MCLC: Political Crowds special issue--cfp reminder

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Political Crowds special issue--cfp reminder
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MCLC SPECIAL ISSUE CALL FOR PAPERS
http://mclc.osu.edu/rc/announcements/crowds.htm

The Dis/Appearance of the Political Crowd in Contemporary China
Guest Edited by Anup Grewal and Tie Xiao

Deadline: January 15, 2013

This special issue considers the question of the cultural imaginary of
collectivity and mass political action in contemporary China, in
comparison to, in light of, and as a departure from its centrality in much
of the early and mid twentieth century.

For most of the twentieth century, the imagery of both actual and imagined
masses in action was central to evoking political discontent, power, and
even subjectivity in different representational forms. Such imagery
appears to be largely missing in contemporary China: either actively
disappeared or relegated to crowds harnessed for state rituals, stirred up
by entertainment, or yoked to a historical past in official politics and
culture; and appearing as oblique and sometimes nostalgic imagination in
the wider cultural realm. Is China witnessing what has been deemed a
global end to the "era of the crowd," in which masses as literal physical
assemblies, when they do appear, are cast in the mold of anomalies or
anachronisms? Or, is there a re-appearance of the lure of collective
action, real and imagined, in new formations of the "multitude"? How do we
consider recent upsurges of mass action in China today? What/who do they
represent and how are they represented? What possibilities are generated
for political collectivity in the dispersed masses mobilized by new media
networks, or creative expressions evoking stealthy forms of political
identification? Do these potentially new forums of collective mobilization
and expression challenge ideas about the necessity of actual assembly and
physical participation in collective action for the creation of both
political subjectivity and large-scale political communities?What effect
do artistic representations, from digital crowds in film to literary
representations of "the people" or identities of class, sexuality and
gender, have for the cultural imagination of the political power of the
masses in contemporary China?

Finally, this special issue aims to tap into urgent questions about the
nexus between aesthetics and politics and the problem of community, not
only in China today but within the contemporary formation of globalization
more generally. In other words, we seek to address questions of the
possibility of non-totalitarian forms of collectivity, mass action, and
their representation, and more generally intervene in discussions about
the global imagination and practice of participatory politics that has
been most compellingly enlivened by the ongoing Arab revolutions, the
Occupy and 99% movements and, within China more locally, recent social
media mobilized actions as well as protests in Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang,
and Wukan.

We welcome papers that address such themes and others through historical
and contemporary perspectives of actual and imagined masses in China and
that take up the question of "representation" in all its political and
aesthetic connotations. Papers may come from a range of representational
and/or media perspectives, including those of film, photography, public
performance art, popular television drama, literature, architecture,
advertising, and official state communications.

The submission deadline is January 15th, 2013. Please adhere to MCLC STYLE
GUIDELINES <http://mclc.osu.edu/jou/mclsubm.htm>. Send electronic
submissions to *both* guest editors, Anup Grewal (anupgi at gmail.com) and
Tie Xiao (tiexiaotie at gmail.com). Send an electronic copy to the MCLC
Editor, Kirk Denton (denton.2 at osu.edu), and a paper copy with cover letter
to:

Editor, MCLC
Hagerty Hall 398
The Ohio State University
1775 College Rd.
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1340