Cultural Perceptions of Animals: Old and New
Abstract deadline: October 1, 2023
Article submission deadline: May 1, 2024
Animal studies have evolved over the years with a particular line of inquiry in mind, that of how representing animals can help shape humans’ understanding of nature and themselves in literature, art, and the sciences. Since time immemorial, animals have prefigured in various forms of the arts. The initial stories and tales early humans chose to depict on cave walls were those of animals. This issue of Alif invites contributions from different disciplines and cultural backgrounds to explore the ways in which animals have been put in conversation with the contexts they reside in and with us as human beings. Contributions may address the way animals have been represented in fables, folk-tales, or religious mythology, among others; how animals open up a nuanced space for representation and embodiment culturally, politically, and socially during times of censorship, enlightenment, etc.; and how they spurred humans’ scientific and intellectual pursuit of knowledge during the modern era. Alif also encourages contributors to question the extent to which animal representations and depictions (in many forms) have come to develop and diversify the ways we conceive of the world and identify with it.
Article topics might include, but are not restricted to, the following:
- Animal symbolism and censorship
- Mythological animals
- Literary representations of animals (allegorical, satirical)
- Animals and the sacred: Ceremony and sacrifice
- Perceiving animals in popular and folk culture
- Human-animal encounters beyond the Anthropocene
- Animals and Ecology
- Animal rights, vegetarianism, and human exploitation
- Anthropological and cultural perceptions of animals
- Animality as a metaphor for human desire
- Scientific classification and representation of animals
- Philosophical views on animals
Key Dates
Deadline for submission of abstracts (300 words) | October 1, 2023 |
Deadline for submission of full articles | May 1, 2024 |
Publication date |
Spring 2025 |
Alif is a refereed, annual, multi-lingual, and multi-disciplinary journal published by the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the American University in Cairo. Each issue revolves around a theme or a problem, bringing together the views and approaches of scholars from all over the world.
Alif is electronically available on JSTOR and indexed on a number of prestigious databases including Scopus, MLA International Bibliography, SAGE, Index Islamicus, EBSCO, Project MUSE, and Literature Resource Center (Gale).
Submission instructions: An initial 300-word abstract should be submitted by 1 October 2023, accompanied by the author’s email address, telephone number, and postal address. Articles based on accepted abstracts should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words and may be submitted in Arabic, English, or French by electronic mail to alifecl@aucegypt.edu, together with an abstract of 100 words and a 50-word biographical note on the contributor. Authors should consult the MLA Handbook (ninth edition) for style in preparing their manuscripts.
Only original articles that do not duplicate previously published work, including the authors, and are not under review by another journal or collection will be considered.
Correspondence
Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, Department of English and Comparative Literature
American University in Cairo
113 Kasr Al Aini Street, PO Box 2511
Cairo 11511, Egypt
t: +2.02.2797.5107
alifecl@aucegypt.edu
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