Inhabiting Public Space

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Word on the Street: Reading, Writing & Inhabiting Public Space

Peer-reviewed Collection of Essays to be published by the IGRS in
association with the AHRC-funded Research Training Network in Modern
Languages.

As the site of everyday social interaction, the street has always provided a
source of inspiration for writers from Chaucer's pilgrims to Baudelaire's
flâneur. Moreover, it has become the focus for critical theorists such as
Michel de Certeau in an attempt to push the limits of textual analysis
beyond literature and art towards our daily experience of the world as a
form of text we simultaneously read and write.

In compiling this collection of essays, we wish to examine the different
discourses taking place within and upon the space of the public street.
Viewing this form of discourse as an action, we hope to include a range of
discursive and artistic actions which might include, but are certainly not
limited, to: architecture, sculpture, graffiti, skateboarding, capoeira,
parkour, street theatre, and busking.

Recognising that many actions of street expression are subversive, we also
invite explorations into whom these actions involve and to whom they are
addressed. The street is the site where identity is both established and
denied. We talk of living on a street yet the street is a place where
everyone is (potentially) a stranger. Moreover, the street is the site where
cultural diversity and difference is celebrated in the form of festivals and
parades and the battleground upon which violent social struggles are carried
out in the form of political protest, gang warfare and suicide bombings. As
such the street represents the ultimate embodiment of the Bakhtinian notion
of carnival.

We invite proposals for papers from anyone working in the field of modern
languages (any language excluding English). Topics could include but are not
restricted to:

· Literary and artistic depictions of the street

· The street as a site of artistic and cultural production

· Inhabiting the street - skateboard playgrounds, the autonomous
subject, movement

· Theorizing the street - architecture, philosophy, psychoanalysis,
film theory

· The voice of the street - languages, dialects, discourses

· The topology of the street - drawing and crossing boundaries

· Street politics and urban warfare

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted in English by 5 pm
on 7 January 2008. Those shortlisted will be contacted by the end of January
and invited to submit a paper. From these a final ten essays will be
selected for inclusion in the collection. An Editorial Workshop for all
contributors will be held in early July 2008. Please note that the final
paper should be no more than 5,000 words including notes. All quotations
should be accompanied by English translations. Obtaining permission to use
images in the final publication will be the responsibility of the author.

Please send proposals to both Sophie Fuggle (sophie.fugglekcl.ac.uk) and
Elisha Foust (e.foustrhul.ac.uk <mailto:e.foustrhul.ac.uk> ). Please
include your full name, email address and any institutional affiliation.

Dr Ricarda Vidal
Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies
School of Advanced Study
Stewart House, 32 Russell Squ, London WC1E 7HU