Global, or Local, Political or Not: U.S. Literature in the 21st Century
A special issue of Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2027 | Viewed by 264
Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We invite scholars to submit abstracts that focus on the connection between contemporary American literature, of any genre, and the political changes that have marked the U.S. and its global engagement since the turn of the century. We welcome approaches that treat contemporary American fiction as a reflection of domestic and global political changes as well as a means for a political, social or economic change, their criticism or fostering support for social movements. We are especially interested in reading about the ways in which contemporary American literature engages with political concepts and issues such as immigration, identity, nationalism, gender and the conflict between the center–periphery/local–global. For instance, in her Behold the Dreamers (2016), Imbolo Mbue follows two families in New York City during the financial crisis of 2008—an immigrant family from Cameroon and a wealthy city family—discussing the consequences of the market crash on the American Dream but also the notions of immigration and class mobility in a changed social and political US environment. Similarly, the economic prosperity of the U.S. as well as political instabilities of their home countries attracted many foreign-born writers who adopted English as their primary language of writing (e.g., Téa Obreht, Camille Bordas) and, consequently, with their writing, bring unique concerns and foci that both expand and challenge American dominant politics/political discourse.
Since the early 2000s, the US administration and the political rhetoric has fluctuated in accordance with the party in power; the country suffered a financial crisis in 2008; the housing market collapsed; COVID-19 closed the US—and a great part of the world—for most of 2020 and 2021; racial tensions culminated with the murder of George Floyd in 2020; social media exploded and the third wave of feminism with the #MeToo movement transitioned into the fourth and fifth waves. Recently, the U.S. public space has been marked by official actions and rhetoric that are centered on immigration. All of these elements are reflected in literature that serves both as a commentary and a corrective—at its extremes—of the current political climate.
Dr. Damjana Mraovic-O'Hare
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Humanities is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- contemporary American literature
- genres
- politics
- immigration
- nationalism
- gender
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