Parallax is an exciting and provocative cultural studies journal which seeks to initiate alternative forms of cultural theory and criticism through a critical engagement with the production of cultural knowledges. It is a peer-reviewed journal, published quarterly, by Taylor and Francis Ltd.

Parallax will be of interest to those working in many areas including critical theory, cultural history, gender studies, philosophy, queer theory, english and comparative literature, post-colonial theory, art history and of course, cultural studies.

Parallax is seeking papers to be published in its themed issues in 2004. These issues will be edited by Rowan Bailey, Nicholas Chare and Peter Kilroy.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Conceptual (Dis)Orders

What is the place of the ‘artistic’ metaphor - as painting, sculpture, architecture, music, poetry – in the conceptual orders of philosophy? What problems arise with both a conformation and resistance of art in a conceptual aesthetic field of ‘artistic’ metaphors? Do aesthetic metaphors necessarily provide philosophy with a model aesthetic? Is metaphorical discourse about art - as that which is described, positioned and experienced – an (un)stable metamorphosis of metaphor? In what ways is the work and production of ‘artistic’ metaphors both (in)adequate to and excessive of the art object? Is an ‘aesthetic state’ of art an (in)articulate ground for critical transformations? Are the artifices/façades/surfaces of metaphor manufactured in order to maintain stable philosophical categories? Are there unacknowledged moments of face-making, disfiguring, defacing and animism in the (un)thinkable of art? Do ‘artistic’ metaphors create conditions of possibility/impossibility for philosophy? Does philosophy manufacture, transform and substitute ‘artistic’ metaphors for a necessary and critical resistance to meaning? Are conditions of ‘material’ inscription (un)forgettable, (un)intelligible, (un)pleasurable and (un)knowable experiences?

Parallax invites papers which address the self definition and self validation of philosophical discourse through the mythological spheres of ‘artistic’ metaphors. How are transformations and substitutions of critical thought necessary encounters with art? Is there an aesthetic ideology? In what ways does ‘material’ inscription efface ‘artistic’ metaphors and their function and place in philosophy? Where does the excess and rigour of critical thinking take ‘artistic’ metaphor to, in terms of form and content, mechanical and visual memories, profit and loss, thought and language? Are the figural tropes of metonymy, prosopopeia, disfigurement, defacement and anthropomorphism works of a conceptual art? What is the metaphor of art?

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: JANUARY 2004