MCLC: Journal of Narrative Theory--cfp

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Journal of Narrative Theory-cfp
************************************************************

X-posted from ACCL Facebook page

Nataša Kovačević  
The Journal of Narrative Theory, "Consensual Empires"
Call for Papers

The Journal of Narrative Theory (JNT) seeks submissions for an upcoming
special issue, “Consensual Empires.”

“Consensual Empires” aims to provide a forum for the examination of an
important area of postcolonial and globalization studies emerging after
the official end of the Cold War: the re-constitution of empire in
relation to the formerly or currently socialist countries. The “writing”
of the other now turns not on the essential difference between East and
West, or North and South, or center and periphery, but on the logic and
rhetoric of sameness. The post-socialist or newly capitalist, other – from
the Balkans to Beijing – is caught up in a halting but inevitable process
of becoming-the-same as the West: liberal, modern, normal. The insistence
on emulating Western practices is aided by the ubiquitous phenomenon of
self-Orientalization (or internalization of the desire to become-the-same
as the West) and by imperial regimes of consensus building, as theorized
by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. Similarly, the current world order is
no longer marked by overt exclusions of difference but rather by
conditional inclusions into the global capitalist “family” based on a host
of meritocratic criteria. Amy Kaplan’s discussion of the trope of homeland
in US post-9/11 discourse can be extended to the rhetoric of global
capitalist empire predicated on an intimate possibility of belonging,
voluntary tending to this home as a space of safety, and implicit
exclusions of those who threaten it. The logic of sameness also reflects
the logic of capital (reification or general equivalence), producing
desirable identities via the disciplinary mechanisms of neoliberal models
of labor and consumption. Capitalist expansion in (post)socialist
societies owes more to Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemonic domination,
therefore, rather than to colonial-type conquest. Indeed, in transitioning
socialist societies in particular, neoliberal capitalism operates
primarily as the organization of popular consent, intellectually
structured around important hegemonic principles. Its acceptance crucially
depends on the mediation and support of national governments and bourgeois
elites.

Essays (max. 10,000 words) should address cultural narratives that can
help us understand the creation of consensual empires in (post)socialist
countries. We encourage projects that mix the objects of postcolonial
theory and globalization studies to yield a revised view of
(post)socialist Eastern Europe, Asia, South America and other parts of the
world. Ideally, essays should move beyond narrative analysis and theory on
the postcolonial side and sweeping accounts of cultural change on the
globalization side. We are interested in a range of contemporary cultural
practices and narratives – literature, film, television, and art
performance – in (post)socialist spaces where a postcolonial lens would be
necessary to yield deep historical implications and tie neoliberal
transitions to the history of empire. Here are possible avenues of inquiry:

How do neoliberal modes of governmentality manufacture consensus,
advertising the new empire as a hip, multicultural, all-inclusive club?

Who are the agents of empire-soft in (post)socialist spaces and how do
they appeal to public affect/intellect/community concerns in promoting
their goals?

Conversely, which cultural narratives reflect dissensus and/or creative
adaptations to Westernization and accession to neoliberal empire?

How are Orientalizing narratives employed, on the one hand, to foster the
internalization of inferiority and need to emulate the West, and on the
other, to create exclusions and project inferiority onto less Westernized
“others”?

How do cultural narratives portray encounters between neoliberal
capitalist and (post)socialist discourses in terms of shifting attitudes
to labor, identity, class, consumerism, and/or leisure activities?
Information about the journal can be found at the following address:
<http://www.emich.edu/english/jnt/
<http://www.facebook.com/l/NAQEGu2oN/www.emich.edu/english/jnt/>>

Contributors should follow the MLA style (7th edition), with footnotes
kept at a minimum and incorporated into the text where possible.

Please send a copy of the full submission by email attachment to the
editor, Natasa Kovacevic (nkovacev at emich.edu), by July 1, 2014. Interested
authors can send inquires about papers topics that are in development
prior to the deadline.