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Showing posts with label aesthetics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aesthetics. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Call for Papers - Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics Vol. 47, No. 3, Autumn 2024



The Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics is now accepting submissions for its forthcoming regular issue, Vol. 47, No. 3, Autumn 2024.


ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Comparative_Literature_and_Aest...

The Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics (ISSN: 0252-8169) is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Vishvanatha Kaviraja Institute of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, India, since 1977. The Institute was founded by Prof. Ananta Charan Sukla (1942-2020) on 22 August 1977, coinciding with the birth centenary of renowned philosopher, aesthetician, and historian of Indian art Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) to promote interdisciplinary studies and research in comparative literature, literary theory and criticism, aesthetics, philosophy, art history, criticism of the arts, and history of ideas. (Vishvanatha Kaviraja, most widely known for his masterpiece in aesthetics, Sahityadarpana, or the “Mirror of Composition,” was a prolific 14th-century Indian poet, scholar, aesthetician, and rhetorician.)

The Journal is committed to comparative and cross-cultural issues in literary understanding and interpretation, aesthetic theories, and conceptual analysis of art. It publishes current research papers, review essays, and special issues of critical interest and contemporary relevance.

JCLA is indexed and abstracted in the MLA International Bibliography, Master List of Periodicals (USA), Ulrich’s Directory of Periodicals, ERIH PLUS, The Philosopher’s Index (Philosopher’s Information Center), EBSCO, ProQuest (Arts Premium Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Collection, Arts & Humanities Database, Literature Online – Full Text Journals, ProQuest Central, ProQuest Central Essentials), Abstracts of English Studies, WorldCat Directory, ACLA, India Database, Gale (Cengage Learning), International Directory of Philosophy (PDC), Bibliography History of Art (BHA), ArtBibliographies Modern (ABM), Literature Online (LION), Academic Resource Index, Book Review Index Plus, OCLC, Periodicals Index Online (PIO), Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers, CNKI, PhilPapers, Google Scholar, Expanded Academic ASAP, Indian Documentation Service, Publication Forum (JuFo), Summon, J-Gate, MIAR (Matriz de Información para el Análisis de Revistas), United States Library of Congress, New York Public Library, BL on Demand and the British Library. The journal is also indexed in numerous university (central) libraries, state, and public libraries, and scholarly organizations/ learned societies databases.

The Journal has published the finest of essays by authors of global renown like René Wellek, Harold Osborne, John Hospers, John Fisher, Murray Krieger, Martin Bocco, Remo Ceserani, J.B. Vickery, Menachem Brinker, Milton Snoeyenbos, Mary Wiseman, Ronald Roblin, T.R. Martland, S.C. Sengupta, K.R.S. Iyengar, Charles Altieri, Martin Jay, Jonathan Culler, Richard Shusterman, Robert Kraut, Terry Diffey, T.R. Quigley, R.B. Palmer, Keith Keating, and many others. Celebrated scholars of the time like René Wellek, Harold Osborne, Mircea Eliade, Monroe Beardsley, John Hospers, John Fisher, Meyer Abrams, John Boulton, and many renowned foreign and Indian scholars were Members of the Editorial Board of the journal.

Manuscripts in MS Word (5,000–8,000 words) following the MLA style should be sent to editor@jcla.in by 31 May 2024.

Founding Editor: Ananta Charan Sukla (1942-2020), Vishvanatha Kaviraja Institute, India
Email: jclaindia@gmail.com
Website: jcla.in

Thursday, February 15, 2024

Call for Papers on #Edward #Said’s legacy in the context of current events-Edited Volume; MLA 2025 conference special session



