***** see Paradoxa's new website: http://www.accessone.com/~paradoxa ****** DEADLINE EXTENDED TO APRIL 15TH, 1998 PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE ****** Call for Papers Metafictions: Literature as Criticism/Criticism as Literature No generic boundary is more firmly policed than that which separates creative from critical texts. Champions of the "literary" often see criticism as a dull, secondary, or even parasitical activity. In response, many critics affirm their seriousness by restricting themselves to the drabbest sort of scientific or philosophical discourse. Paradoxa is seeking submissions for a special issue dealing with texts that transgress this boundary from either direction. We are interested in essays that examine both creative approaches to critical discourse and critical statements in the guise of fictional or other art. The most famous instance of such border-raiding is Jorge Luis Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote," which is structured like a critical essay, read as a work of fiction, and generally agreed to function on a metafictional level as a statement about the nature of literature. Such recursiveness is common among writers associated with postmodernism, such as Italo Calvino, Tom Stoppard, John Barth, Kathy Acker, and Salman Rushdie; these figures, however, may represent only the most recent expression of a much older impulse. It is not so easy to find critical essays that cross the line, but a few writers have experimented with incorporating narrative, poetic language, or multiple voices into traditional expository prose. Examples might include Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, Jean Baudrillard, Ursula K. Le Guin, Joanna Russ, and Samuel R. Delany. In a very different format, Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics investigates the properties of the comic book by being one. Some issues that might be addressed include audience, venue, and authorship. Many of the examples cited above are fiction writers: do they have more latitude than writers from the academy or is this a way of entering the critical world through the back door? Is PMLA less open to blended or experimental discourse than The New Yorker for intellectual or pragmatic reasons? Is the Anglo-American tradition less open to experimentation than, say, the French or Italian or Latin American? Does it make a difference if one's discipline is philosophy or psychology rather than literature? Are there particular critical stances that can best be expressed in forms other than the impersonal analyticial essay? Does metafiction depend upon the sort of intertextuality analyzed by Linda Hutcheon in Narcissistic Narrative , and does such intertexuality always extend to critical as well as literary horizons? Are there instances when the reader makes choices that either transform a narrative into a statement about literary art or not? Earlier generations of critics, from Pope to Amy Lowell, frequently turned to verse or prose narratives to issue critical statements: why did such critical fables go out of favor and are they back in vogue? We invite submissions on these or related issues. The subject matter may include metafictional films, plays, hypertexts, bandes desinees, and children's literature, as well as novels and short stories; likewise, it may include non-canonical as well as traditionally "literary" texts. We will consider offerings that themselves cross generic or discursive boundaries. Guest Editor for the special is Brian Attebery, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID 83209-0009. Email: [log in to unmask] Deadline for submissions is April 15, 1998. Send 3 copies, each with an abstract of not more than 300 words on a separate page to: Paradoxa PO Box 2237 Vashon Island, WA 98070 tel: (206) 567-4373 fax: (206) 567-5711 email: [log in to unmask] Paradoxa (3x/yr) publishes scholarly articles and interviews with creative writers that are related to popular literary genres: science fiction, fantasy, horror, children's literature, comic studies, westerns, graphic novels, romance, and others. ________________________________________________________________ Michael A. Arnzen * Dept. of English * University of Oregon "We use up too much artistry in our dreams -- and therefore often are impoverished during the day." -- Nietzsche ________________________________________________________________ ---- To sign off SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]