Red World Literature: Periphery, Theory, Form, System
RED WORLD LITERATURE: Periphery, Theory, Form, System
Co-editors: Hunter Bivens, University of California, Santa Cruz and Anna Björk Einarsdóttir, University of Iceland
The promise of a new ‘red’ dawn in the history of World Literature was central to the literary-political project of early 20th century internationalism. The attempt to create a new canon of world literature that could rival the canon of bourgeois literature was central to the cultural project of the Soviet-sponsored Communist International and survived its collapse in 1943. The revolutionary moment of the 1910s ushered in a new period of artistic and literary creation. Networks that connected writers and radicals across the globe appeared along with local institutions, prizes, writer’s unions, literary associations, journals, magazines, and conferences. In many places, this infrastructure survived into the post-war period, with the Cold War era shifting towards movements and political projects emphasizing solidarity between the second and the third worlds. This anthology addresses the aesthetic trends, the cultural institutions, the literary movements, and the literary forms that were particular to this cultural internationalism. We seek contributions that address aspects of this alternative cultural sphere, its networks, institutions, publishing mechanisms, and organization while also calling for chapters that engage with the literary forms that this moment produced and the theoretical discussions of what internationalist or red world literature should be like. The companion seeks to offer an introductory overview of red world literature with a focus on its peripheries, theory, form, and system. The anthology contributes to recent efforts to chart the cultural geography of the internationalist literary field throughout the 20th century, with an emphasis on tracing the various literary worlds that emerged within national and regional contexts.
We invite contributions from scholars working on internationalist or ‘red’ world literature to submit proposals on the following themes:
Periphery for a section that includes chapters addressing the various relationships between centers and peripheries of the internationalist literary system with an emphasis on chapters that map local contexts, discuss specific authors, or case studies that in one way or another engage with peripheral literary traditions.
System for a section that includes chapters engaging with the sociology of the internationalist literary system; i.e., focusing on the institutional frameworks, the publishing industry, the prize-systems, networks, and specific regions.
Form for a section that includes chapters taking on the literary forms that were specific to red world literature, i.e., focusing on forms such as proletarian realism, socialist realism, epic realism, proletarian collectivism, third world solidarity, and the aesthetics of the cold war. Included here are chapters that take on the question of how internationalist world literature developed in a dialectical relationship to both political struggles and economic development.
Theory for a section that includes chapters addressing the theoretical discussions of internationalist world literature, including local debates, theoretical contributions, and more contemporary efforts to theorize internationalist world literature from the perspective of materialist literary criticism
Deadlines:
Titles and Abstracts: November 15, 2023
First Drafts are Due: September 30, 2024
Submission Information
Abstract of 350 words indicating which thematic stream the proposal would fall under along with a short biographical paragraph. Estimated chapter length 7-8,000 words
Contact information:
Please send your abstracts and biographical information to:
Contact Information
Co-editors:
Hunter Bivens, University of California, Santa Cruz
Anna Björk Einarsdóttir, University of Iceland
Contact Email
abivens@ucsc.edu