[Reader-list] Call for papers: Studies in South Asian Film and Media, special Science Fiction issue

[Rashmi Sawhney]

*Call for Papers:*


*Studies in South Asian Film and Media**, Special Issue on Science Fiction
in South Asian Film, Media, Arts and Literature.*





Although science fiction has been a popular literary genre in several South
Asian languages it has received little critical attention. The absence is
even more acute in the areas of cinema, theatre, radio, television, the
visual arts, and new media. This lack of scholarship leads to the
misassumption that science fiction has been of little consequence to the
South Asian literary, cinematic and artistic imaginations. However, this
has hardly been the case, as one realizes from the popularity of vernacular
science fiction over at least two centuries of literary history. In more
recent times,cinema, painting, installation art, graphic novels, plays, as
well as radio and television series have drawn upon science fiction to
generate new inquiries into time, space, history and memory, raising
ontological questions about technology’s interface with the contemporary
world.

This issue is an attempt to recover and assess the histories and
imaginaries of science fiction in South Asia across a diverse range of
mediatised, artistic and literary forms. It marks a small step towards
calibrating the region’s scientific and technological imagination outside
of a developmental paradigm. We seek to solicit contributions from
scholars, filmmakers, artists, writers, as well as sci-fi enthusiasts
offering historical and critical perspectives on significant texts,
individuals, institutions, and themes that have shaped the cultural and
artistic expression of science fiction across South Asia.



*Dates and Submissions policy*



Please write to rashmi.sawhney at gmail.com or aartiwani at gmail.com to discuss
your ideas. Abstracts of 500 words along with an author bio should be
emailed to us by the *5th of November 2014*.



In addition to critical essays of 6000-8000 words, we also welcome shorter
creative pieces of 2000-4000 words in the form of interviews, photo essays
(B/W), speculative pieces, translations of short stories, and artists’
reflections on science-fiction influenced work.



The deadline for the first draft is *30th January 2015*. All contributions
will be peer-reviewed and the final submission will be due by *30thMarch*.
The issue will be published by *June 2015*.



All copyrights are to be cleared by the authors. Guidelines to the
Intellect house-style are available at
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/MediaManager/File/style%20guide(journals)-1.pdf
.


Do please circulate - thanks!



Best,

Rashmi

----
Dept. of Cinema Studies
School of Arts and Aesthetics
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi 110067