Status Update

Quick update everyone:

The first proposal was sent to the publisher a couple of weeks ago.  This stage of the process now involves a great deal of waiting.  My next update will be when we’ve secured a publisher.  In the meantime, I’d like to encourage everyone to proceed with their essays, aiming for our August 1st, 2012 deadline.  If we have essays in hand, we’ll be more likely to secure a publisher, and will also be able to share samples of work upon request.

Since we have not yet secured a publisher, we are of course open to further contributions, so those of you who have wanted to submit essays on certain figures are still welcome to do so.  Those of you just now discovering this project are also welcome to submit proposals.  Please carefully read over our call for papers, sample abstract, and submission guidelines so that you understand the nature and intended audience for this project and frame your abstract accordingly.

Updated List of Figures or Movements Covered

To date, we have abstracts and contributor CVs for the following figures:

Adorno, Theodor
Adorno-Derrida-Foucault on Aesthetics
Blanchot, Maurice
Butler, Judith
Derrida, Jacques
Du Bois, W.E.B.
Dryden, John
Foucault, Michel
Freud, Sigmund
Frye, Northrop
Greenblatt, Stephen
Hayley, William
Hegel, G.W.F.
Heidegger, Martin
Jameson, Fredric
Kristeva, Julia
Lacan, Jacques
Liu, Lydia
Marion, Jean-Luc
Marx, Karl
Object-Oriented Ontology
Plato
Rorty, Richard
Rosenblatt, Louise
Sedgwick, Eve
Wellhausen, Julius
Wittgenstein, Ludwig
Wordsworth, William
Žižek, Slavoj

We are interested in abstracts on the following figures, but of course this list is not comprehensive:

St. Augustine
Bakhtin, Mikhail
Benjamin, Walter
Bhabha, Homi
Cixous, Hélène
Digital Humanities
Ecocriticism or major figures
Eliot, T.S.
Fanon, Frantz
Fetterley, Judith
Fish, Stanley
Iser, Wolfgang
New Criticism or individual figures
Rubin, Gayle
Russian Formalism or individual figures
Said, Edward
Spivak, Gayatri

Update on Theory Volume

I received a few last-minute queries for abstracts on either interesting or central figures, so I’ve decided to delay sending out the first book proposal until the end of January.  If you’ve promised an abstract but have not yet sent it, please try to get it to us by January 31st.  The first draft of the proposal is written; we’re just holding it for the time being.

In the meantime, my co-editor and I are in the process of cutting abstracts to about 100-200 words and rewriting them all in third person for the chapter summaries section of the book proposal.  Once finished, we will email you the revised text of your abstract for review.  We might ask you at that time to see if you can improve it in any way.  These improvements will usually take one of three forms: provide a little more by way of historical context, draw more explicit connections between your historical materials and your theoretical materials, or suggest a thesis.  We (and potential publishers) understand that these are abstracts, not finished essays, but we do want to present each abstract as fully conceived as possible for this stage.

Thank you very much again for your contribution.  Our collection is shaping up very well.

Jim

Letters Sent

I’ve emailed response letters to all contributors who have sent me abstracts. If you have any questions, please email me at jamesrovira at gmail dot com. If you need a print copy of your letter, email me and I will arrange to have one sent to you. If you’ve promised an abstract but have not yet sent it, don’t worry, there is still time.

Thank you all for your willingness to contribute to this volume.

James Rovira

New Page Added

I’ve added the page “Sample Abstract” (see above) to provide an example of the type of work that we’re seeking for this volume. All contributions to this volume should be about 6,000 words in length (including notes and bibliography) and perform four tasks:

1. Summarize the central ideas of its major figure.
2. Locate this figure within any two of the following contexts: intellectual history, political history, cultural milieu, social history, and/or personal history. We expect the typical submission to combine an intellectual history with at least one of the others.
3. Explain the importance of its major figure to the practice of textual interpretation or to the rise of literary theory.
4. Argue a thesis about the ways in which the author’s work dialectically engages his/her historical context.

