Call for Papers
The Post-Graduate and Research Department of English, S B College,Changanacherry is organizing a two-day International Seminar on 3rd and 4th of September 2018 on the Topic: “Marx Today”. The conference on Marx is organised around the life and works of Karl Marx in the context of the two hundredth year of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Das Kapital. Political thought and philosophy are incomplete without a Marxian dimension. Marx’s 1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy posits a notion of politics that sets subjective agency in relation to its objective determinants. Marx here contends that human society “inevitably sets itself only such tasks as it is able to solve, since closer examination will always show that the problem itself arises only when the material conditions for its solution are already present or at least in the course of formation.” The problem of politics, in other words, is how to correlate specific sites of struggle to the deeper structures that condition them. However, the enduring relevance of Marxist intellectual thought remains a point of spirited debate in the ideological history of the late twentieth century. With the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union, the emergent currency of postmodern concepts, and the rise of new social protest movements in the spheres of race, gender, and sexual orientation, Marxism came to appear the ‘signifier par excellence of theoretical hubris, redundancy and error’ (Pendakis and Szeman 2014).
In the twenty-first century however, propelled by the succession of economic and ecological crisis scenarios, Marxist criticism has experienced a critical resurgence. Fredric Jameson, David Harvey, and Alex Callinicos have provided new formal readings of Marx’s seemingly ‘inexhaustible’ text (Jameson 2011). Accompanying the apparent epistemological exhaustion of post-structuralist approaches, what palpably remains are the visible signs of an underlying crisis – secular stagnation, intensification of racism, sexism and xenophobia, militarised state repression, ecological collapse, deepening inequality and general human suffering for vast segments of the population. In the face of what some have argued is capital’s terminal crisis, our political world seems singularly unable to tackle the problems it has created and desperately needs to solve.But times of crisis are also times of possibility and the conference seeks to posit both questions and answers that address the matter of “The relevance of Marxism Today”.
Proposals on all topics of relevance to Marxist theory and practice are welcome, including but not limited to:
- Subalterninty
- Postcoloniality
- Economic Thought
- Cultural studies
- Marxian Literary Criticism
- Political Thought
- Marxism and aesthetics
- Protests, Political Movements, Manifestos
- Literature as praxis and theory
- Marxism, ecology, and the Anthropocene
Papers from teachers, research scholars and students of Universities and Colleges in India are invited.
Dates to Remember
1. Deadline for the submission of Abstracts : 14/08/2018
2. Intimation of the acceptance of the Abstract : 16/08/2018
3. Deadline for the submission of full papers : 31/08/2018
4. Seminar at SB : 03, 04/ 09/2018
About the Abstract
The abstract should be in 300 words and should be sent to any of the email addresses given
below. The abstracts will be assessed by a peer review committee and the acceptance will be
intimated. The abstract should include the following
1. Name of the Presenter
2. Designation
3. Address of the Institution
4. Email and Mobile Number
5. Topic/ Title of the paper
About the Full Paper
1. Papers should be between 3000-5000 words in length.
2. The MLA 8th edition format should be followed
3. The text must be in Times New Roman, size 12, and double spaced.
We solicit your papers and participation in the seminar. Other details of the seminar will be conveyed to the participants through email and seminar brochure. Thank You,
Yours Sincerely
Dr Sabu Joseph Mr Thomas P J
(Head of the Department) (Co-ordinator)
Please Note
1. The Seminar Participation and Duty Certificates will be issued to the participants, provided they attend the seminar on both the days from 10am - 4pm.
2. Send your abstracts to : nithinvettu23@gmail.com or vimalmohanjohn@yahoo.co.in
3. For inquiries please contact: Mr Thomas P J - +91 9447806302
Mr Anish K Joseph - +91 9846702410
Mr Nithin Varghese - +91 9497669286
Mr Amal Toms - +91 8089678867
Mr Jerin B Sebastian - +91 9496379293
