Forthcoming

VOL. 29, NO. 1-2     PARANOID POLITICS

The "paranoid style in American politics," as Richard Hofstader famously outlined it in the 1960s, is one in which threats, hostilities, and treacheries are seen as directed not toward an individual so much as "against a nation, a culture, a way of life." Hofstadter wrote in and about a Cold War scenario. Today, as we witness a resurgence of xenophobia, nationalism, and fascism, of conservative and aggressive masculinity, of mistrust of "elites," and a distrust of news, information, and facts, we may want to inquire into the nature of a more contemporary paranoid style—a paranoid style under neoliberalism. Taking both paranoia and style seriously, what cultural, theoretical, and political formations can be seen to express, resist, or otherwise configure the paranoid style of the 21st century?

(Deadline: Closed)

VOL. 30, NO. 1-2     THEORIZING ASIA

Asia is not self-evident. The region called Asia was culturally defined after the Russia-Japan War and geopolitically designed after the Second World War. Modern Asia was the historical byproduct of colonialism and its effects; the rise of nationalism in Asia was collective resistance to colonial modernization. Modernity in Asia has been the consequence of the dialectical process between modernization and counter-modernization. Its complicated historical background registers the strong demand for "Asian theory" to analyze the structure of Asian modernity. Recently, as participating in the global distribution of labor, contemporary Asia has attracted many scholars not only for its rapid economic development, but its cultural products. This issue aims to bring together various theoretical interventions into Asian literature, contemporary art and culture as well as any inquiry into the intellectual history of critical theory in Asia. Focus will be placed on the dynamic relation between Western theory and Asian intellectual history.

(Deadline: 1 August 2021)