CFP: Journal Special Issue - Immaterial and Material Discourse

Submission deadline: January 31, 2021

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SPECIAL ISSUE - Immaterial and Material Discourse

Last date of submission: 31 January 2021 

(Guest Editor: Ikea M. Johnson, Louisiana State University, USA)

CONCEPT NOTE

George Berkeley is considered a great innovator of immaterial discourse. He is best known for his early works on vision like An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision (1709) and metaphysics in A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710); and, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (1713). Berkeley furthermore asserted that the root of all intellectual perplexity and delusion is abstract ideas. He insisted in his Introduction to the Principles of Human Knowledge that: (a) abstract ideas could not be produced, (b) they were not necessary for the transmission of knowledge, and (c) they were contradictory and unpredictable and therefore incomprehensible. However, Berkeley also defends two metaphysical ideas: namely, idealism and immaterialism. He believed to be is to be perceived.

More recent methodologies of material culture have primarily focused on the use and historical meaning of artifacts populating a story or analyzing the book itself as a commercial product circulated on the market. The study of comparative literature and aesthetics, and more extensively, cultural spaces, is strengthened by recent studies on materiality. For instance, MacArthur Fellow Fred Moten's discourse on Marxism, dialectical materialism, and Kant’s philosophies of freedom and nature employ an (im)material approach to understanding cosmopolitanism, a priori customs, and being. His disjuncture of material /immaterial conditions is opposed to traditional philosophy, which maintains an uprising in the intangible portion of thinking, evidence, and tendencies as disaffected from the actual domain of practical life and methods. For instance, numerous movements towards subjectivity have explored embodiment and the materiality of thought.

On the other hand, some may define the dynamics of our spatial conception explored through fictitious spaces as immaterial. As a result, the distinction in materiality/immateriality is progressively leading to possible reconfigurations of everyday relations, traces, and the interplay between these three subjects: cosmopolitanism, dialectics, and the climate. How do we understand that the immateriality of literature conveys the vital clash between tangible and immaterial-psychological, mental, and spiritual?

Some topics to consider include:

  • Aesthetics and material/immaterial traditions
  • Poetics and (im)materialism
  • Philosophy and material limitations
  • Speculative/Sci-Fi fiction and metaphysical junctures
  • Cosmopolitanism and the material/immaterial concerns of literature
  • Religion and metaphysical practices
  • Anthropogenic and material activities
  • Dialectics and materialism/immaterialism
  • Migration and (im)material climates
  • Race and materialism/immaterialism
  • Philological material/immaterial affects
  • Linguistics and esoteric circumstances
  • Ritual and (im)material practices

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

All the papers must be sent to [email protected]. Format/ Font: MS Word in Times New Roman 12 point (MLA 8th Edition). All the papers must be original, unpublished and written within 4,000-6,000 words. An abstract in 150-250 words and 4-5 keywords should be embedded within the paper. Each paper should include a cover letter suggesting the name of the author, along with a brief bio, not exceeding 50 words. The name of the author and co-author (if any) must not be written or suggested anywhere except the cover letter. The paper should be original and must have a proper bibliography and work cited section. An acknowledgement shall be sent upon receipt. Any suggested revisions by the editor and peer reviewers must be returned in two weeks without delay. Simultaneous submissions are not allowed.  

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Website: jcla.in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Comparative_Literature_and_Aesthetics

The Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics (ISSN: 0252-8169) is a quarterly journal published by the Vishvanatha Kaviraja Institute of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, India since 1977. The Institute was founded by Ananta Charan Sukla on August 22, 1977 coinciding with the birth centenary of renowned philosopher, aesthetician, and historian of Indian art, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) to promote interdisciplinary studies in comparative literature, cultural theory, aesthetics, philosophy and criticism of the arts, and history of ideas. 
The Journal is committed to comparative and cross-cultural issues in literary understanding and interpretation, aesthetic theories, conceptual analysis of art, literature, philosophy, history, religion, and mythology. It also publishes special volumes on themes of current critical interest. It is one of the oldest academic journals of India which comes out sans any institutional support. 

JCLA has published the finest of essays by authors of global renown like René Wellek, Harold Osborne, John Hospers, John Fisher, Murray Krieger, Trevor Ling, Martin Bucco, Remo Ceserani, J.B. Vickery, Menachem Brinker, Milton Snoeyenbos, Mary Wiseman, Ronald Roblin, T.R. Martland, S.C. Sengupta, V.K. Gokak, P.S. Sastri, K.R.S. Iyengar, V.K. Chari, S.K. Saxena, N.M. Rao, Suresh Raval, Kapil Kapoor, R.K. Raval, Göran Sörbom, Gordon Epperson, Judith Lochhead, Charles Altieri, Martin Jay, Jonathan Culler, Richard Shusterman, Robert Kraut, T.J. Diffey, T.R. Quigley, R.B. Palmer, Keith Keating, and many others.

JCLA is indexed and abstracted in the MLA International Bibliography, Master List of Periodicals (USA), Ulrich’s Directory of Periodicals, ERIH PLUS, ISI, The Philosopher’s Index, WorldCat Directory, ACLA, EBSCO, UGC, ProQuest, Literature Online, Gale (Cengage Learning), United States Library of Congress, and the British Library. It is also indexed in numerous university (central) libraries, state and public libraries, and scholarly organizations/ learned societies databases.

Celebrated scholars of the time like René Wellek, Harold Osborne, Mircea Eliade, Monroe Beardsley, John Hospers, John Fisher, M.H. Abrams, John Boulton, Jagannath Chakraborty, Sisir Kumar Chatterjee, Kunja Bihari Tripathiand many Indian and Western scholars have been members of its Editorial Board.

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