In the context of literature, the term marginality would encompass
not only the issues related to the social, cultural, economic or
geopolitical spaces that give rise to it but also the literature
emerging from these contexts and the communities suffering and
contesting it. Such literatures that address the experience of
marginality create discourses and counter discourses. Our proposed book
is therefore interested in the trio: text, context and theory. Defining
the margin/marginality is complex. The “margin” is a space which is
generally understood in relation to the centre which is powerful
socially, politically, economically, culturally, geographically and
linguistically. But the margin does not belong only to the realm of the
fringe, it is a dynamic space. It is a space full of possibilities.
While the margin may refer to people who live on the peripheries, whose
voices are ignored, who may have no representation in mainstream
societies, it can at the same time become a space of impending conflict,
confrontation and tension because it can question the logic of the
divide of the centre and periphery. The problem with the discourse of
marginality, however, is that one may get trapped in it in a bid to
simply overturn it. But the margin is much more than that. It may offer a
sustained scenario of contestation for its rights and share of power,
thereby paving ways for new possibilities. The representation of the
marginal subject, therefore, is extremely interesting and complex,
especially in literature, because literature has the possibility in it
to move beyond this kind of binary dialectics and demonstrate the
problematics involved in its interstitial, in-between, hybrid, spaces.
Such complex readings will help us understand the structures of
dominance, discrimination, hierarchy and marginality in a multifaceted
way keeping in mind the politics of difference in a multipolar,
multicultural world.
The evolution of capitalism after its beginnings in the Enlightenment
period to a post-Enlightenment transformation in neoliberalism and
globalization has now created marginalities on an expansive scale in
more varied ways. While these enterprises, backed by political systems,
have privileged certain regions and groups, they have also incapacitated
others. Western standards and concepts of progress and development
imposed on other societies and indigenous cultures have suppressed the
local and the regional cultures in different neo-colonial ways. Again,
there is another side to marginality in a society: one’s acceptance into
various cultural communities is also determined by one’s birth and
other determinations such as gender, race, caste, disability, religion,
region and so on. Many of these categories decide whether one is an
insider or an outsider in a particular nationspace. One has to negotiate
between the dominance of the mainstream culture and the marginality of
one’s own subculture. Marginality also brings about psychological
uncertainties, having to move between discord and harmony, exclusion and
inclusion. While this rivets our attention to the question of the
marginal personality, more recent studies have addressed the problematic
in terms of further specificities as to how marginality affects one’s
access to resources, opportunities, knowledge, respect, rights,
recognition and identity. Consequently, while talking of marginality,
one cannot but talk of mobilizations and movements which challenge these
oppressive systems and hegemonic structures, and thereby give rise to
the question of agency and emancipatory discourses. We have kept in view
this diverse socio-political terrain of marginality, and for our
projected volume, we are interested in these multifarious aspects of the
varied kinds of marginality as represented in the different genres of
South Asian Literature. We are also interested in the studies on the
Contexts and Theories relevant to the proposed area and problematics
concerned.
South Asian writing is populated by varied experiences of
marginality specific to its history and localised realities. For
instance, the figure of the muhajir, dalit, hijra or adivasi, some of
whom find space in more universal social identity groups representing
marginal experiences like race, religion, gender, caste, disability,
region or tribe. Particular events in the history of the region like the
Partition, Bhopal gas disaster, British rule and recent
neoliberalisation-led economic developments have been moments where the
tensions between dominant and other sub-groups have crafted the
marginalised figure. Consequently, these historical contexts also alert
us to the shifting terrain of the experience of marginality where the
once dominant group can also become marginalised later, as is seen in
the experience of colonisation for upper-caste identity. The ecological
consequences of a shared history of multiple settlements and pursuit of
economic development are evident in the change of the natural topography
owing to deforestation and urbanisation. The negotiations between city
dwellers, agrarian and forest-dwelling communities, are also therefore
marked by framing of socio-political identity in the South Asian
nation-state that creates and recreates the marginalised figure.
The proposed anthology is therefore interested in
contributions that would primarily analyse literary representations and
cultural discourses in the following areas but not limited to these:
- The experiences of social, political and economic
marginalisation on the basis of caste, gender, disability, region,
religion, tribe, ethnicity or race
- LGBTQ+, sexuality and fluid identities
- Marginal psychology, culture, hybridity, identity
- Framing of the nation, transnation, border and narratives of
exclusion and displacement and the framing of the citizen in the nation
state
- Marginalisation as a communal experience and the dynamics between individual, community and society
- Economic development in the postcolonial neoliberal nation state and the accompanying ecological fallout
- Ecology and environmental justice and the gendered perspective of ecology
- Poverty as a marker of the vulnerability and precarity of marginalised identity
- The dialectics of voice and representation in narratives of marginalisation
- The subversion of canonical and aesthetic standards of literary
stylistics in texts that represent the experience of marginalised
identities.
Key information for prospective authors:
- Abstract with a title and keywords: 250-300 words
- Word limit of full papers including citations: 6000- 8000 words
- Style of citation: MLA 9th edition
- Email your submission to: marginalities2@gmail.com
*The proposed anthology will be published by a reputed publisher
Deadline for abstract submissions: October 30, 2023
Abstract selection notification: November 30, 2023
Deadline for full paper submission: January 30, 2024
Contact Email
marginalities2@gmail.com
Dr. Arunima Ray
Associate Professor
Department of English
Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi
New Delhi
Dr. Karuna Rajeev
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi
New Delhi
Dr. Goutam Karmakar
NRF Postdoctoral Fellow
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Routledge Book Series Editor on South Asian Literature
&
Visiting Scholar
Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society
LMU München, Germany
