Movement

Movement CFP

On this page you can find our call for academic articles, book/art/film/music reviews, creative writing, art, and film submissions responding to "Movement", the theme of the 2023 issue of Moveable Type.

MOVEMENT

To celebrate the 15th edition of the UCL English Graduate journal Moveable Type, we are dedicating this year’s issue to movement–inspired by one of the foundations of literature and global culture to which our journal’s name pays tribute: the first moveable-type printing press, invented nearly a millennium ago.

We welcome all academic papers, reviews, creative writing, and art pieces that explore, deepen, or complicate our understanding of movement in all its aspects and forms—whether from rhetoric and emotional persuasion to the movement of goods, people, and other animals within and across borders and boundaries; from the subtle workings of metaphor—whose etymology suggests carrying over or smuggling—to the longstanding concept of the ‘unmoved mover’. Following that ancient paradox’s train of thought, we also invite contributors to consider the relationship between movement and its potential antitheses: stasis, stability, immobility and, perhaps, rest.

Reflecting on our title and its celebration, we are particularly interested in work that considers the literal and figurative movement or mobility of text: its production and reproduction, amendment and revision, translation and adaptation, recomposition and performance, preservation and digitisation, (mis)handling and mutilation, proliferation and suppression. How might a new, better or altered understanding of these processes impact our perceptions or notions of textual stability–such as in the idea of the tradition? Or else instability, through endless variation and renewal–such as in Paul Zumthor’s concept of mouvance? And how might that understanding impact the way in which producers of texts as well as their readers and critics have moved and continue to move between different times and historical periods, as between different national and linguistic cultures?

NOTE: In addition, to honour this year’s theme, we are welcoming video and film submissions which will be published along with the print journal and screened at our ‘15th birthday’ party in the autumn of 2023.

MT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES DEADLINE: 15TH MAY

All submissions should be sent to editors.moveabletype@gmail.com by midnight on the published deadline. Please feel free to get in touch to discuss your choice of topic prior to submission.

All submissions should include a short author’s biography, a bibliography and use MHRA referencing where necessary.

Academic articles/research papers can be 3000-5000 words.

We welcome contributions exploring any genre and time period which relate to this year’s theme. We encourage close reading of literary texts as much as thematic exploration.

Book, art, music or film reviews can be 1500-2000 words.

We are seeking reviews of any books—poetry, novels, plays, biographies, critical monographs—short or feature-length film and video, albums, theatre or exhibitions which relate to this year’s theme. Ideally, any work reviewed should have been published, exhibited, released or have debuted in the last two years.

Creative writing pieces can be up to 2500 words.

We invite creative nonfiction, poetry, fiction, drama or work of any other genre which relates to this year’s theme.

Film/video can be up to 10 minutes long. PLEASE NOTE THE DEADLINE FOR ART AND FILM SUBMISSIONS IS 26TH JUNE.

Topics for submissions might include:

TEXTUAL, ARTISTIC & EMOTIONAL

PHYSICAL & MECHANICAL

SOCIAL & POLITICAL

progress and progression | strategies, tactics, and manoeuvres | rites of passage | transgression