[csaa-forum] Collection Call for Papers - Attached to Fiction: Trauma, Loss, Pleasure

[Sophie Sunderland]

Apologies for cross-postings

 

Collection Call for Papers: 

 

Attached to Fiction: Trauma, Loss, Pleasure

 

Editors: Dr Hila Shachar and Dr Sophie Sunderland, English and Cultural
Studies, University of Western Australia

 

 

Mr Sakamoto said that reading had saved his life. Not mathematics. Not
money. Not travel. Reading. At a time, he said, when he felt blasted by
images, words had anchored him, secured him, stopped his free-falling
plunge into nowhere.

-Gail Jones, Dreams of Speaking (London: Harvill Secker, 2006), p. 132.

 

A survivor of the atomic bomb, Gail Jones's Mr Sakamoto expresses the
inherent relationship between literature, loss and trauma. Words that
fail to mediate or reconcile loss can also form fictional worlds that
offer a particular kind of fidelity to the troubling, incomprehensible
event of loss. Attachments to fiction can therefore be intensely felt
and strongly defended as part of traumatic experience. We are seeking
300-500 word abstracts for a book collection of essays and short stories
on how fictional narratives intersect with personal narratives of loss
and trauma. This collection also aims to explore the complex forms of
pleasure brought about by the attachment to, or creation of, fiction
during traumatic events, loss, or grief. Essays and fiction with an
Australian focus are particularly welcome. Specific examples of topics
might include, but are not limited to: 

 

- Family histories of loss and trauma told in fictional form

- Identification with a specific novel or character at a particularly
traumatic stage in life

- The use of reading and writing as a therapeutic and cathartic
experience

- The "pleasure" of fiction during periods of loss and trauma

- Writing through grief

- Reflections upon why certain novels or narratives are particularly
important during certain traumatic events

- Fictional short stories that engage with the themes of literary
production, trauma and loss

- Personal narratives of coping with trauma and loss through the process
of reading and writing

- Theoretical perspectives on literary representations of trauma and
loss

- Attachment as a psychological and psychoanalytic model with which to
consider personal relationships to fictional characters and narratives

- Untold and forgotten stories of local Australian and Western
Australian traumatic histories

- Parallels between literary fiction and life experiences

- The traumatic experience of writing itself

 

In the spirit of the collection, we welcome both fictional and
non-fictional short stories and personal essays that engage with the
primary themes of the collection. Essays and short stories can be
approached from any tone, from the humorous and irreverent, to the
serious and contemplative. While scholarly approaches are also welcome,
these essays and short stories should be in the style of creative
fiction and non-fiction. 

 

Currently, Australian author Gail Jones (University of Western Sydney)
is attached to this project as a possible contributor. We welcome
abstracts from scholars, creative writers, emerging and established
authors, and others. Please send abstracts and a short bio by 4th of
October, 2010, to Hila Shachar and Sophie Sunderland at
attachedtofiction at gmail.com. Complete essays and short stories of
approximately 3000-5000 words will be due on 31st of January, 2011.

 

Contact email: attachedtofiction at gmail.com

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/attachedtofiction 

 

Dr Sophie Sunderland

 

Honorary Research Fellow

English and Cultural Studies, M202

 

University of Western Australia 

35 Stirling Hwy; Crawley 

Western Australia 6009  

T       +61 8 6488 1289 

F       +61 8 6488 1053

E       sophie.sunderland at uwa.edu.au 

B       www.thelostarchive.wordpress.com 

 

 

 

 

 

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