Call For Papers—RAL Special Issue on Ama Ata Aidoo: Creative Currents and Emerging Critical Contours

This special issue of Research in African Literatures is aimed at advancing existing scholarship and the critical and theoretical frameworks engendered by recent special panels, publications, and a sui generis conference at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which focused on the illustrious playwright, poet, essayist, and masterful short story writer, Ama Ata Aidoo.

Given her creative eclecticism, we propose a broad critical canvas consonant with the multiple, overlapping, and complex orbits of her oeuvre. Whereas essays may focus on specific topics, themes, or works, we are more interested in broadening critical categories, seeking nuances and innovative scholarship positioned at the intersections of feminist scholarship, literary, and cultural and performance studies. In this context, areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to, issues of culture, gender, genre, history, nation, nationalism, marriage, family, relationships, myth, folklore, memory, identities, patriarchy, resistance, form, aesthetics, authorship, language, class, society, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and diaspora.

All finished manuscripts are expected to conform to the standard RAL guidelines published in every issue of the journal and all submissions will be subject to peer review. Prospective contributors should send their 250–500 word abstracts by May 13, 2014 and expect notification of selection by Monday, June 30, 2014. Final papers are due Monday, December 15, 2014 and will be subject to peer review. The guest editors encourage potential contributors to establish early contact via email to mcmahon@theaterdance.ucsb.edu (Christina McMahon) and akudinob@blackstudies.ucsb.edu (Jude Akudinobi).