Twenty years after his death and fifty years after the publication of Orientalism, Edward Said, the best-known Palestinian American public intellectual, seems more relevant and more controversial than ever before. As the middle-east is torn apart by the most horrific violence since the creation of Israel, Said has already been blamed for providing academic cover to Hamas’s murderous actions. Said, these critics say, was a rabid anti-Western, anti-Semitic, Arab extremist who legitimized the use of violence by terrorists calling themselves freedom fighters. But others have recalled the intellectual clarity and moral urgency Said brought to the Palestine question. Those who respect Said see him as a cosmopolitan, liberal, secular humanist who consistently critiqued colonialism, whether Western or Israeli. Both sides, however, acknowledge that something remarkable is happening in the West, particularly the United States: for the first time, a generational divide has opened up between the elders who stand steadfastly by Israel and the youth who are speaking up for Palestinians. This generational battle is being fought on elite college campuses where student protests against unconditional US aid for Israel’s war on Gaza have put college presidents in the crosshairs and upended careers. Articulated in a Saidian language of anti-colonialism and Orientalism, this youth protest is more aligned with the political position of the non-West/global South than the older West/global North which views the conflict largely in terms of its own troubled history of anti-Semitism and the holocaust. What should we make of Edward Said and his legacy at this global conjuncture? How have Said’s intellectual preoccupations and political commitments shaped today’s divided discourse about the middle-east? What is the long-term impact of Said’s literary preoccupations and cultural interventions within and beyond academia?


We invite original scholarly papers for a proposed edited volume that explores the legacy of Edward Said in the wake of the current Israel-Palestine war.


While we would like to include a wide range of topics and perspectives in the edited, the following areas will be of particular interest:Said, democracy, and decolonization in the context of (de)globalization, the rise of China, great power competition
Said, zionism, and the politics of Palestine today
Said’s influence on public opinion in America/the West/other regions about the Middle East
Said’s cosmopolitanism/secularism/humanism/liberalism: scope, relevance, limits
“Orientalism” today
Said’s influence on literary and cultural studies as practiced today


Please send abstracts of 300 words, a 100-word bio, and five keywords by March 15, 2024 to

revathi.krishnaswamy@sjsu.edu

or noelle.brada-williams@sjsu.edu


Let us also know if you’d like your abstract to be considered for inclusion in a proposed special session at the 2025 annual Modern Language Association conference scheduled for 9-12 Jan in New Orleans.


Full articles of 5000-8000 words should be submitted by November 30th, 2024.







Thursday, January 18, 2024

CFP: Special Issue Call for Papers 'The Human and the Machine: AI and the Changing World'-2024






If we are to believe the entertainment media, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is destined to go rogue and take over the world, destroying humanity as we know it. In reality, the growing accessibility of AI is seeing its use normalised and it is becoming a useful tool to improve and alter society. Artificial Intelligence has been an area of research since the 1950s and hinges on machine functions that learn from humans or independently. Despite its long history, contemporary advancements in AI systems, like Midjourney and Chat GPT, are fuelling fresh discussions about its pervasive impact on diverse industries, from healthcare and communication to engineering and art.


Existing research has documented AI's capabilities in various sectors. It can synthesise big data, enhance creativity, streamline production, and personalise content. For instance, platforms like Chat GPT have proven effective in educational settings, while DALL-E 2 has expedited the creation and deployment of advertising materials. In the business domain, data analysts leverage AI for consumer behaviour analysis, including product reviews and purchase intentions. For public relations professionals, AI automates routine tasks like media list creation and meeting scheduling, thereby enhancing efficiency. Overall, AI has wide applicability across industries with obvious advantages.

However, AI is not without its challenges. It has been critiqued for potentially causing job losses, breaching privacy, infringing copyrights, and perpetuating false information. There's a growing concern that as machines take on roles in cultural production, even when working alongside their human counterparts, issues around human agency and rights come into focus, particularly when AI systems are perceived as biased or lacking a nuanced understanding of global contexts. For instance, in journalism, concerns have been raised that using AI will compromise norms and values, while in advertising and public relations, the move to using virtual influencers has posed issues of inauthenticity. Such ethical concerns continue to be raised around professional practice and the use of AI, and therefore, pose challenges to the willingness of people to embrace AI.

