CFP: Critical Insights: Literature of Inequality

Kimberly Drake, the editor of the proposed book Critical Insights: Literature of Inequality, a collection of scholarly essays (under contract with Grey House Publishing/EBSCO), seeks contributions on literature, music, and film/television dealing with inequality and social injustice. This volume will include critical readings of this theme in texts from any country and of any period; the goal for each chapter is provide a literary interpretation of one or more texts that draws on our most recent theoretical tools to illuminate and explicate representations of inequality.  Inequality for the purpose of this volume relates to race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, and ability, and I particularly welcome studies of texts that address multiple vectors of inequality. Chapters might also consider authors’ strategies for compelling readers’ attention to issues of inequality as well as questions of aesthetics, canon formation, and literary value.  Because Critical Insights volumes are directed toward a readership of advanced high school and college students, I’m looking for essays on the most canonical texts (fiction, plays, and films) associated with this topic, but also texts that are less canonical and/or from outside of the West. The book will be composed of 14 original essays that present arguments and critical analysis of text while still remaining accessible to the readership. These 14 chapters will include 10 literary criticism chapters (5000 words each) and 4 chapters focusing on particular aspects of the theme, including a “critical lens” chapter, a chapter on the cultural/historical context of one text, a chapter comparing 2-3 texts, and a “critical reception” chapter (4000-5000 words each). Authors I hope to cover in the volume could include Douglass, Stowe, Twain, Chesnutt, Hopkins, Du Bois, Norris, Wharton, Riis, Gilman, Sinclair, Toomer, Larsen, Hurston, Olsen, Wright, Baldwin, Kafka, Mailer, Dostoyevsky, Orwell, Ellison, Faulkner, Walker, Morrison, Lee, Kogawa, Kingston, Erdrich, Cooper, and Silko–but I am very open to suggestions.

To propose a chapter, please send a 300 to 500-word abstract (or more than one abstract) and a cv ASAP, or by October 2, 2017. Once I have confirmed your submission, I can give you information about deadlines and procedures, but the volume is scheduled to be published during the spring of 2018, so deadlines will be coming up soon.