Queer Chinese-Language Literature
Call for Book Chapters
In the past two decades, critical engagements with queer Chinese-language literature have brought attention to how non-normative desires, sexualities, and identities have been represented in literary forms. For example, Tze-lan Sang (2003) traces the history of queer women’s writings in modern China to investigate the role of modernity and globalisation in shaping queer women’s desires; Fran Martin (2003) analyses the rise to prominence of cultures of queer sexuality in Taiwan during the 1990s to demonstrate that dissident sexualities in non-Western contexts cannot be reduced to the homogenising force of globalisation. Recently, there has also been a proliferation of path-breaking monographs and edited collections on tongzhi literature, including Petrus Liu’s (2015) Queer Marxism in Two Chinas, Wai Siam-Hee’s (2015) From Amorous Histories to Sexual Histories: Tongzhi Writings and the Construction of Masculinities in Late Qing and Modern China（從豔史到性史：同志書寫與近現代中國的男性建構）, Ta-wei Chi’s (2017) A Queer Invention in Taiwan: A History of Tongzhi Literature（同志文學史：台灣的發明）, Hongwei Bao’s (2020) Queer China: Lesbian and Gay Literature and Visual Culture Under Postsocialism, and Howard Chiang’s (2021) edited anthology Queer Taiwanese Literature: A Reader, among others. All these exciting works testify to a sustained scholarly interest in queer Chinese-language literature and the necessity of compiling a critical anthology on the topic.
There are different approaches to studying queer Chinese-language literature. Besides close reading of literary texts and the study of genre, style and authorship, scholars have also pursued interdisciplinary lines of enquiry such as literary history, literary translation, literary adaption, intermediality and transmediality, processes of literary production, circulation and consumption, as well as literary awards, curricula and institutions. We can ask a number of questions: what would a Chinese-language literary history look like if it centres on non-normative genders, sexualities and desires? How will the study of queer Chinese-language literature open up understandings of queerness, Chineseness and global queer literary cultures? How have literary representations of sexual others that go beyond popular understandings of queer desires (such as puppy play, BDSM and fetishism) developed over the past decade? What new insights can we gain when queer Chinese-language literary studies opens itself up to a variety of interdisciplinary approaches such as sociology, anthropology, inter/transmedia studies and translation studies?
With these questions in mind, we aim to edit an anthology of research articles on queer Chinese-language literature to address issues of power, identity and agency and to embed queer Chinese-language literature in societies, networks and communities. We seek chapter contributions that elaborate cultural, social, anthropological, translational, transcultural, and transmedia significances epitomised by queer Chinese-language literatures from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Chinese diaspora. We also welcome submissions that focus on literary criticism, genre studies, authorship and cultural studies. The completed book manuscript will be submitted to an international publisher such as Bloomsbury’s Queering China: Transnational Genders and Sexualities book series for consideration.
Chapter topics may include but not limited to:
- literary history
- literary criticism
- textual analysis of literary texts
- literary genre, style and aesthetics
- literary translation and adaptation
- literary groups, societies and reading cultures
- literary awards, curricula and institutions
- critical biographical studies of literary authors
- sociology and anthropology of literature
- gender, sexuality and intersectionality
- danmei and fan studies
- intermediality and transmediality
- transnationalism and transculturalism
- global queer literature
Abstract Submission:
To submit proposals that have NOT been published elsewhere for consideration, please send a 300-word abstract (outlining the topic, arguments and primary materials for analysis) with a 100-word bio note to the editors by 1 June 2022. Decisions on chapter proposals will be notified in a month’s time. Early submissions are encouraged. Chapters from accepted contributors should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words in Chicago referencing style. Any questions regarding the edited volume and submissions should be sent to Dr Hongwei Bao at hongwei.bao@nottingham.ac.uk and Yahia Ma at yahia.ma1@unimelb.edu.au
Timeline:
Abstract due: 1 May 2022 (a 300-word abstract and a 100-word bio note)
Decision about abstracts: 1 June 2022
Submission of book chapter: 1 Feb 2023
About the editors:
Dr Hongwei Bao is Associate Professor in Media Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK. He holds a PhD in Gender and Cultural Studies from the University of Sydney, Australia. He is the author of Queer Comrades, Queer China, Queer Media in China and Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance. He co-edits, with Dr Jamie J. Zhao, the Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender and Sexuality and the Bloomsbury book series Queering China: Transnational; Genders and Sexualities. He also serves on the editorial boards of British Journal of Chinese Studies, Chinese Independent Cinema Observer and Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. Email: hongwei.bao@nottingham.ac.uk
Yahia Ma is a PhD candidate in the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on queer translation studies and queer Chinese literature. Yahia’s English translation of Ta-Wei Chi’s novella 嚎叫 (Howl) was published in Queer Taiwanese Literature: A Reader (Cambria, 2021) and his translation of an excerpt from Xia Mucong’s novel 軍犬 (Military Dog) was published in The Margins(AAWW, 2021). His critical work can be found in the American Journal of Chinese Studies, Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, Melbourne Asia Review, Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, and TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. Email: yahia.ma1@unimelb.edu.au