e are seeking chapter proposals for an edited collection on bugs in the long nineteenth century eco literature. Essays in this collection will focus on a specific subgenre of eco-literature, ranging from Gothic horror to children's fantasy.
In the last few decades, Animal Studies has become an increasingly important field of study within our discipline. Scholars such as Monica Flegel (Pets and Domesticity in Victorian Literature and Culture, 2015) and Ivan Kreilkamp (Minor Creatures, 2018) have already invited us to think about the importance of our non-human animal friends in relationship to major literary genres like domestic fiction and realism (using the non-human animal as counterpart to major and minor human characters within such plots).
This collection focuses on bugs and insects, which tend to be most marginal to such animal studies conversations (if they are referenced at all). And like scholars before us, we are interested in how these oft-overlooked animals are taken up by, and maybe even help in the emergence of, different genres of eco-fiction in the nineteenth century. And we focus on the long nineteenth century as our period because it marks the emergence of many such environmental fictions – perhaps a consequence of increasing environmental pollution and unsustainable resource economies under Victorians’ new industrial capitalism.
Chapters will be short “how-to-teach” type essays of 2,500-2,700 words. We are looking for a focused analysis of bugs within one genre. Proposals are due September 30, and chapters will be due December 31, 2024. Proposals might focus on one of the following topic:
- Bugs in 19thC children’s adventure stories
- Bugs in 19thC animal autobiographies
- Bugs and the eco-Gothic
- Cryptid bugs in 19thC fantasy
- Bugs in Dark Fantasy
- Bugs and the Queer Gothic
- Bugs and Victorian Science Fiction
- Bugs and Victorian aliens
- Bugs and the threat of Artificial Intelligence – from analog to digital bugs
- Bugs in 19thC Literature/Art
- Bugs in Punch
- Bugs in Victorian fashion
We are especially interested in proposals that might offer an international or comparative approach to 19thC authors and literature.
If interested, please send a 250-word proposal and short (100-word) biographical statement to both Brooke Cameron (brooke.cameron@queensu.ca) and Michaela Wipond (19mcww@queensu.ca).
Created 31 July 2024