To sell oneself (deadline: 30 June 2011 )

With this call for papers, the journal Snodi. Pubbici e privati nella storia contemporanea intends to open a reflection on the theme of ‘selling oneself’.

What meanings and shapes does the practice of ‘selling oneself’ take in the contemporary world? How has the collective sensitivity concerning the idea and practice of selling of one’s body, or parts of it, or of selling one’s ideas and convictionsshifted. What definitions of personal liberty, integrity, shame and honour, and what visions of power relationship (between genders, social classes, generations and cultures) have been used or are implied in relation to this theme, in both public discourse and private narratives.

In the contemporary world the symbolic act of ‘selling oneself’ takes many different shapes. ‘Selling oneself’ means giving oneself up to the enemy, to betray and to self-betray in exchange for money, power, or for other reasons. Many subject may sell themselves, examples include: the politician, the trade-unionist, the “transformist” member of parliament, the revolutionary, the football player, the alternative artist who gives up to the pressures of the market, the journalist who compromises with power. In short, one can think of anyone who changes his/her own views or gives up his/her own body in exchange for material advantages, despites his/her own convictions. ‘Selling oneself’ may be an act of prostitution by a man or a woman, because of choice, of need, or because one is forced to do so. One may ‘Sell oneself’ and perceive one self as an economic resource, or you can ‘sell yourself’ in front of hierarchies, in the face of power, renouncing to invest on your own abilities and resources

We encourage contributions which reflect on this theme, on the protagonists – those who sell and those who buy – of the ‘selling’, on the moments, the contexts, the reasons why one sells him or herself; on the meanings that this act may have in different contexts; but also on the rhetoric that is sparked by this theme in both the public and the private spheres and in different historical periods.

Contributors are invited to send:

For the section Writing: a half-page abstract for an article in either Italian or English of roughly 20 pages (40.000 characters spaces included) For the section Sources of the self/Sources of the us: a half-page abstract for an article in either Italian or English of roughly 10 pages (20.000 characters spaces included, and including the sources when relevant), which analyzes the methodological problems of the sources utilised in the study of this theme, exploring their peculiarity, construction and re-elaboration in an already conducted enquiry.

Proposals should be sent to snodi.pubbliciprivati@gmail.com, with a short biographical note and a short list of the author’s main publications. The authors of articles in English, when English is not their first language, should have their text already proofread by a mother tongue reader before sending it. The articles for the section Writing are subject to peer review. Proposals will be selected by 15 July 2011. The issue will be published in spring 2012.

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S-nodi. Public and private in Contemporary History

The journal S-nodi was conceived as a laboratory for the reflection around the concepts of “public” and “private” in contemporary history. The title refers to the exchanges, superimpositions, and movements between boundaries between the two terms of this great dichotomy which seems to be able to describe every individual and collective experience. On the contrary, it presents many knots (nodi) which need to be sigled out and unwound. Indeed, contemporary history is characterised by contexts in which the public dimension becomes private, and the private sphere assumes public relevance, depending on the strategies, self-representations, and conflicts between different social subjects, which move between these two spaces in a complex and fluid manner. S-nodi is an experimental workshop, open to different disciplinary perspectives and different generations of scholars, within and outside Italy, who have in common the will to reflect in a non-dichotomic way on the many publics and privates of the contemporary age. S-nodi is a project that originated in Venice, but is animated by young researchers who are active in different universities both in Italy and abroad. The journal, which intends to be a site for international exchange and welcomes contributions in languages other than Italia, contains from issue n. 3 a section entitled “Writing” where articles are evaluated not only by the editorial board but also by peer reviewers.

The editorial board includes Giulia Albanese, Margherita Angelini, Claudia Baldoli, Tommaso Baris, Giulia Beltrametti, Emmanuel Betta, Alessandro Casellato, Simon Levis Sullam, Erika Lorenzon, Giovanni Sbordone, Simona Troilo, Gilda Zazzara.