Call for Papers (Volume 2, July 2025) - Creativitas: Critical Explorations in Literary Studies (ISSN: 3048-8575 Online)
Organization: Sapientia
Call for Papers - Volume 2 (July 2025)
Creativitas: Critical Explorations in Literary Studies (e-ISSN: 3048-8575) invites scholarly contributions that delve into the complex and dynamic relationships between memory, materiality, and affect in literary and cultural studies. This annual issue seeks to unravel the intricate ways in which memory is constructed, mediated, and transformed through material objects, spatial configurations, and emotional experiences.
Contemporary scholarship has fundamentally reconceptualized memory through new materialist perspectives. As Nick Fox and Pam Alldred argue in their work on the materiality of memory, these perspectives emphasize the dynamic relationships between remembering, matter, and affective forces. Moving beyond traditional views of literary memory as symbolic or representational, their approach recognizes memories as material forces that actively shape textual production and reception. Drawing on the work of Manuel DeLanda and the collaborative insights of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, we can understand literary texts as affective assemblages where memories interact with bodies, objects, and social formations.
The new materialist turn challenges conventional distinctions between textual memory and material reality, suggesting that literary memories possess agency beyond their narrative function. Karen Barad's concept of 'flat ontology' and Rosi Braidotti's posthuman perspective position memories alongside other material forces that extend from the physical and biological to the psychological, social, and cultural realms. Patricia T. Clough's work on affect economy demonstrates how remembering and forgetting generate complex networks of meaning and experience. Such an understanding fundamentally reshapes how we read literary texts, suggesting that memories are not simply narrative devices but active agents in producing real-world effects.
According to Deleuze and Guattari, the interaction between memory, materiality, and affect in literature produces unpredictable narrative effects that can either reinforce existing cultural patterns or generate new possibilities. Fox and Alldred's research reveals how textual memories participate in social transformation while contributing to cultural continuities. The unpredictability of memory's effects suggests that literary remembering and forgetting are not simply narrative strategies but material forces that can generate both stability and change in cultural systems.
This materialist understanding has significant implications for literary analysis and cultural production. It suggests that literary texts are not merely vessels for memory but active participants in memory formation and transformation. Paul Connerton's research on collective memory demonstrates how the interaction between human and non-human memory creates complex networks of affect that shape both individual reading experiences and collective cultural memory. These networks operate across multiple scales, from the intimate spaces of personal reading to the broader landscapes of literary tradition.
Moreover, this perspective provides new tools for analysing how memory operates in contemporary literary environments. As Motti Neiger and colleagues demonstrate in their work on media memory, digital technologies and virtual spaces create new forms of literary memory that interact with traditional narrative practices in complex ways. The affect economy of digital literary memory introduces new dynamics of remembering and forgetting that challenge conventional understandings of narrative temporality and materiality.
This materialist approach to literary memory also offers fresh perspectives on questions of power, identity, and resistance in texts. Erik Meyer's work on memory and politics shows how literary practices participate in both the maintenance and disruption of social hierarchies. This understanding is particularly relevant for analysing how marginalized voices use literary memory to challenge dominant narratives and create alternative spaces of remembrance. Literary texts thus emerge not just as sites of representation but as material-affective assemblages that actively participate in the production and transformation of cultural memory.
We invite submissions that explore:
· How literary texts materialize memory through narrative techniques and formal innovations
· The role of affect in mediating between textual memory and reader experience
· Material objects and spaces as memory-bearers in literary works
· Digital literature and new forms of material memory
· Non-human memory in environmental and posthuman literature
· Embodied memory in narrative perspective and voice
· The politics of memory in postcolonial and diaspora literature
· Memory's role in genre formation and literary traditions
· Affect theory and literary memory studies
· Material archives and their influence on literary production
Note: Authors are encouraged to consider these topics as starting points and may propose innovative approaches that bridge multiple areas while maintaining focus on the material and affective dimensions of memory.
Submission Guidelines
Format Requirements
- Follow MLA Ninth Edition formatting guidelines
- Abstract length: Approximately 300 words
- Include up to five keywords
Submission Process
The journal follows a double-blind peer-review process. Authors must first submit an abstract for initial selection before proceeding with the full manuscript.
How to Submit
1. Email your abstract to both:
- creativitasjournal@gmail.com
- sapientia2024@gmail.com
2. Email Subject Line: "Abstract Submission for Creativitas Inaugural Issue"
Important Notes
- Last date of submission of abstract is 23.01.2025
- Adherence to all formatting guidelines is mandatory
- Full manuscript submission details will be provided upon abstract acceptance
- The double-blind review process ensures unbiased evaluation of submissions
For any inquiries regarding the submission process or guidelines, please contact the journal editors through the provided email addresses.
The editorial team at Creativitas is committed to ensuring a fair and rigorous double-blind peer-review process. Authors are encouraged to reach out to the editorial team at sapientia2024@gmail.com for any clarification or assistance regarding the submission guidelines.
Arpan Mitra