We invite proposals for contributions to a Studies in English Literature (SEL) special issue on “Nineteenth-Century Neologisms.” The genesis for this special issue was a 2022 MLA special session panel on “Romantic Neologisms” that generated considerable interest.
The special issue aims to focus on understudied Romantic and Victorian coinages to prioritize the cultural and aesthetic politics of the nineteenth century’s lexical richness. We also eagerly welcome essays that take a non-Anglophone, or translocal, or non-national approach. Our vision for the issue is inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s dream of a new Greek lexicon, combining English, German, French, and Latin terms to better capture human experience as well as by Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s attempt to reflect unparalleled historical change in his creation of a new language in Neology: or Vocabulary of Words that are New or Renewed (1801). Writ large, the special issue will reflect interwoven historical and philosophical developments as Anglophone and non-Anglophone C19 writers demonstrate how, in unprecedented times, new words are required.
Please send 2-page CVs with 350-word abstracts by February 28, 2022 for ~5000-word papers to padmar@ucr.edu and michele.speitz@furman.edu. Note that the 5K word limit is set by Johns Hopkins UP and likely cannot be exceeded. Full drafts due for editorial review January 2023. Pending positive external peer review, papers will be published in 2023 in Studies in English Literature for SEL’s autumn 1800-1900 issue.