Geopolitics and the Anthropocene: Examining the Implications of Climate Change in the narratives of Global South (Journal of Narrative and Language Studies)

Deadine for abstracts: 31 March 2022

Call for papers for a special issue of Journal of Narrative and Language Studies

Geopolitics and the Anthropocene: Examining the Implications of Climate Change in the narratives of Global South

The term ‘Anthropocene,’ which refers to the current geological epoch as a result of the escalation of anthropogenic activities, has sparked much debate since its proclamation by Paul J. Crutzen in 2000. Crutzen argues that the beginning of the Anthropocene coincides with the beginning of the fossil fuel energy regime in the late eighteenth century (Crutzen 2000). In other words, the onset of the Anthropocene marks an increase in the carbon concentration in the atmosphere, eventually contributing to global warming. Anthropocene, the human dominated geological epoch, being arguably tied with the fossil fuel extractions, calls for the convergence of natural and human capitalist histories (Chakrabarty 2016). The capitalist history indicates an imperial past that has thrived on fossil fuel extraction from the Asian and African colonies. The flourishing of the empire at the expense of the environmental health of the colonised has created an ecological divide between the imperial power holders and their subjects. There is no significant change in the present scenario given the expansion of the neo-colonial regime of the Global North that exploits the ‘extraction ecologies’ (Miller 2021) and ‘resource cursed’ (Nixon 2010) nations of the Global South.

The European and American powers’ politics of de-nationalising the resources of the decolonized nations has created an opportunity for the Global North multinationals to exploit the resources of the Global South, thereby damaging the immediate ecology of those countries. Such a divisive and exploitive scenario calls for the assignment of the epoch as ‘Capitalocene’, the ‘geology of capital accumulation’ (Malm 2016), instead of ‘Anthropocene,’ meaning the ‘geology of mankind’. The term ‘Capitalocene’ points to the economic divide between the developed Global North and the developing Global South and the climate change-related inequitable experiences of the two economically divided parts of the globe. Critics argue that the poor and other dispossessed communities are relatively more vulnerable to the current climate change than those capitalist states that primarily contribute to it. The geographical peculiarity of the Global South, with its remnants of the colonial past, requires an assessment of the anthropogenic ecological degradation contextualised within the geopolitics of the Global North and the Global South.

Thus, the special issue of the Journal of Narrative and Language Studies aims to introspect into the politics of unequal human agency and its resultant consequences related to climate change in the literature of the Global South. In this issue, we would like to place a special emphasis on the ‘Anthropocene fictions’ (Trexler 2015) produced within the literary culture of the Global South, addressing the problems of the present climate crisis and speculating on the future in order to understand ‘what anthropogenic climate change is and how long its effects may last’ (Chakrabarty 2016). In doing so, we invite abstracts that will explore the varied implications of ‘Anthropocene’/ ‘Capitalocene’ through the literary practises of the Global South, emphasising the issues related to climate refugees, eco-cultural calamities, environmental justice, citizenship, human-nonhuman interrelationship, dispossession of indigenous communities, and capitalism versus climate and island vulnerability. Thus, the special issue intends to invite submissions making theoretical and literary investigations into the multifaceted ‘Anthropocene’, particularly contextualised in the Global South, which demands greater representation within the climate change discourses. In the special issue, we also seek to examine the role of the authorial voices from the Global South in explicating the dire climatic conditions of the region in relation to geopolitics and in presenting an alternative environmental historiography of the Global South.

We thus invite scholars to submit abstracts/paper proposals that address the following (but not limited to) issues contextualised in the Global South and literature:

• The critique of human agency in the Anthropocene
• The critique of unequal human agency in the Capitalocene
• Capitalism and climate change
• Environmental justice and citizenship
• Indigenous communities and the climate crisis
• Speculative fiction and climate change
• Human-nonhuman interrelationship
• Fossil fuel energy regime and ‘extraction ecologies’
• Ecological and cultural calamities
• Postcolonial ecology and climate change
• Graphic narratives and climate change
• Racism and speciesism
• Island ecology and the Anthropocene

The abstracts (300 words) should be submitted to specialissuegk@gmail.com no later than March 31st, 2022.

Intimation of the selection of abstracts: 15 April 2022

After an initial review of abstracts by the editors of the special issue, selected authors will be invited to contribute full-length (5.000–7000 words) articles written according to APA 7th edition and adhering to standard NALANS guidelines for authors that can be found here: https://www.nalans.com/index.php/nalans/about/submissions. The deadline for submission of full articles is June 30, 2022. This issue is expected to come out in October 2022.

NALANS (ISSN: 2148-4066), the Journal of Narrative and Language Studies is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal published by Karadeniz Technical University. The Journal is indexed in SCOPUS, MLA International Bibliography, DOAJ, The Linguist List, Google Scholar, DRJY, ASOS, Academic Resource Index, Turkish Education Index, SOBIAD. All other important information on the Journal can be found here: https://www.nalans.com/index.php/nalans/index 

Issue editors

Goutam Karmakar, Ph.D. (English), is an Assistant Professor of English at Barabazar Bikram Tudu Memorial College, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, Purulia, West Bengal, India. His forthcoming and recently published edited books are Narratives of Trauma in South Asian Literature (Routledge), The City Speaks: Urban Spaces in Indian Literature (Routledge), and Religion in South Asian Anglophone Literature: Traversing Resistance, Margins and Extremism (Routledge, 2021). He has been published in journals including MELUS, Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, South Asian Review, Journal of Gender Studies, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, National Identities, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, and Asiatic among others.

Somasree Sarkar is an Assistant Professor of English at Ghoshpukur College, University of North Bengal, West Bengal, India. She is also pursuing her Ph.D. from the Department of English, University of North Bengal, West Bengal, India. Her articles have been published in an edited volume, Partition Literature and Cinema: A Critical Introduction (UK: Routledge, 2020). Her articles have also been published in Journal of Gender Studies, South Asian Review and Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. 

Mustafa Zeki Çıraklı, PhD, is an Associate Professor of English Language and Literature at Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Narrative and Language Studies.