CFP: Global Encounters: Taiwan Literature vis-à-vis World Literatures
Globalization, a trend prevailing to the future development of Taiwan, has
tremendously transformed the vistas of political reforms, cultural productions, and
ethnic re-composition on the island. The globalized landscape concurrently
re-channels the visions of not only the local residents, including indigenous indwellers
and foreign settlers, but also the international communities keeping an eye on the
island’s route of development. Such gradual but radical transformation, in many ways,
has encouraged the nation-state identity and identification to vacillate between
insularism and globalization. In this transitional state, Taiwan can be regarded as a
post-industrial, postmodern, or postcolonial cultural montage. It is noteworthy that
such robust transformation has been recorded by a great number of local writers, film
directors, artists, and cultural activists who document the pain, confusion, and/or
elation during this marching process. Since this struggle cannot be articulated simply
from an “insular” perspective, Taiwan’s cultural productions and activities can be seen
to be mirrored in nations across the world that have undergone or are still
experiencing similar situations. It is from this vantage of placing Taiwan in the global,
local or glocal panorama that this collection of essays seeks research papers that
address issues relevant to the process of cultural transformations, the cultural and
literary intertextuality between Taiwan and other nations, the vision of the world in
Taiwan’s literature and vice versa. Other interdisciplinary or comparative topics to
illuminate the complex positions of Taiwan in transit are also welcome. We encourage
new theoretical approaches to comparative analysis of two or three bodies of literature.
The collection also looks for papers with groundbreaking observations and
challengeable cultural discourses that speak of the particularity of Taiwan from wider
perspectives not limited to or generally defined by Anglo-American and Eurocentric
paradigms.
Submissions should be written in English and conform to The MLA Handbook. There
are two deadlines for submission. The abstract (no more than 250 words) should be
received by 30 August 2008. Once your abstract is accepted, the completed
manuscript should be submitted by 30 December 2008. Manuscripts will be evaluated
anonymously and should be approximately 8,000 words in length. Please do NOT put
your name on the paper. On a cover sheet, include the title of your paper, your name,
affiliated institute, postal address, telephone, and e-mail address. The resulting essay
collection will be peer reviewed and published by NTU Press. Please send
submissions or queries to Dr. Bennett Fu (bennettfu_at_ntu.edu.tw) or Dr. Paoi
Hwang (pihwang_at_ntu.edu.tw). We look forward to hearing from you.