[URBANTH-L]CFP: Seven Deadly Sins (TPQ)

[Daniel Makagon]

Call for Submissions
Text and Performance Quarterly
Special Issue: The Seven Deadly Sins

Sin is both a cultural construct and a resource. It is simultaneously
social and surreptitious, and seems emblematic for understanding many of
the practices of everyday life. Sin has long held a firm grasp on our
cultural imagination: internal battles between good and evil are at the
very heart of most of our storytelling; external battles between good and
evil comprise the bulk of our tales of history. The seven deadly sins are
particularly dramatic because the stakes are drawn so high: in their
original context, they name offenses against God's will that lead to
certain damnation and the death of the soul. In their contemporary
context, the seven deadly sins have become something of a cottage industry
in popular culture, and are often employed as an organizing trope to
discuss topics as disparate as chess, business, education, literature,
psychology, and love. This trope has made its way into film, talk radio,
magazine columns, and a series of popular books commissioned by an
prestigious university press. The seven deadly sins have become something
of a brand name in this manner, and thus provide a fruitful cultural
milieu for analysis, reflection, and theory.

Michael LeVan and Daniel Makagon, guest editors of Text and Performance
Quarterly, invite essays at the intersections of performance, culture, and
the seven deadly sins. Of particular interest are manuscripts that engage
a specific deadly sin (e.g., lust, gluttony, sloth, anger, greed, envy, or
pride). Topics addressed in submitted manuscripts may range from
examinations of sin as method and/or resource for performance,
scholarship, cultural critique, or political resistance to explorations of
sin in the cultural imagination, in performance practice, as a technique
of power, as an economic or social virtue, or as a resource for writing,
relationships, freedom, or critique. Manuscripts from a wide range of
perspectives, including rhetorical, feminist, ethnographic, political, and
aesthetic are welcome.

All submissions should observe the following guidelines:

Manuscripts submitted for this special issue should not be under
consideration elsewhere. Because TPQ follows a policy of blind, peer
review, no material identifying the author(s) should appear anywhere other
than the title page. Double-space the entire manuscript, including notes
and block quotes. Include an abstract of not more than 150 words and a
list of 5 suggested keywords. Indicate the history of the manuscript,
noting whether it is part of a thesis or dissertation and, if so, the
director's name, and/or whether any portion of the essay has been
presented at a colloquy, conference, or convention. Manuscripts must
conform to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, edited by
Joseph Gibaldi (6th edition).

Please e-mail manuscripts (no hard copies please) in MS Word to Michael
LeVan and Daniel Makagon by May 1, 2005. We welcome inquiries to either
Michael or Daniel.

Michael LeVan
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
University of South Florida
4202 East Fowler Ave, CIS 1040
Tampa, FL  33620
mlevan at cas.usf.edu

Daniel Makagon
Assistant Professor of Communication and Cultural Studies
Department of Humanities
Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI  49931
dmakagon at mtu.edu

Text and Performance Quarterly is a peer-reviewed journal of the National
Communication Association published by Routledge Journals, an imprint of
Taylor & Francis Ltd.