Chapters for The Poetics of Grief and Melancholy in East-West Conflicts and Reconciliations

Chapters for The Poetics of Grief and Melancholy in East-West Conflicts and Reconciliations

We are inviting chapter proposals for the edited book The Poetics of Grief and Melancholy in East-West Conflicts and Reconciliations. It is a collection of academic essays that examines the representation, aesthetics, dilemma and/or dichotomy of the notions of grief and melancholy in East-West exchanges and cultural dialogues. Contributors can explore the topic in the dimensions of individual behaviors under specific social norms and cultural products such as literature, film, music, art, theatre performance and any other forms of arts/genres etc.

In his 1917 work Mourning and Melancholia (Trauer und Melancholie), Sigmund Freud connects the grief of loss with melancholic emotions which may give rise to acts of mourning. He suggested that “[i]n mourning it is the world which has become poor and empty; in melancholia it is the ego itself” (246). Inspired by Freud’s stance and with the goal of providing up-to-date intellectual resources for academics, researchers and students with ardent interests in the varying exemplifications of grief and melancholy in Sino-Western contexts, the volume serves more than a discussion over the pragmatic and aesthetic connections of grief and melancholy in relation to the inner self and the external world. It aims at the pursuit of a contemporary theorization of grief and melancholy beyond its modern limits.

We welcome submissions that include, but not limited to, the following topics:

1. Grief and melancholy in Chinese literature and its globalized dimensions
2. Representation and management of grief and melancholy in Chinese-Western comparative studies
3. Personal grief as being linked to collective melancholy in Sino-Western conflicts
4. Adaptation and transformation of grief and melancholy in the context of reconciliation
5. Mourning as performative acts of grief and melancholy
6. Historical or social accounts of grief and melancholy in Chinese-Western scenarios
7. Sino-Western psychoanalytic approaches to grief and melancholy
8. The language of grief and mourning represented in various genres
9. The poetics of translating grief and melancholy
10. The gender politics of grief and mourning

The volume will be edited by Dr. Kelly Kar Yue Chan and Dr. Chi Sum Garfield Lau. Their edited books include Chinese Culture in the 21st Century and its Global Dimensions: Comparative and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, 2020), Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern and Premodern China: Global Networks, Mediation, and Intertextuality (Springer, 2022), and Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture: Sino / Western Discourse and Aesthetics on Marriage (Springer, forthcoming).

Interested authors should send an abstract (no more than 250 words) and a short biography (no more than 150 words) to the editors (kkychan@hkmu.edu.hk and cslau@hkmu.edu.hk) by 9 September 2022. Authors will be notified of the decision made by the editorial team by 28 October 2022. Only papers that have not been submitted to any other publishers before will be considered for acceptance.

For details and enquiries, please write to kkychan@hkmu.edu.hk and cslau@hkmu.edu.hk.

Full Paper Submission Guideline:
The submission should be between 6,000 and 10,000 words (excluding references) and it should follow the attached full paper style guide.

Submission Channels:
Please send your full paper prepared in APA style to kkychan@hkmu.edu.hk and cslau@hkmu.edu.hk by 31 January 2023. All received abstracts and papers will go through the process of internal review and language editing before they are included in the proposal to potential publishers.

Important Dates:
9 September 2022 (Fri)  Deadline of abstract submission
28 October 2022 (Fri)     Notification of acceptance
31 January 2023 (Tue)    Deadline of full paper submission