Call for Articles
Pharmakon: Literature and Violence
The editorial board of Skepsi is pleased to invite contributions for the fifth issue of the Interdisciplinary Online Journal of European Thought and Theory in Humanities and Social Sciences, based at the University of Kent, to be released in Autumn 2010
Following the Postgraduate Conference held at the University of Kent on 20th May, 2010, entitled ‘Pharmakon: Literature and Violence', the next issue of Skepsi will address a matter of considerable significance concerning the universality of a literary text: the question of violence.
The concept of pharmakon – which, in Ancient Greek, means both ‘poison' and ‘medicine' – may provide an inspirational image, suggesting as it does the fundamental ambiguity of the literary artefact with regard to violence and brutality in every part of the world and in every age. Indeed, violence may be examined from many different perspectives: it may be understood as the limit of representative possibilities – violence against writers, persecution, censorship, and ideological imposition. Alternatively, violence may be related to the act of writing itself, considered as an intrinsic part of the production of literature, and it may be discussed in terms of its active presence in a written text, the violence towards language and the reader. Finally, literature may be interpreted as a possible therapy or remedy for the experience of violence, as a space for the expression and articulation of meaning in contexts of pain and struggle.
We invite articles which consider the following themes:
· Violence against writers, censorship, persecution
· Writing as therapy against violence
· Violence as subject of literary representation
· Violent dimensions of textuality
· Violence against language and readership
· Place and role of literature in violent contexts
· Literature as a critique of violence
· Issues of masculinity and the feminine and their relation with violence
· Violence in women's writing
· Violence of modernity and modernism in literature
· Literature and the violence of urban life
· Literature, violence and drugs
Contributions – including an article (3000 to 5000 words, written in academic English), an abstract proposal (approximately 300 words, with a short list of keywords) and a C.V. (with your name, institution, stage of study and email address) – should be sent to Skepsi Editorial Board via e-mail (skepsi@kent.ac.uk), as attached Microsoft Word documents. Skepsi uses a version of the MHRA referencing style. Please refer to the MHRA online guide or to the Skepsi Style Guide (http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/skepsi/files/2010/02/style-guide-3rd-edition.pdf).
The deadline for all applications is Friday, 30th July, 2010.
More information on Skepsi's submission guidelines can be found on the website of the journal: http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/skepsi/. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the Skepsi editorial board (skepsi@kent.ac.uk).