Menu
International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

CfP: Special issue on “Transatlantic Renaissance Supernatural”

By In CFP On September 14, 2016


Special issue on “Transatlantic Renaissance Supernatural”

deadline for submissions:
October 1, 2016

full name / name of organization:
Revenant: Critical and Creative Studies of the Supernatural

contact email:
ens310@lehigh.edu

Revenant, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal dedicated to the study of the supernatural, the uncanny and the weird, based out of Falmouth University in the United Kingdom is looking for submissions for a special theme issue dedicated to the “Transatlantic Renaissance Supernatural”. Guest-edited by Ed Simon of Lehigh University, Revenant is looking for scholarly, academic and creative exploration of the supernatural during the Renaissance across literature, history, folklore, philosophy, science, religion, sociology, and popular culture. In addition to scholarly articles, Revenant promotes new writing on the supernatural, the uncanny and the weird and is looking to publish ghost stories, tales of the extraordinary, poems and nature writing.

The special issue on the Transatlantic Renaissance Supernatural is looking for contributions that analyze how the supernatural was understood in both the Old and New World during the early modern period (broadly conceived as the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries). In terms of potential topics that could be explored there are the rich variety of Renaissance and Reformation issues including:

The supernatural in drama, for example in Shakespeare
As well as the proto-gothic theater of Marlowe, Webster, Greene, Ford and Jonson,
The high magic of astrologers like Dee, Forman and Lilly,
The folk beliefs of the English and early American working class population
Astrology, alchemy and/or the cunning men
Witch-craft accusations in both England and New England,
Hermetic beliefs as practiced by Christian (and Jewish) kabbalists
The Cambridge Neo-Platonists, and hermeticism in canonical writings by Donne, Herbert, Vaughn and Traherne.
The editor is particularly interested in papers addressing seventeenth century unorthodox religion in America, the multicultural aspect of magic in early America (as exemplified by the folk beliefs of the early Pennsylvania Dutch), and the material culture of grimoires or magic books published and printed in England and read in the colonies. But all other proposals relating to the subject will be considered too.

Creative reflections whether as poetry, drama, art or prose, which focuses on this time period, are also encouraged.

Please submit proposals for critical studies and creative pieces to Ed Simon: ens310@lehigh.edu by 1 October, 2016. Finished pieces due February 2017.

Details of submission guidelines and past issues can be found at www.revenantjournal.com.

Please address any questions to both Ed Simon ens310@lehigh.edu (guest editor) and Ruth Heholt (general editor): revenant@falmouth.ac.uk.