Fascicle 11: Anglica (English Studies) 2024

Theme: Of Borders and Migrations: Art, Literature, Culture

Considering the ever-growing scholarly interest in how borders and migratory movements reflect and shape the current cultural and sociopolitical landscapes, the editors of the forthcoming issue of Roczniki Humanistyczne (Annals of Arts), vol. 12 Anglica, 2024 invite original articles in the fields of English and American Studies that examine literary, artistic, and cultural explorations of border dynamics and migration experiences.

As Katherine G. Morrisey and John-Michael Warner observe in “Introduction” to Border Spaces: Visualizing the U.S.-Mexico Frontera, continuously rebuilt and renegotiated border structures, such as posts, fences, walls, checkpoints, and military buildings, are “literally and figuratively, ‘constructions’ of the borderlands and the border itself” (7). On one hand, border fortifications are seen as necessary and efficient elements of national security apparatus used to protect the “walled-in” populations from potentially dangerous “others”. Yet, the legitimacy and the existence of such structures are questioned by those who see the process of bordering as a manifestation of state impunity and violation of human rights. Simultaneously defended and contested, borders, claims Trinh T. Minh-ha in Elsewhere, Within Here,  show how cultures are shaped by a “continuing struggle between official and unofficial narratives – those largely circulated in favor of the State and its policies of inclusion, incorporation and validation, as well as of exclusion, appropriation and dispossession” (45). Thus, although created to separate, defend, and control, borders can also become fertile sites of cultural and artistic acts of transgression and celebration of transborder movement and alliances.

The material and symbolic meanings of borders have gained even more attention in recent years largely due to an escalating migration crisis occurring across the globe. The ongoing movement of bodies and cultures, be it voluntary or forced, challenges the sociopolitical world order as the ideals of civil societies thriving on open borders clash with demands for military re-bordering of nation-states. These dynamic changes highlight a dire need for new vocabularies to understand and narrate the reality profoundly affected by bordering processes and the experiences of migration, displacement, nomadism, and exile.

In order to foster a critical dialog on literary, artistic, and cultural expressions of border dynamics and migration politics, we suggest possible topics or areas of focus which include, but are not limited to:

• Indigenous/decolonial responses to national border and migration politics
• New vocabularies of border and migration experience
• Feminist notions of borders, nationhood, and citizenship
• Living in the shadow of a wall – trauma, memory, healing
• Borders/identities in flux
• Border crossing as a mode of dwelling
• Bordering as “othering” – race, gender, ethnicity
• Environmental threats of bordering processes
• Border and migratory aesthetics
• Liminality, in-betweenness, peripherality
• Transborder alliances, cultural transgressions, artistic dissidence

We accept only unpublished research papers of high scientific quality.

Language: English

Article length: up to 30 000 characters with spaces (including abstracts, key words, and bibliography)

Formatting: the Chicago Manual of Style 17th ed. (the footnotes and bibliography system: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html)

Deadline for submission: 30 April 2024

Our editorial office reserves the right to preselect texts in terms of their subject matter and editorial content.

Texts should be submitted electronically via the Open Journal System (OJS) after logging in or e-mailed to the guest editor Ewelina Bańka: ebanka@kul.pl and secretary Kamil Rusiłowicz: krusilowicz@gmail.com

Addresses for correspondence:
Guest Editor: Dr. Ewelina Bańka – ebanka@kul.pl
Secretary: Dr. Kamil Rusiłowicz – krusilowicz@gmail.com