While the public's response to AI has often been tepid due to its complexities and uncertainties, its undeniable influence on language and social relationships underscores its relevance in communication research. It is against this backdrop we extend an invitation for contributions to this special issue that considers the relationship between artificial intelligence and communication. The focus is on how AI is influencing the communication and media industries, ranging from public relations and journalism to marketing and entertainment media (e.g. screen production, artistic practice, podcasting). We aim to address questions such as, how is AI impacting the production and consumption of media content, how might AI shape communication and culture, is AI displacing human resources, and what impact will AI have on authentic human interaction.

Topics in the special issue may include (but are not limited to):

• AI and authentic human interaction
• AI and journalism/public relations/advertising/marketing (or other communication industry)
• AI and personalization of media content
• Chatbots and virtual humans
• AI and cultural development
• AI, diversity, and inclusion
• AI media production and/or consumption practices


Publication Timeline
29 January 2024, abstracts due (200-300 words)
22 April 2024, full manuscripts due (6-7000 words)
Publication: October 2024


Please send submissions and correspondence to: co-editors Matthew Guinibert (matt.guinibert@aut.ac.nz) and Angelique Nairn (angelique.nairn@aut.ac.nz) with the subject ‘ICC-X’. 
Please visit Intellect’s website www.intellectbooks.com/journal-editors-and-contributors to follow its house referencing guidelines.


About the co-editors:


Dr Matthew Guinibert is a senior lecturer and Head of Department (Brand, Digital Communication, and Public Relations) in in the School of Communication Studies (SCS). His expertise in digital media spans visual communication, UI/UX design, technology-enhanced learning, and the strategies that underpin the use of digital media.


Dr Angelique Nairn is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication Studies (SCS). She is also the Associate Head of School for Research. Angelique has been involved in a myriad of research projects that have hinged on organisational communication, identity construction, rhetoric, and/or the creative industries. She teaches courses in the public relations department, specialising in digital public relations and persuasion.






Call For Papers for Edited Volume on: Altered #Animals: #Posthumanism and Technology in 20th and 21st Century #Discourse and Narratives-#Routledge Series






According to Descartes’ views of animals, animals are to be perceived as “automata” and “void of reason” (Discourse on the Method). As he explains, “were there such machines exactly resembling organs and outward form an ape or any other irrational animal, we could have no means of knowing that they were in any respect of a different nature from these animals” (Discourse on the Method). Contemporary animal studies scholars have moved past this outdated approach, instead accepting that animals exhibit cognition, sentience, emotion, and a myriad of demonstrations of intelligence.

Yet, with the rapid development of advanced technologies in the 20th and 21st centuries, we have seen scientists experiment with animal bodies, genes, and minds – in some ways, treating them as the machines that Descartes suggested they essentially are. In medicine, these altered animals include those used as research models like the OncoMouse, and animals that have been genetically modified for organ transplantation. Animals have also been altered for environmental purposes, including in agriculture, such as the Enviropig, and conservation, such as black-footed ferrets. These medical and environmental dimensions intersect in animals like the mosquitoes in Oxitec’s Friendly Aedes Program, which have been genetically modified to limit population size and prevent disease transmission. The use of technology to alter animals has not been limited to medical, agricultural, and environmental applications, either: other examples include Dolly the cloned sheep, Alba the genetically engineered “glowing” rabbit, and the RoboRoach, a wirelessly remote-controlled cockroach.

This edited collection, tentatively titled Altered Animals: Posthumanism and Technology in 20th and 21st Century Discourse and Narratives, will explore posthumanist theorizations of animals that have been altered using technology. In this contemporary moment, these posthumanist theorizations are possible when, in the words of Rosi Braidotti, we consider what “bio-technologically mediated bodies are capable of doing” (The Posthuman 61). Drawing attention to the interconnections between the studies of animals and technology, this collection seeks posthumanist explorations of what we refer to as “altered animals.” We use this term to refer to a nonhuman animal that has been engineered, manipulated, or altered through various advanced technological practices. In particular, this collection is focused on a few key questions: how the identity of these altered animals is constructed, how these alterations impact the relationships between humans and nonhuman animals, and how depictions of altered animals engage with posthumanism to explore the perspectives of these animals. As Donna Haraway observes in her seminal “A Cyborg Manifesto,” we cannot simply view the machine-organism hybrid in essentialist terms, since “the machine and the organism are each communication systems joined in a symbiosis that transforms both” (180). How are we to view these transformations? How do these transformations not only affect both, but also play a role in human lives?