We are initially marketing this volume as a companion volume for literary theory courses, so we also request that contributors write in a manner that is as clear and accessible for upper division undergraduate and graduate students as possible.

Thank you,

Jim

ITH Blog now iPad and Mobile Enabled

This blog has now been enabled for iPad and Mobile app use. If you’re viewing this site on your iPad or mobile device, scroll to the bottom of the screen for a link to iPad or mobile views of the site. Cover art for the iPad and Facebook versions of the site has been generously provided by Cynthia Morefield at Scratching the Surface Studios.

Acceptance Letters This Week

Those whose abstracts have been accepted for Interpretation: Theory: History can expect to receive letters of acceptance by email by the end of this week or early next week. They will be signed, on university letterhead, and sent as a .pdf file attached to an email. We hope that this format will be suitable for those using the acceptance of this article for the benefit of hiring or promotion, but if you need a print copy, please email your request to jamesrovira@gmail.com and we will mail a print copy as soon as possible.

As stated previously, we will continue to accept abstracts and CVs until posted otherwise.

Thank you,

Jim Rovira

Latest Dissemination of the CFP

The following email:

*****

Dear Colleagues:

The editors of Interpretation: Theory: History continue to welcome abstracts and CVs well into January of 2012.  For this volume, are seeking 6000 word essays focused upon figures important to the rise and development of literary theory and to the history of textual interpretation that present each figure within his or her social, political, cultural, and intellectual contexts. The full CFP is available here:

http://interpretationtheoryhistory.wordpress.com/about/

And a list of figures for whom we have already received abstracts is available here:

http://interpretationtheoryhistory.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/current-status-of-interpretation-theory-history/

Further information is available on the blog.

This volume is focused on figures from Marx and Freud to the present, but we are also interested in major figures from Plato to the nineteenth century. Feel free to email any questions or comments directly to jamesrovira@gmail.com.

Jim

*****

was circulated yesterday to the following listservs:

18th Century Interdisciplinary Discussion (C18-L@lists.psu.edu)

Christianity and Literature Discussion (christlit@lists.bethel.edu)

Discussion of Frankfurt School Critical Theory (theory-frankfurt-school@srcf.ucam.org)

John Milton Discussion List (milton-l@lists.richmond.edu)

North American Society for the Study of Romanticism (NASSR-L@listserv.wvu.edu)

If you’re a member of any literature, theory, social science, human science, or cultural studies listserve and wish to support this project, please copy and paste the email above to an email to your list if such posts are allowed.

Many thanks again to those who have helped us recruit contributors and who are working with us on this volume.

Jim

Updated List of Figures or Movements Covered

To date, we have abstracts and CVs for the following figures:

Adorno, Theodor
Butler, Judith
Derrida, Jacques
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Foucault, Michel
Freud, Sigmund
Greenblatt, Stephen
Jameson, Frederic
Kristeva, Julia
Lacan, Jacques
Marion, Jean-Luc
Marx, Karl
Object-Oriented Ontology
Rorty, Richard
Shohat, Ella
Wittgenstein, Ludwig
Zizek, Slavoj

We have been promised abstracts/CVs for the following figures:

Benjamin, Walter
Bhabha, Homi
Dryden, John
DuBois, W.E.B.
Frye, Northrop or Eve Sedgwick
Hogarth, William
Spinoza, Baruch de
Spivak, Gayatri

Submissions Will Be Accepted Past the Deadline

Although the Call for Papers for Interpretation: Theory: History lists a deadline of December 31st, we will continue to accept submissions well past the deadline.  At present, the real deadline will be either with a signed contract or with the first full draft of the manuscript sent to the publisher.  I won’t know until I have secured a publisher and examined their terms.  When I have secured a publisher and have a fixed deadline for submissions I will post an update here. Until then, if you have an idea for an essay on any major figure or movement not already covered please email it to jamesrovira@gmail.com.

Updates on lists of figures covered will be posted daily or as needed.

Thank you,

Jim