IRCALC Journal of African Literature: JAL (5)

CFP: JAL~NP 2008: The New Literatures -- Call for Abstracts /Submissions

WE THE EDITORS of the International Research Confederacy on African Literature and Culture (IRCALC) are currently receiving submissions in existing literatures and oratures of Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone Africa involving issues in contemporary postcolonial modernities and citizenship (re)definitions.

This time we have chosen to look specifically at the literature of Conflict, of War and Post war dilemmas; literatures that address the discords and divisions within Africa, the question of historical disputes, of ideological, tribal and cultural clashes and the resultant tensions wrought on individuals and family, citizens and leaderships on national and continental scales.

Our reason for such a focus in 2008 is that while the leading nations of the western world may yet posture on peace and an end to nuclear rearmaments, Africa, born out of historical catastrophe imposed both from within and without, has been neglected in its burden of poverty and violence etched deeper in the fabric of its postcolonial strictures. Generations of African writers who seem to harp on the deep need for urgent rescue from degradation wrought upon the continent from centuries of violence and exploitation inflicted within and without her borders have been glossed over in literary taxonomies of modernism or protest.

While our proposition is to look for arguments confronting any one or more theories for critique, interpretation or exposition of fiction, biographies, travelogues, irrespective of the language of narrative, which explore the idea of conflicts in African past and contemporary histories, our objective is in the discernment of how such literatures of contemporary African and Diasporic existence should be received by literary communities from Africa-centred perspectives, and what implications for African cultures and literatures abound by their existence and studies. In other words, how have these conflicts developed free, independent and uncluttered aesthetics of African literature in the last decades of their appearance?

Our reading is inclusive but certainly not exhaustive of the newer list of African literatures which includes the writings of Ossie Enekwe, Peter Onwudinjo, Mabel Segun, Ama Ata Aidoo, Chin Ce, Chris Abani, Joe Ushie, Yvonne Vera, Neshani Andreas, Mia Couto, Femi Osofisan, JM Coetzee, Edward Brathwaite, Ferdinand Oyono, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Pepetela, Chimamanda Adichie, Agostinho Neto, Léonora Miano, etc. [Click here for more lists]  Comparative approaches with non African or Diasporic African literatures are particularly welcome. In addition, contributors may choose to concentrate on any one or two of the following subcategories emerging from our 2008 affiliated African Fictions discourse series: Trauma and the Continent, The Aesthetics of Reconciliation, Female Trauma and the Politics of African Feminism(s), Writing/Righting the Environment: Representation and Activism, Death, Agony, and Other-Worldly Significations.

Please request PDF copies or extracts from previous discourses on the above prior to your abstract proposals.

Submissions Guidelines:
Original abstracts of no more than 600 words showing topic, intended arguments and their relevance to the discourse theme or subcategory should be submitted by Microsoft Word attachment for approval to the Editors, ircalc@gmail.com If accepted contributors will be notified by correspondence and their abstracts published on the website. All original submissions shall come in English. Materials in French and other indigenous African languages such as Hausa and Swahili shall be accepted as long as they are followed by their English translations.

Papers which citations do not follow the MLA 2003 format will be rejected.

Poetry
Scholarly essays on poetry must compare two or more recent poets of African, African-American, African-Caribbean expressions.

Book Reviews: Fiction, Poetry, Drama
Book reviews of not more than 1000–2000 words must be analytical and critical and geared towards useful basis for further academic study. Please indicate book prices, publishers contact addresses including URL if available.

Creative Works: Poetry, Short Fiction, Art (Images)
Limit poetry and art submissions to six poems /images (grayscale jpg) of not more than twenty lines per poem. Poems of exceptional length may be divided into parts which altogether must be no more than six parts to make a complete entry. A short title and description should follow jpg image entries.

Short Fiction/Biographical Entries
Short Fiction/Biographical Entries of writers should not exceed 3000 words and for biographical information must contain previously unpublished /additional  information regarding the artiste-poet, novelist or dramatist. a jpg image of the artiste is required.

Deadline:
The deadline for assessment and review of Papers has further been reviewed to January 31 2008.

JAL-NP 2008 Shortlist

Author

Title

Type

PDF

J. A. U

Two Africas In One: Neo-Colonialism and the African Writer

Essay

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J. W. B

Representing "les multitudes": Resisting Normative Definitions of Gender and Sexuality in Bessora’s Deux bébés et l’addition (Two Babies and the Bill)

Essay

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C. C. E

'The Eternal Dance': Four Decades of Modern African Poetry

Essay

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C. L

Dis-location of the Self and Definition of the Other in Nurrudin Farah's Map

Essay

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O. O

Geography of Anxiety: Narrating Childhood, Womanhood and the Family Enterprise in Unoma Azuah’s Sky High Flames and Chinamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus

Essay

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R. O

'Song of Heroes'

Poetry

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I. B. G.

"A Nigerian Elegy", "The President's Face", "Song"

Poetry

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U. O

No Humanity in War: Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun

Review

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O. N

Rhythms and Trajectories of Combat: A Comparative Analysis of some Igbo
and Biafra War Songs

Essay

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S. A. A

Writing the Past: Conflict and War in Nadine Gordimer's None to Accompany Me, Yvonne Vera's The Stone Virgins and Lesego Malepe's Matters of Life and Death

Essay

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E. N. N.

Buchi Emecheta’s Destination Biafra:  Feminist (Re-) Writing of the Nigerian Civil War

Essay

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