Both animals and machines/technology are traditionally seen as separate from humanist constructions regarding the human condition. Therefore, intermingling the two can easily lead to feelings of fear, horror, or repulsion. These new animals are frequently categorized as monstrous or unnatural and therefore deserving of fewer ethical protections. In his discussion of the ethics around biotechnologically altered animals, Mickey Gjerris argues that since the “naturalness” of these animals is often raised in conversations about ethics, it “begs the question why the ‘natural’ automatically should [be seen as] more ethical than the ‘unnatural.’” (“Animal Biotechnology: The Ethical Landscape” 62) In this collection, we hope to consider this question in relation to depictions of technologically altered animals: how does technology impact the identity of these animals? How can literature, film, television, and other types of media ethically draw attention to the identity and experiences of altered animals?

A second key question this edited collection seeks to address is the way that technology is changing our relationships with nonhuman animals. Nola M. Ries asks “[f]or any human health gains we achieve through genetically altering animals for our purposes, do we lose something of our relationship with animals and take another step down a slope that becomes more slippery with each new manipulation of them?” (“Human Health Care: The Promise of Animal Biotechnology” 171). While Ries is describing genetically altered animals in medical contexts, this question can be extended to other technological alterations and applications. Is it the case that the relationships between humans and animals are being progressively eroded the more that animals are altered? Can posthuman theory help us to reconfigure our relationships with these altered animals? And how can depictions of altered animals help us to navigate the complexities of these relationships?

Posthuman theorists have highlighted the role that literature, art, and culture can play in how we perceive nonhuman beings. In Pramod K. Nayar’s discussion of the connections between critical posthumanism and critical animal studies, he notes the importance of depictions of nonhuman animals, since “[s]pecies borders and our perceptions of (the materiality of) animal and non-human others are increasingly mediated by narratives and representations” (Posthumanism 113). How do literary, artistic, film, and other depictions of altered animals influence our understandings of the animals created through technological practices? What unique approaches have been taken in depicting these animals?

We seek proposals for chapters that investigate the way that literature (of any genre/ medium), film and television, popular culture, art, and other media explore the intersecting technological and cultural factors that influence nonhuman animal identity. Chapters can explore 20th or 21st century depictions, and, when possible, should draw connections to current issues regarding existing altered animals. Some examples of altered animals for consideration may include:



“Robo-animals” or animals that have been “cyborg-ized” with cybernetic/robotic bodily attachments or enhancements
Laboratory animals that have been used as test subjects in medical and scientific experiments
Animals that have been genetically altered for agricultural purposes
Human-animal hybrids and chimeras
Cloned and genetically engineered/modified animals
Animals and computers, brain implants, and/or artificial intelligence
Animals whose cells have been preserved using cryopreservation and biobanking
Animals that have been used to produce medical materials and products, such as pharmaceuticals
Speculative/hypothetical examples of altered animals with no tangible real-world counterpart (yet)

Please send chapter proposals of 300-500 words, a biographical note including institutional affiliation (if any) of 150-200 words, and a bibliography with a minimum of 5 sources to alteredanimals@gmail.com by January 31st. We intend to notify accepted authors by February 23rd.

We intend to propose the edited collection as part of Routledge’s “Perspectives on the Nonhuman in Literature and Culture” series; the managing editor has expressed interest in seeing the proposal. We expect full-length chapters of roughly 7000 words to be due by September 2024. Thanks!

Monica Sousa and Jerika Sanderson



Sunday, January 7, 2024

Call For Papers: Special Issue – #Queerness as Strength- Journal- University of Warwick



The marginalisation of LGBTIQA+ people remains a purposeful act of successive governments, institutions and individuals. The outcome has been poorer health outcomes, limited political participation, higher incarceration rates, and increased inequality and violence globally.

