CFP—philoSOPHIA—- Retro
Nov 11, 2019 → Feb 29, 2020
With all the rage and uncertainty today, the current affect of the moment seems somewhat regressive – a falling back, pulling back,
a sensation of perpetual déjà vu accompanying a sense of setback. What happened to and is coming after the post-isms?
Rather than going “forward” with all things post-modern, post-structuralist, post-racial, post-feminist, post-political, etc., we seem to have turned, in part,
to looking backwards, reflectively or not. This “feel” (temporal, affective) is about a directionality that is potentially resurrectional or else just retraceable.
The concept RETRO seems to capture those modes, moves, and moods.
Retro can be an overview (a “retro-spective”), leading to a reactive relapse and retreat, or a reframed reinvention, even both.
Our editorial thinking is prompted by the distinctively retrograde politics and culture currently on display, including retro-fashion, where what is
old becomes “new” again – epochally or apocalyptically, depending on whom you ask. Sometimes performed ironically and/or cynically in cyclical cultural ecology,
sometimes enacted as a reinvigorated return to a certain agenda and/or emancipatory project, often with self-balancing irony muted and/or sharpened,
retro has become very alive these days, like it or not, and such de/re-generative retro taken as a modal engine for re-formative and re-creative engagements needs to be theorized more fully.
What counts or works as retro? What valences does the prefix signify or amplify? What role do various social, cultural, and political categories play in shaping retro work?
Is the “re” of retro, the differential repetition built into such turns, a historical challenge to history and/or a gestural fulfilment?
And, if so, in what senses, forms, or genres? What questions retro and what does retro question? Why retro? "philoSOPHIA,” herself quite retro, wonders with you.
• We welcome submissions on a wide range of topics relating to RETRO: email
• We will consider only complete articles (not abstracts), although we would welcome preliminary queries. We will prioritize submissions received by February 28, 2020.
• Submissions should be in the range of 5,000-8,000 words (including a 200 word abstract, author bio, and references) and should follow the formatting guidelines:
website