Journal of Literary Multilingualism Special Issue: Global Migration and Literary Multilingualism
Due Date: 04-30-2022
War, disease, famine, political oppression, climate change, and individual opportunity account for 280.6 million migrants in the world today. Although most migrants are not writers, scores of writers find themselves adjusting to lives as strangers in strange lands and adopting new literary languages. Issue 2/2023 of the Journal of Literary Multilingualism is dedicated to the nexus between global migration and literary multilingualism. We welcome contributions on diverse aspects of this interconnection and are particularly interested in new, hitherto under-researched perspectives on the topic. For instance, essays can examine the ways in which linguistic adaptation functions as a theme within literary works or examine the ways in which changing languages has shaped migrants’ literary texts through translingualism: code-switching, hybridization, intertextuality, cross-cultural encounters, different forms of translation (including self-translation), and other literary strategies.
The focus can be on the work of contemporary migrants or on the work of historical figures. We are open to studies of authors who migrated at other times and into other languages. To contribute new perspectives to the topic of global migration and literary multilingualism, contributions might include the following questions and topics:
– What is the writers’ aesthetic approach to their multilingualism? Do they develop something like a multilingual or migratory poetics? How (if so at all) do they transfer migration and multilingualism into their literary works?
– To what extent can focusing on multilingual aspects of migrant literature shed light on hitherto understudied aspects of migrant writing? Which conceptual tools and theoretical frames can the study of multilingual literature offer to the study of migrant literature, and vice versa?
– Which methods are best suited to study multilingual migrant writing (close reading, socio-literary methods, anthropological methods, cultural studies, etc.)?
– What questions do we need to consider when it comes to the production, publication, circulation, translation, and reception of multilingual migrant literature? How can this be related to debates about the national canon and/or world literature? What role does academia play in this? Which place do multilingual migrant authors have in university curricula?
We welcome informal queries, and potential contributors may submit an abstract by 30 April 2022. Please direct queries and submissions to Steven G. Kellman (steven.kellman@utsa.edu) and Sandra Vlasta (sandra.vlasta@gmail.com).
The final deadline for the submission of 6,000–10,000-word articles is 15 October. Acceptance of the final articles is subject to double-anonymous peer review.