Studies in
the Humanities
Published at Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Studies in the Humanities is a multi-disciplinary journal
of theoretical investigations in literature, film, drama, and
cultural studies. We encourage articles that reach across
disciplines and cultures to deepen our understanding of a work, an
artist, a genre, an artistic milieu, or the conditions of artistic
production.
Studies in the Humanities also publishes reviews of recent
books in the areas of our publishing interests. For further
information, contact the Book Review Editor.
Call for
Papers
Seeking submissions for a
special issue of Studies in the Humanities titled “The Artist as
Public Intellectual: a Fresh Look at Twentieth-Century’s
‘Unacknowledged Legislators’.” This special issue revisits Percy B.
Shelley’s claim that artists are the unacknowledged legislators of
the world; using hindsight, we want to explore the question if and
how activist artists, i.e., those whose work runs from political
essay to fiction, poetry, or drama, have lived up to Shelley’s
ideal. Some examples of politicized writers include Octavio Paz
(Mexico), Bertold Brecht (Germany), George Orwell (England), Rebecca
West (England), and Lin Yutang (China). Contributors should use one
or several of the following key questions to focus their essays:
What contributions have specific artist-intellectuals made to the
areas of socio-cultural analysis, political philosophy, and actual
history? What role did liberal humanism play in these writers’
artistic and ideological projects? To what extent and in what form
have artist intellectuals succeeded in reconciling their aesthetic
impulses with their political activism? No particular theoretical
framework is required, although Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno,
Carl Schmitt, and Louis Menand, among others, can offer useful
approaches to this topic. Besides more theory-driven contributions,
I am interested in essays that historicize the emergence of the
trans-national intellectual, and I encourage comparative work that
explores the topic of exilic or migratory patterns among activist
artist-intellectuals. Please submit a 500 word proposal, including
the author or authors to be studied, the thematic direction, and the
methodological approach by May 1, 2008. Send proposals to: Dr.
Bernard Schweizer, Associate Professor of English, Long Island
University, 1 University Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11201
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