CFP: The Celtic Obsession in Modern Fantasy
You are invited to submit a paper for an edited volume tentatively titled The Celtic Obsession in Modern Fantasy Literature to be submitted to Palgrave Macmillan.
Scholarship on Celtic-inspired fantasy literature has mostly focused on source-studies of pre-1980s texts (e.g. Sullivan, 1989; White, 1998). Dimitra Fimi’s recent Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy: Idealization, Identity, Ideology (2017), has widened the discussion by engaging with the Celticism vs. Celtoscepticism debate, focusing on constructions of “Celtic” identities in children’s and young adult fantasies from the 1960s to the 2010s.
This edited collection will take the debate further by focusing on post-1980s Celtic-inspired fantasy for adults. The “Celticity” of each fantasy text can be interpreted broadly to include:
- Creatively re-using heroes and mythological motifs from medieval Celtic texts, such as the Welsh Mabinogion, the Irish Táin Bó Cúailnge, etc.
- Engaging with perceptions of the “Celts” in classical sources such as Strabo, Herodotus, and Polybius, Tacitus and Caesar.
- Imaginatively utilizing insights from Iron Age archaeology, often dubbed “Celtic”
- Adapting folklore traditions from Celtic-speaking countries
- Evoking a looser notion of “Celtic”-like society, religion, folklore, etc., including in para-textual or marketing material
We acknowledge that the dividing line between children and adult fiction is not always clear. Papers can focus on the work of fantasists such as:
- Kate Forsyth
- David Gemmell
- John Gwynne
- Katharine Kerr
- Stephen R. Lawhead
- Ilka Tampke
- Tad Willaims
(This is not an exhaustive list)
Although heroic or epic fantasy may seem to fit better the scope of this collection, we are open to considering proposals on other sub-genres of fantasy literature, such as urban, magical realism and SF/fantasy crossovers.
Please submit a title and abstract to the editors by: 15th December 2017
Essay due: 1st June 2018
Editors:
Dr. Dimitra Fimi, Cardiff Metropolitan University (dfimi@cardiffmet.ac.uk)
Dr. Alistair J.P. Sims (booksonthehill@gmail.com)
References:
Fimi, Dimitra. Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy: Idealization, Identity, Ideology. London: Palgrace Macmillan, 2017.
Sullivan III, C.W. Welsh Celtic Myth in Modern Fantasy. Westport, CT; London: Greenwood Press, 1989.
White, Donna R. A Century of Welsh Myth in Children’s Literature. Westport, CT; London: Greenwood Press, 1998.
