CFP: Bulletin of Taiwanese Literature Topical Section: “Taiwan and World Literature”

Organizer: Association for Taiwan Literature 

Call for Papers

The study of world literature has drawn much attention and interest in recent literary studies. The boom of academic journals (e.g. Journal of World Literature), special issues (e.g. “Chinese Literature as World Literature,” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture), and book series (e.g. Bloomsbury’s Literatures as World Literature) speaks volumes about the vitality of this field. The concept of “world literature” provides scholars with a theoretical framework on Taiwan literature and culture different from that provided by national, postcolonial, and Sinophone literatures. World literature studies often engage issues and methods that are different from those found in other literary frameworks.   

Taiwan literature studies emerged as an academic discipline in Taiwan after the lifting of martial law in 1987. Since then, many scholars of Taiwan literature have drawn upon postcolonial theory in their research. Beginning with the turn of the twenty-first century, we have witnessed a new trend to position Taiwan literature in cross-cultural contexts. Two important theoretical frameworks—“Sinophone literature,” as spearheaded by Shu-mei Shih, and “World Chinese literature” (Shijie huawen wenxue), as proposed by mainland China—have had a profound impact on our thinking about the role and significance of Taiwan literature in cross-cultural Chinese-language literary studies in the new era. Compared with these two cross-cultural frameworks, “world literature” as a theoretical framework for the study of Taiwan literature is relatively new.     

The Association for Taiwan Literature collaborates with Bulletin of Taiwanese Literature to run the topical section “Taiwan and World Literature” in the semi-annually published journal on a regular basis. Bulletin of Taiwanese Literature is a double-blind peer-reviewed, first-tier academic research journal on the list of Taiwan Humanities Citation Index (THCI Core). We invite contributions that examine the relationship between Taiwan and world literature in any related topics. This topical section is continuously open for submission without a deadline. We anticipate publishing 1-3 topical section articles every issue. Please submit the full manuscript (6,000- 9,000 words in English; 12,000-20,000 words in Chinese) to tailit@nccu.edu.tw, including a title, a 250-word abstract, and 5-6 keywords in both Chinese and English, and follow the submission guidelines: https://tailit.nccu.edu.tw/news/news.php?Sn=845.

Contact: All queries should be directed to Dr. Hsin-Chin Evelyn Hsieh (Secretary-General, Association for Taiwan Literature; Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Culture, National Taipei University of Education) via evelynh@mail.ntue.edu.tw

Association for Taiwan Literature Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/formosa.literature/ , Website: http://www.atl.org.tw/