Call for papers | South-South Comparatism: Problems and Perspectives – Gragoatá v. 30, n. 67, 2025
Editors
Dr. José Luís Jobim (Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil)
Dr. Wail S. Hassan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States)
Since at least the 19th century, a strand of comparatism developed which declared itself inter-nationalist but was in fact colonialist or neocolonialist. Its procedure began with the very selection of works and authors considered comparable: not only were they European, but they also predominantly represented only a small number of European nation-states (France, Britain, and Germany, and to a limited extent Spain and Italy). The discipline’s expansion since the 1980s to include literatures from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and South and East Asia, not to mention previously marginalized European and North American traditions, has rarely challenged the centrality of Europe. In this respect, postcolonial studies is exemplary for consolidating literary and critical practices of valorization/devaluation, inclusion/exclusion, that preserved Europe as the reference point and chief interlocutor for literatures of what used to be known as the Third World, and nowadays as the Global South.
This special issue of Gragoatá focuses on the newly emergent paradigm of South-South comparison. We invite submissions that address the following questions: What conceptions of comparison can be elaborated if we connect literatures from the Global South? How can South-South comparison contribute to rethinking the scope and limits of postcoloniality? What type(s) of commonality or interconnectedness can be construed as grounds for comparison among Global South literatures? What types of hegemony and resistance become visible when considering the Global South as a category of comparative literature? What is the role of diaspora and minorities in constituting or challenging conceptions of nations and nationality in the Global South? How are these diasporas erased and/or remembered to define what constitutes national identities? What is at stake in interpreting different literary and cultural traditions within the broad frame of reference of the Global South?
Submissions can be in English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish.
The deadline is February 20, 2025.
Submissions: August 1, 2024 to February 20, 2025.
