The University of Toronto Journal of Jewish Thought

CALL FOR PAPERS Vol. IV: Imagination and Narrative

The 2013 issue of The University of Toronto Journal of Jewish Thought invites papers reflecting on the role of imagination and narrative in Jewish studies. Judaism’s relationship to imagination and narrative has long been complicated: their importance is evident in the Aggadah, Talmud, and in the emphasis that major figures in Jewish studies place on the imagination as a central feature of prophecy. Yet the imagination has been regarded as a dangerous faculty of the mind that corrupts rational thought, and scholars have been exhorted to avoid works of narrative that may distract from their study. What are the politics of imagination? How have imagination and narrative shaped social dynamics, particularly in narratives of the Jewish ‘other’ in Mizrahi and Ashkenazi communities, throughout Jewish history? What is the relation between remembering, imagining, and telling? How have Jewish thinkers, writers, and artists understood the place of imagination and narrative in their own work and in the Jewish tradition? We welcome papers focusing on any era of Jewish history, drawing on philosophy, history, politics, education, literary theory, anthropology, and cultural studies as well as comparative studies of these issues in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Some Suggested Topics Include: - The role of imagination and narrative in rabbinic and halakhic (legal) discourse - Imagination and narrative in medieval, modern, and post-modern thought - Prophecy and the imagination - Imagination and narrative in the writing and reading of Jewish history - The politics of narrative in Judaism - Poetry as creative Jewish expression - Imagination, narrative, and messianism - Narrative inquiry, imagination, and Jewish education

Book Review Guidelines:

Requests to submit a book review for the 2013 volume are now being accepted. Ideally, the book to be reviewed should have been published within the last two years and will reflect the theme of “Imagination & Narrative.” English-language reviews of non-English texts will be considered under special circumstances. Please submit a description of the work under consideration (no longer than 200 words) to utjjt.cjs@gmail.com by December 15, 2012.

Submission details: Please send an abstract no longer than 500 words and prepared for ‘blind-review’ (with the author’s name and institutional affiliation appearing on a separate page) to the following email: utjjt.cjs@gmail.com by December 30, 2012. If accepted, we will ask you to submit a paper ranging in length between 5,000 and 7,000 words by February 28, 2013. Accepted papers will be published online in Vol. IV of The University of Toronto Journal of Jewish Thought in the spring of 2013. You may view the contents of the Journal through the link on the web-site of the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto: http://cjs.utoronto.ca/