MCLC: Transforming Book Culture--cfp

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Sisan Tang <sisan.tang at unisg.ch>
Subject: Transforming Book Culture--cfp
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CALL FOR PAPERS: Transforming Book Culture in China, 1600-2014
PAPER PROPOSAL DUE: 15 September 2014
FINAL PAPERS DUE for publication in Kodex 2016: 28 February 2016

We invite the submission of paper proposals (400 words max.) on the topic
of Transforming Book Culture in China, 1600-2014 for publication in Kodex
2016 (The Yearbook of the International Society for Book Studies (IBG),
edited by Christine Haug and Vincent Kaufmann, Harrassowitz Publishing
House, Wiesbaden. Daria Berg will guest edit the Kodex 2016 issue).

The aim of this volume is to bring together up-to-date research exploring
the latest trends in China’s book, literary, print and Internet culture to
shed new light on the transformation of book culture and the publishing
industry in China. While the main focus shall be on reform-era and
postsocialist China (1979-present), the volume also invites contributions
dealing with the late Ming, Qing, Republican and Mao periods, spanning the
sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries. The volume aims to provide a
sense of the historical continuities as well as the more obvious
discontinuities characterising this period to show how China’s book and
literary culture have developed in print media and on the Internet.

China’s market reforms since 1979, its consumer revolution and the digital
revolution have contributed to a rapid transformation of China’s print
culture. Twenty-first century China’s print culture appears characterised
by radical decentralisation, innovation especially in digital publishing,
and a burst of creativity. The privatisation and commercialisation of the
publishing industry have terminated the state monopoly on print culture.
Yet publishing still needs to negotiate the area of tension between state
censorship and market demands. The Internet has broken the blockade
imposed on state media while the government pays a heavy political prize
for censorship (Zheng 2005). The digital media have opened new avenues for
publishing, presenting a new public sphere in postsocialist China while
changing the dynamics of the book market and publishing industry.

WE INVITE PAPER PROPOSALS EXPLORING:

•        The transformation of the publishing industry in China
•        Books and the marketplace: The rise of commercial publishing
•        The rise of new authors
•        Books, new media and new forms of communication
•        Internet literature, E-books and e-publishing
•        Blogs, apps, online writings
•        Banned books, censorship and the regulation of ‘harmful writings’
•        Bestsellers: books and consumer culture
•        Books, cybersphere and celebrity culture
•        Lost books
•        Books, originality, authenticity and plagiarism
•        Books and gender: women authors, female audiences
•        Publishers in China
•        European publishers targeting the Chinese market

The final papers for publication in the Kodex 2016 issue should have a
length of approx. 40,000-60,000 characters. Please send your paper
proposal (350 words max.) and a short bio to: Professor Daria Berg,
University of St. Gallen, sisan.tang at unisg.ch and wei-hsin.lin at unisg.ch by
15 September 2014.