Global Migration and Literary Multilingualism (2/2023 of the Journal of Literary Multilingualism)

War, disease, famine, political oppression, climate change, and individual opportunity account for 280.6 million migrants in the world today. Although most migrants are not writers, scores of writers find themselves adjusting to lives as strangers in strange lands and adopting new literary languages.

Issue 2/2023 of the Journal of Literary Multilingualism is dedicated to the nexus between global migration and literary multilingualism. We welcome contributions on diverse aspects of this interconnection and are particularly interested in new, hitherto under-researched perspectives on the topic. For instance, essays can examine the ways in which linguistic adaptation functions as a theme within literary works. Or they can examine the ways in which changing languages has shaped migrants’ literary texts through translingualism: code-switching, hybridization, intertextuality, cross cultural encounters, different forms of translation (including self-translation), and other literary strategies.

The focus can be on the work of contemporary migrants such as Edwidge Danticat, Najat El Hachmi, Xiaolu Guo, Ha Jin, Aleksandar Hemon, Gazmend Kapllani, Milan Kundera, Alain Mabanckou, Shirin Nazammafi, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Atiq Rahimi, Igiaba Scego, and Yoko Tawada. Or it can be on the work of historical figures such as S.Y. Agnon, Mary Antin, Apuleius, Adelbert von Chamisso, Erasmus, Kahlil Gibran, Maimonides, and Anselm Turmeda. These are some examples; we are of course open to studies of authors who migrated at other times and into other languages.

To contribute new perspectives to the topic of global migration and literary multilingualism, contributions might include but are not restricted to the following questions and topics:

- What is the writers’ aesthetic approach to their multilingualism? Do they develop something like a multilingual/migratory poetics? Which literary strategies do they apply (see above)? How (if so at all) do they transfer migration and multilingualism into their literary works? -

- To what extent can focusing on multilingual aspects of migrant literature shed light on hitherto understudied aspects of migrant writing? Which conceptual tools and theoretical frames can the study of multilingual literature offer to the study of migrant literature, and vice versa? -

- Which methods are best suited to study multilingual migrant writing? Which methods should we include in our analysis (close reading, socio-literary methods, anthropological methods, cultural studies etc.)? -

- What questions do we need to consider when it comes to the production, publication, circulation, translation, and reception of multilingual migrant literature? How can this be related to debates about the national canon and/or world literature? What role does academia play in this? Which place do multilingual migrant authors have in university curricula? -

We welcome informal queries, and potential contributors may submit an abstract by April 30, 2022. Please direct queries to Steven G. Kellman (University of Texas at San Antonio), steven.kellman@utsa.edu and Sandra Vlasta (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz / Università di Bologna), sandra.vlasta@gmail.com.

The final deadline for the submission of articles of 6000-10000 words is October 15, 2022. Acceptance of the final articles is subject to double blind peer review. Please send articles as email attachments to Steven G. Kellman (steven.kellman@utsa.edu) and Sandra Vlasta (sandra.vlasta@gmail.com).