only some of the possible topics:
- (Philosophical) texts in/and their (cultural) contexts
- Lost in translation
- The traffic of philosophical ideas between Eastern & Western
Europe
- Centrality and marginality in the European philosophical
culture/discourse
- Canon(s) and canonization in the European philosophical culture
- Specifically East-European philosophical topics
- Making philosophical sense of (disastrous) historical experiences
- The (quite) bearable lightness of being East-European
- (Eastern) Europe as a laboratory of ideas
- Genealogies, contaminations & disseminations of ideas
- Philosophy and politics in Eastern Europe (before and after the
collapse of Communism)
- Philosophy & civil society in Eastern Europe
- The tragic (East-European) fate of some (Western) philosophical
ideas
- The European project, philosophically speaking
- "Le plombier polonais," philosophically speaking
Please note that - in the spirit of ANGELAKI, a journal of "theoretical
humanities" - we use throughout the term "philosophy" in a broad
(Continental and interdisciplinary) sense.
Geographically, for the sake of convenience, this issue attempts to cover
philosophical developments in countries that used to belong to the "Eastern
bloc" and are now part of the European Union (Czech Republic, Slovenia,
Poland, the Baltic countries, Romania, etc.) or will join the EU in a
foreseeable future (Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, etc.). Needless to say, as
always, these are just approximations.
SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES:
Deadline for submissions: May 1, 2009
Length: 5000-7000 words
Authors should keep in mind that they are writing for an academic, but
non-specialist (and largely Western) readership. Therefore, references to
specifically East-European developments, institutions, figures, etc. should
be further clarified in end-notes as appropriate.
All submissions should be in English. Notwithstanding the fact that some
authors use this language as their second language, it is their
responsibility to make sure that their submissions are written in
publishable English.
Apart from essays, we also invite proposals for a small number of book
reviews - on the theme of the issue - and translations of (short)
philosophical texts by major East-European philosophers. Interested authors
should approach the Guest Editor with a short proposal offering a brief
description of the book/translation in question & explaining their relevance
for this special issue of ANGELAKI. However, the Guest Editor's initial
approval of the book review/translation proposals should not be taken as a
guarantee that their book reviews/translations will be accepted for
inclusion in the special issue.
All materials submitted to ANGELAKI undergo peer-review. Manuscripts and
Notes, typed double-spaced, should be submitted to the Guest Editor as
e-mail attachments, using Microsoft Word. The author's full address should
be supplied as a footnote to the title page. Manuscripts should be prepared
in accordance with the MLA Citation Style: http://www.mla.org/
You can submit your contributions to: [log in to unmask] (with "For the
Angelaki issue" in the subject line). Please allow at least 4-6 months for
the review process and editorial decisions. Receipt of materials will be
confirmed by email in a matter of days.
Unless otherwise stated in this Call for Papers, the Instructions for
Authors on the journal's webpage are adopted for this issue:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=0969-725x&linktype=44
We look forward to your submissions!
Sincerely,
Costica Bradatan
Guest Editor - ANGELAKI
Assistant Professor of Honors - Texas Tech University
http://www.webpages.ttu.edu/cbradata
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