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Volume 2, Issue 1
November 2009
Literary Migrations
Letter from the Guest Editor
Welcome to ‘Literary Migrations’, a special issue of Transnational Literature. Although we are well past the heyday of literary and cultural theory, frameworks such as post-colonial studies still have enormous explanatory and analytical power when applied to contemporary problems, issues and debates. Ania Loomba and colleagues have demonstrated that even though we may be considered to be ‘beyond’ postcolonial studies, an understanding of the origins of the field is necessary for exploring ‘this moment of doubt, renewal and expansion for postcolonial studies’.1 This is certainly true in studies of literature from formerly colonised (and colonising) spaces.
This relevance of theory to practice was clearly evident in the Moving Cultures, Shifting Identities conference, held at Flinders University on 3-5 December, 2007. Delegates to this conference will have warm memories of hundreds of people attending lively and engaging sessions, many of which utilised or engaged directly with post-colonial perspectives. Since many of the papers presented at this conference have been published in a variety of outlets (including a special issue of FULGOR), it was natural that Transnational Literature act as a home for papers which pertain so directly to the journal’s themes.
Despite these thematic similarities, the papers in this issue reflect the diversity of the global cultural landscape. On the one hand we have an exploration of hybrid cultural identity through the new poetry of Macau, and on the other an analysis of the reception and (re-)interpretation of foundational Conquest narratives in Latin America. Post-colonial analyses of novels traverse Singapore and India (J.G. Farrell and Amitav Ghosh) as well as the United States and Japan (Don DeLillo and Haruki Murakami). We are also privileged to read transformations of genre as two authors combine scholarly cultural analysis with creative non-fiction in telling the story of a migrant family in Australia, and the history and cultural memory of the Jewish diaspora in South Africa.
Continuing in this vein of progressive academic publishing, this issue has several pieces of creative non-fiction as well as stories and poems which relate to the special issue’s themes. Continuing the strong tradition of publishing reviews which goes back to the CRNLE Reviews Journal, there are many reviews which pertain to the issue’s themes, as well as more general reviews. Finally we have the sad duty of publishing a tribute to Meenakshi Mukherjee, a member the journal’s editorial board.
In having the honour of guest editing this issue of the journal, there are several people I need to thank. First and foremost I would like to thanks the authors of the articles and other pieces, whose hard work and commitment to the project made it possible at all. Similarly, the peer reviewers provided excellent feedback and quality control, and made the issue the best it could be. Thanks also to Lyn Leader-Elliot for her monumental efforts in making the original conference such a success (and for supporting the launch); thanks to Gillian Dooley for helping me along the process (especially uploading the final articles) and for organising all the non-refereed pieces; to Rebecca Vaughan for lending her keen eye to copyediting, and to Lisa Bennett for designing a characteristically artistic flyer for the launch. Finally, thanks to you, the reader, for taking the time to sample what the issue has to offer: we believe you will be richly rewarded.
Chad Habel, November, 2009
1Ania Loomba, Suvir Kaul, Matti Bunzl, Antoinette Burton and Jed Esty (eds), Postcolonial Studies and Beyond, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005) 19.
Transnational Literature, Volume 2, Issue 1: Contents.
About Transnational LiteratureWelcome to Transnational Literature, a freely accessible, fully refereed international
e-journal published twice a year by the Humanities Research Centre, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
Transnational Literature evolved from the e-journal Quodlibet: the Australian Journal of Trans-national Literature, and before that the print CRNLE Reviews Journal, published by the Centre for Research in New Literatures in English. CRNLE was founded in 1977 by Dr Syd Harrex and was based in the Department of English at Flinders University, South Australia. The Centre promoted research into the literatures of India, Africa, the Caribbean, Canada and Australia, and all parts of the world where literature in English has been written. The Centre had a world-wide list of associates and a long list of publications, and organised and supported a number of conferences involved in the scholarly investigation of the role of new literatures throughout the world.
Transnational Literature maintains a focus on new literatures in English, but has expanded its portfolio to consider all literatures that deal with cross-cultural contact and interaction. Submissions on these areas are welcomed and writers are encouraged to consult the Submissions link. Postgraduate and Honours students are encouraged to submit papers.The journal's editor is Dr Gillian Dooley, Honorary Research Fellow, Department of English, Flinders University.
ISSN 1836-4845
HUMANITIES RESEARCH CENTRE FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE
© 2008
FLINDERS UNIVERSITY