However, amidst this crisis LGBTIQA+ people have also created and maintained ways and means of survival. While being forced to the margins and away from the centre, queer theories and practices have emerged that challenge not only our own marginalisation but also consistently queery and question why human life is how it is. Whether surviving epidemics, persisting for equality in the law, or resisting assimilation, the power of LGBTIQA+ people is rarely collected in and across higher education disciplines. And, although often erased, a rich and vibrant life lives on in zines, the arts, the development of technologies and medicines, and in the pursuit of joy so each generation lives a life better than the one preceding it. Truly, queerness is a strength of which many should be enviable, and it deserves to be in the highest echelons of knowledge as any other discipline or practice.

This special issue aims to collect experiences, thoughts and approaches that apply queerness as a strength across any and all disciplines of practice. Ultimately, this issue aims to offer answers to the question, ‘how can the power of queers benefit wider society?’ From medicine to mathematics, to community organising and pedagogies, through to technologies and the arts, queer strengths have always improved how people live, work, connect and persist.

Paper themes may include, but are not limited to:
  • Queer informed improvements to methods and methodologies
  • Queer approaches to strengthen data collection and analysis
  • The application of queer perspectives and experiences into and across disciplines traditionally void of queer strengths
  • Commentary and ethnographies on lived/living experience of the queer researcher/practitioner/student
  • Experiences written from global majority country citizens
  • Indigenous and First Peoples perspectives
  • Perspectives of those who live or practice an intersectional queer experience
  • In/Justice in research, education and/or other institutions
  • Survival, pain, trauma, rejection and/or loss

To further the discourse and propagate related knowledge Monash University has partnered with the University of Warwick’s interdisciplinary open-access journal Exchanges (exchanges.warwick.ac.uk) to produce a special issue based around these themes. The issue, anticipated for publication in 2025, aims to contain a range of papers from scholars around the globe.

Expressions of Interest
Therefore, we invite initial expressions of interest for articles related to these themes. Expressions should contain the following information:Proposed paper title & anticipated format[1]
An outline abstract (50-200 words)
4-6 topic keywords or phrases
Contributors’ names, email addresses & associated institutions
An optional expression of interest form may be downloaded on the journal site.

All submissions of expressions of interest should be sent to Exchanges’ Editor-in-Chief (Dr Gareth J Johnson) (exchangesjournal@warwick.ac.uk) no later than Friday 1st March 2024.

Manuscript Submissions
Following the deadline, we will contact all successful authors with further information on manuscript submissions, including the final deadline, currently anticipated to be Friday 31st May 2024. All submissions should be made via Exchanges’ online submission portal.

Format Guidance
Papers for the special issue may be submitted under any of Exchanges’ article formats which include both peer-reviewed and editorially reviewed articles. Authors are strongly encouraged to review our author guidance relating to formats and their requirements before submitting their expression of interest. A formatted template is available to help authors in shaping their manuscript. Additionally, authors may find reviewing Exchanges’ policies on authorship, rights retention and conduct ahead of their submission useful:

Author Guidance: exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/guidance
Journal Policies: exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/journal-policies




Contact & Further Information
For more information, advice or any questions, please visit our website. Alternatively contact the Editor-in-Chief or special issue lead (Jacob Thomas). We look forward to reading your submissions.

Editor-in-Chief exchangesjournal@warwick.ac.uk
Special Issue Lead jacob.thomas@monash.edu

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Endnotes
[1] For format guidance see: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/guidance#formats
[2] Editorial review includes an initial scoping consideration by the Chief Editor, to ensure general suitability for the issue, along with a later revision dialogue with the author.




