Call for Papers

Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies Special Issue: Blindness and Literature

Special Guest Editor: Georgina Kleege

Blindness seems to hold a particular fascination for writers from all cultures, functioning in a variety of ways in different texts. Blindness can indicate divine retribution for some sort of transgression, or can serve as a personal tragedy to be overcome. Blind figures can highlight the virtue and compassion of sighted characters, or act as seers and teachers commenting upon and guiding sighted protagonists. This special issue of JLCDS will explore literary representations of blindness and vision impairment.

Topics may include: blind seers and prophets, Homer's blindness, Milton's blindness, Joyce's blindness, Borges's blindness, blindness and visuality, blindness and aurality, blindness and gender, memoirs of lost sight, memoirs of restored sight, and so on.

Proposals should be e-mailed to the guest editor Georgina Kleege gkleege@berkeley.edu and the editor David Bolt bolt@talktalk.net beforeOctober 1 2008. Invited authors will then have at least 3 months to submit the final typescripts.

Book reviews that relate to the issue should be e-mailed to the BookReviews Editor Clare Barker c.f.barker02@leeds.ac.uk before January 152009.

Further information is available at www.journalofliterarydisability.com

NB In 2009 Journal of Literary Disability will be moving to Liverpool University Press, 3 issues per annum, print as well as online formats, and the new title Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies. The journal will no longer be free, so LUP subscription will benecessary.

Further information is available at: http://www.liverpool-unipress.co.uk/html/publication.asp?idProduct=3856