We are delighted to share this call for papers from The Journal of Decolonising Discipline on the theme Literary (Un/Re)Settling: Decolonial discourse in/and South African literary systems.

The Journal of Decolonising Disciplines (JDD) invites contributions to a special issue on the ways in which decolonial discourse has manifested in the various South African literary systems, in other words, literature written in English, Afrikaans and the literary traditions of isiXhosa and isiZulu. This special issue will be guest edited by Zamansele Nsele (University of Johannesburg) and Chelsea Haith (Oxford University). In mining the rich metaphoric intersections of  settler/settling’, ‘unsettling’ and ‘resettling’ within literary systems, contributions are invited that consider both the historic (through the Black Archive) and sudden, contemporary uptake of decolonising terminology in literary traditions in South Africa, and how this terminology has served to surface, neutralise or compound systemic, academic and popular literary injustices and inequalities.

While specific attention could be given to the ways in which this uptake can/has acted as ‘settler moves to innocence’, contributions that showcase how various literary systems have historically resisted the tokenistic co-optation of decolonial discourse are also encouraged. Submissions on (though not limited to) the following thematic areas, strands and questions are invited:

• Historical analyses of decoloniality in/through the works of the Black Archive (constitutive of, for instance, Noni Jabavu, Nontsizi Mgqwetho, SEK Mqhayi);
• Comparative work on how different South African literary systems have co-opted decolonial terminology;
• The productive tension between the introduction of unsettling paradigms and re-settling literary responses;
• The functional relation between the postcolonial as literary lens and decolonial discourse;
• Decolonial feminism(s) in the postcolonial literary tradition;
• The embrace of literary queerness as substitutive proxy for decoloniality; and
• Oral/written interfaces in (post)colonial South Africa.

Africa. Image on Pexels.com

Interested authors are invited to submit abstracts of no more than 300–400 words by 6 September 2019 to jdd@up.ac.za. Full papers are to be submitted to jdd@up.ac.za on or before 31 January 2020. Contributions should range between 5 000 and 8 000 words, including references, footnotes and images. For author guidelines on submissions, please consult the for Authors tab on the website via the link.

Please find more information about JDD and the special issue here.

Categories: Calls for & opportunities, Research, Studies, Teaching

Tags: academic research, Call for papers, Call for submissions, decolonial theory, decolonisation, feminism, history, Johannesburg, language, literature, oral histories, Popular culture, South Africa, submission guidelines, University of Oxford, writing