Friday, January 5, 2024

Call for Articles on The reception of literary works: between translation and paratext - Dec 2024



Poli-femo n. 28

The reception of literary works: between translation and paratext

In a complex and stratified reflection on the reception of a literary work, the role of translation occupies a central position: it often represents a first encounter with foreign literature for the reader. Analysed from the perspective of literary reception, the study of translation may be conceived as a space for linguistic, literary and historical analysis of the phenomenon of translation itself, as the analytical models developed by the group of scholars of the Tel Aviv School, especially during the 1970s, serve to remind us.
We must also consider that in the general space in which the reception of the translated text takes place, we can observe highly heterogeneous factors that affect the work from perspectives that are more or less closely related to it: there are title changes, the publication of shortened editions, and editions in translation for a young audience of works that were originally written for an adult audience. These choices have repercussions on the act of translating and on the reflections it generates on literary and aesthetic issues - from lexical contributions to stylistic changes, through genre crossings from a source literary tradition to a target literary tradition - as well as on socio-cultural issues.
This stratified and heterogeneous overview also requires the consideration of other aspects through which the publishing phenomenon and the dissemination of literary works are explored. This means focusing on phenomena and aspects of the publishing sector, but also of the commercial, material or strictly intellectual spheres, aimed at influencing, conditioning and orienting the reading and 'consumption' of literary works through their translation. These are aspects that support the translation with a parallel, accompanying discourse, which feeds the so-called paratext, through which multiple editorial, authorial, critical, and translation issues can be expressed.
If, on the one hand, every correct interpretative practice reminds us that the translated work does not enjoy a fully autonomous status because it is linked to a source text from which it is inseparable, on the other hand, the palimpsestic nature of the accompanying paratext, rich in accessory information that hybridises the translated work, is configured as a privileged literary space for the construction of a cultural reading of the translated work, an aspect that determines the manner of its reception.
Within this multifaceted and dialectic scenario, the reception of the translated literary work is the product of nodal passages, ranging from interlinguistic transposition to cultural transition, to the representation of what is perceived as "other", in the long-distance dialogue established between the imaginaries of reception and the image of the "other" of which the translated work is the symbol and expression. These are operations that, in fact, in their fulfilment, attest to the at least dual, truly hybrid nature of the literary work in translation, a hybrid nature that can be found in the meshes of the translation itself as well as in the entire paratext accompanying it, as Gérard Genette reminds us in his renowned founding study on this subject.

Reflecting on all this will make it possible to define and position a proposal for reflection on the reception of literary works, understood both as a continuation of the studies and practice of translation, and as a broader cultural reading project, in which, thanks to the voices of the paratext, we find the signs - linguistic, aesthetic, imagological - of the mentalities, ideas, and cultural universes that come into contact in different historical periods and which, through this complex system of voices, converse and produce effects at a textual level.

Topics and issues that may be addressed include:

o The material conditions of the production and dissemination of a translation: ideology, censorship, imagery
o Literary and aesthetic issues: cultural terminology, changes in style, changes in genre
o Reception and image of the "other" in the authorial paratexts of translated texts
o Editorial paratexts and communication strategies of translated texts
o Voices in translated texts: authors, translators, critics, graphic designers, as forms of authorial hybridity
o Plasticity, visual paratextuality and literary reception
o Paratextuality: between text and discourse
o Linguistic and cultural transitions in the translation process: forms of referential hybridity
o Reception of the foreign intertext as a form of poetic hybridity
o Specialist journals, literary blogs, social media and their role in the dissemination and reception of translated texts

Further proposals for study on the subject put forward by those intending to collaborate in the publication will be seriously examined by the Scientific Committee, in order to widen the field of exploration undertaken in this issue of the Magazine. Contributions will be accepted in Italian, English and French.
To this end, the Editorial Board proposes the following deadlines: a preliminary and essential step is to send an abstract (min.10/max.20 lines), keywords and a brief curriculum vitae of the proposer, to redazione.polifemo@iulm.it by 15 March 2024 (absolute deadline).
Authors will receive confirmation of the acceptance of their contributions from the Editorial Office by 25 March 2024.
The deadline for submitting contributions is 15 June 2024.
All contributions will be subject to double blind peer review. After passing the peer-review phase, the contributions that will be accepted must be no longer than 35,000 characters in length, including spaces and footnotes.
The issue, edited by Prof. Paolo Proietti and Prof. Giovanna Zaganelli, will be published in December 2024.