Fastitocalon volume I (issues no. 1 & 2)
Published by Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier (WVT)
Immortals and the Undead
The first volume of Fastitocalon is going to be dedicated to the exploration of the literary, poetical, cultural and historical aspects of the immortals and the undead. Albeit the two categories have, at first sight, only very little to do with each other, they can be interpreted as representing two approaches towards the larger question of death, mortality, and longevity.
Immortality has fascinated human beings probably ever since the awareness of their own mortality has dawned on them. Thus, the earliest extant epic Gilgamesh deals with the quest for immortality. Yet the category of immortals may not only include ‘positive' examples such as the Taoistic masters as they appear in Wu Yuantai's novel The Eight Immortals Depart and Travel to the East (Ming Dynasty), or the successful alchemists, for example Flamel in J.K. Rowling's The Philosopher's Stone, whose immortality is part of a greater (spiritual) achievement. It may also comprise conflicted beings such as Karl Edward Wagner's Kane or even Tolkien's elves, for whom longevity may become a curse, too. Next to Tolkien's elves, the ‘classical' longaevi (nymphs, silvans, nerei etc.) may also be of interest. At the other end of the spectrum, we find figures such as the ‘eternal Jew', best known as the protagonist of Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), and his analogues. They may not be ‘immortals' in the strict sense of the word, but often participate in the ‘immortality discourse' and provide a valuable complementary view.
The undead comprise the literarily prominent examples of the revenants and vampires. Ever since the publication of John Polidori's The Vampyre (1819) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), the charismatic and erotically alluring vampire has become a popular character of modern fantastic fiction, of which the best-selling ‘Twilight-saga' by Stephenie Meyer is a most recent example. Originally at home in ‘gothic' horror novels and movies, the undead have crossed over into various other genres (fantasy, science fiction, crime, historic fiction and films etc.) and developed into a versatile element of the fantastic. Their ‘human origin' (at least in the western culture) makes them simultaneously familiar and exotic, human and monstrous with a great literary potential into which writers of the fantastic have been dipping more and more deeply.
Contributions to the volume may focus on individual works or protagonists, discuss the historical development, or explore the literary-theoretical aspects connected with these creatures.Even though the language of publication is English, we would like to encourage the contributors to include of works in other languages in their discussion of the phenomenon.
Deadline for abstracts: 18 April 2009 (issue 1) and 12 October 2009 (issue 2); for full papers upon acceptance of abstract: 30 August 2009 (issue 1) and 28 February 2010 (issue 2).
Fastitocalon peer-review rules:
All articles (and, previously, all abstracts) are subject to anonymous, external review. All require a positive judgment from the editors before being sent to reviewers, and have to receive at least one positive evaluation from an external referee to qualify for publication. In the case of articles by individuals associated with the journal in any way, each article has to receive at least two positive evaluations from two different outside reviewers. All identifying information is removed from the articles before they are sent to the reviewers, and all reviewer comments are likewise anonymously conveyed to the authors of the articles.
Abstracts, together with a brief biographical sketch, are to be sent to either of the following address:
Prof. Dr. Fanfan Chen
Email: ffchen@mail.ndhu.edu.tw / chenfantasticism@gmail.com
Postal mail: Dept. of English & Doctoral Program of Comparative Literature
National Dong Hwa University
97443 Shou Feng, Hwa Lian County
Taiwan
Prof. Dr. Thomas Honegger
Email: Tm.honegger@uni-jena.de
Postal mail: Institut für Anglistik & Amerikanistik
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Ernst-Abbe-Platz 8
D-07743 Jena
Germany