Special Issues
Al-Andalus and Its Legacies
Guest Editors: Esperanza Alfonso & Ross Brann
In the region of Iberia that was under Islamic control from the eighth to the thirteenth century, Hebrew and Romance literatures burgeoned alongside Arabic and created the distinctive hybrid culture invoked in the name al-Andalus. We seek papers that explore literary interactions and influences between cultures and languages in the period, papers that reveal the legacy of this culture for later literary production, or those that critique later representations of al-Andalus in literary or historical texts.
Issue to appear Spring 2008
Literary Forms and Human Rights
Guest Editors: Sophia A. McClennen & Joseph R. Slaughter
The editors seek essays that offer comparative perspectives on how human rights and literary forms are interrelated. Recent literary criticism has begun to underscore some of the historical, formal, and ideological intersections of human rights and the humanities. We seek innovative essays that explore the relationships between forms of storytelling, literary representation, cultural narratives, and human rights (understood as law, as discourse, and/or as practice).
Issue to appear Winter 2009
Literature and Theories of Africa
Guest Editors: Pius Adesanmi, Irène d'Almeida, & Thomas Hale
The editors seek essays that analyze African literary or filmic works from more than one linguistic/cultural tradition, or that deal with African literary and cultural theories in a comparative perspective. Submissions may explore any of the following (not necessarily exhaustive) list of issues in African(ist) literary and cultural theorizing: orality and the challenge of modernity; the question of language(s); literature/film and the crisis of postcolonial criticism; women's writing/filmmaking and feminist theory; vernacular theory.
Submissions due by 30 June 2008
Issue to appear Spring 2009
We encourage submissions that respond to these questions with comparative analyses of study examples drawn from any period, language, and culture. Sophisticated theoretical analyses with broad application will also be considered.
All manuscripts and inquiries should be submitted to the CLS editorial address, and authors should indicate the special issue for which they would like to be considered.
Updated 20 March 2008 by Michelle Toumayants
