FRAME 37.2 “Between the Lines”
Organization: FRAME Journal of Literary Studies
CALL FOR PAPERS FRAME 37.2 “Between the Lines”
Liz Howard, Canadian poet of Anashinaabe descent, said of her poetry writing that it “arrived out of a silence I fought all my life to disclose” (McLennan). If silence is a tool of oppression, then both speaking out, orally and in writing, and reading between the lines to expose what remains unsaid or erased, can become a means of resistance. Creative methods, such as ‘critical fabulation’ (Hartman), focus on how silences can counter and critique oppressive structures. Hartman’s approach to gaps in the archive centres on the resistance of objects and people to erasure and “imagine[s] what might have happened or might have been said or might have been done” (Hartman 11). Similar to how silencing is oppressive, language can also function as a form of oppression. The impingement of a language on colonised people alters their possible means of expression: one of Howard’s poems in her collection Letters In A Bruised Cosmos (2021) reads that “the limits of my language are the limits of my world. And the word was final beyond a reasonable doubt” (Howard 28). However, by speaking up through her poetry, Howard explicates the “revenant consciousness” that has been erased in favour of Western philosophical and colonial texts (McLennan), and responds to archival silence.
For FRAME’s next issue, we invite scholars of literary studies and related fields to do the same, to read between the lines, to rebel against dominant systems of knowledge production and expression, and to consider the power of literary texts herein. What is the creative potential of different literary devices, forms, and genres in challenging oppressive structures? How can literature help us reshape knowledge in- and outside of academia? What are the dynamics of emancipatory writing, and how is language itself complicit in oppression? What can literature tell us about processes of marginalisation of places, people, and things, and how can it bring marginalised perspectives to the foreground? Themes and topics related to these questions might include, but are not limited to:
- Fugitivity: refusal, evasion, and anti-politics
- Oral literature and its power of resistance
- Transculturality: troubling cultural fixity
- The archive and the politics of the empty space
- Witnessing and testimonials
- Critiquing the university and exploring non-institutionalised knowledge
- Silence and silencing
- Translated, translingual, bi- and multilingual literature
- Minor literature and marginalised perspectives
- Subversive literary devices: irony and satire
- Postcolonialism and decoloniality
- Underground literature and censorship
- Trauma and resilience
- Marginalised languages and dialects
- Oppressive Western philosophical traditions: e.g. logocentrism, speciesism.
- Literature and social movements: protest music, protest poetry, manifestos
The above questions and concerns are only a few of the many themes that could be explored in the upcoming issue. However, we would like to stress that while FRAME encourages interdisciplinary and creative approaches, every submission should show a clear connection to literary studies, as we are a literary journal first and foremost.
If you are interested in writing for FRAME, please submit a brief proposal of max. 500 words by 1 April 2024. Proposals should include a thesis statement, general structure, and a preliminary reflection on the argument's theoretical framework. On the basis of all abstracts, contributors whose proposals are accepted will be notified by 6 April 2024 and asked to submit a draft version of the paper by 13 May 2024. Be mindful that we hold the right to reject draft versions to ensure consistency and coherence across all contributions to the issue.
The deadline for the article’s first full version is 17 June 2024, after which the editing process begins. Articles in our main section, which is reserved for scholars with a doctoral degree, have a word limit of 6000 words, including bibliography and footnotes. For our Masterclass section, graduate and PhD students are invited to write up to a maximum of 4000 words. Please feel free to contact us at info@frameliteraryjournal.com, should you have any questions. More information about our journal, as well as our submission guidelines, can be found on our website: www.frameliteraryjournal.com.
Works Cited
Hartman, Saidiya. “Venus in Two Acts.” Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, vol. 12, no. 2, 2008, pp. 1-14.
Howard, Liz. Letters in A Bruised Cosmos. McClelland & Stewart, 2021.
McLennan, Rob. “A Short Interview with Liz Howard.” Jacket2, 26 March 2015, A short interview with Liz Howard. Jacket2. Last accessed: 16 February 2024.
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FRAME Journal of Literary Studies