CFP: Nautical Gothic (Journal Special Issue)

The following CFP has been released for a journal special issue:

‘Nautical Gothic (journal special issue): proposals due 30 May 2016; papers due 30 November

From the earliest sea journeys, the challenges of coastal and ocean travel have rendered the sea liminal. Vessels at sea existed between landmasses, nations, and political systems, while limits of communication, high incidence of shipwreck, and vagaries of weather and navigation meant that to be at sea was, figuratively, to exist between life and death, especially from the point of view of those on land. The sea was, and is, a realm of mystery; its inaccessible depths and the workings of its global systems resist human mastery. As a means of travel, exploration, warfare, trade and imperial expansion, the sea’s historical and cultural importance for maritime nations has long been reflected in their literature and art.
From ghost ship legends to ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, from _The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym_ and _Moby Dick_ to _Jaws_ and _The Abyss_, Gothic tropes permeate texts engaging with the distinct symbolic and narrative possibilities of the sea. Nevertheless, rarely in criticism are the two put together; Gothic works that do are usually studied from perspectives that deemphasize the role of the sea in the text’s construction and effects. This special issue seeks to redress this imbalance by proposing a ‘Nautical Gothic’ lens through which to re-examine familiar Gothic texts and explore the Gothic potentials of sea fictions, films, and other cultural artefacts.

Focusing on texts deriving from different latitudes and times globally, this special issue aims to explore questions such as the following: is there a kind of writing we can call Nautical Gothic, and if so what characterises it? How does Nautical Gothic relate to the spread of Gothic through the world? How do these maritime narratives contribute to the migration of the Gothic to other contexts? What might a theory of Nautical Gothic criticism bring to the study of the Gothic in general?
This special issue encourages new academic research and discussion of Nautical Gothic through studying its presence globally in literature, film, and other narrative and cultural phenomena connected to the Gothic world.

Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
o Haunted seas; ghost ships and ghost sailors
o Shipwrecks and castaways; carceral waters, ships and islands
o Sea monsters; monstrous seas
o Oceans of the mind; psychological seas
o Gothic weather: violent storms and oppressive calms
o The sea as liminal space; the sea as (an)other world
o The sea or its coasts as sublime
o Masculinity, femininity, and the sea
o The ocean and travel, trade, diaspora, transportation, or exploration
o Empire, postcolonialism, globalisation
o Ecogothic; marine ecology
o Gothic technologies of sailing
o Naval warfare and piracy
o The sea in myth, legend and folklore

Guest editors: Dr Tony Alcala and Dr Emily Alder

Please send a proposal of about 500 words, for articles of 3000-7000 words, and a short biography, to Emily and Tony at em.alder@napier.ac.uk andantonio.alcala@itesm.mx, by 30 May 2016.

Contributors can expect to be selected and notified by Friday 17th June 2016. The deadline for submission of completed articles is 30 November 2016.

cfp categories:
cultural_studies_and_historical_approaches
ecocriticism_and_environmental_studies
eighteenth_century
film_and_television
interdisciplinary
journals_and_collections_of_essays
modernist studies
popular_culture
postcolonial
renaissance
romantic
science_and_culture
twentieth_century_and_beyond
victorian’.