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CFP: The Postcolonial Novel, Post-9/11 | Studies in the Novel

Deadline December 01, 2019

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Studies in the Novel is currently seeking submissions for a special issue, The Postcolonial Novel, Post-9/11, which will be guest-edited by Gaurav Desai (Univ. of Michigan) and published in Winter 2020.

As we approach the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, this special issue invites contributors to address how the postcolonial novel, broadly construed, has been shaped by and in turn responded to the events of 9/11. Even as we extend this call, we want our interlocutors to have a critical stance toward our framing of the topic—is 9/11 an appropriate historical marker of global relevance or does it exhibit a US-centric worldview? Is the designation postcolonial still the most effective marker for cultural production post-9/11 when the “colonialism” that it often refers to is overwhelmingly marked by a previous era?

Beyond these matters of framing, the issue is interested in papers that consider how postcolonial novels have engaged with topics such as the alleged clash of civilizations, the notion of just and unjust wars, the politics of retribution, the discourse of “national security,” the erosion of civil liberties, the surveillance of the “foreigner,” figurations of the “terrorist” and “terrorism,” Islamophobia, New Orientalism / Post-Orientalism, the migrant postcolonial novel post-9/11, transnational feminism in a post-9/11 world, US imperialism post-9/11, international responses to 9/11, and inter-ethnic solidarities/tensions in the aftermath of 9/11, among others. We are equally interested in publishing articles that engage with the ways in which 9/11 has shaped both the themes and the forms of the postcolonial novel.