[Commlist] CFC: Clio Reflects. XXI Historical Fiction by Women and about Women

Call for Chapters
Clio Reflects. XXI Historical Fiction by Women and about Women
(tentatively by Bloomsbury)

In many literary genres as well as other modes of expression, such as 
cinematography, performing arts, and games, explorations of past women’s 
lives have become increasingly popular and evolved into a body of 
intellectual, psychological, and social experimentation. This movement 
is mirrored in the broad spectrum of genres making some claim for 
historicity or historical verisimilitude, such as historical novels; 
alternate histories; fictional biographies; historical fantasies, family 
sagas, mysteries, and romances; children’s and YA historical fiction; 
historical comic and graphic novels; and historiographic metafiction.
In such broadly-defined historical fiction, we find authors 
experimenting with the characters of women larger than life or obsessed 
with power. Rebecca F. Kuang’s female version of Mao Zedong, whose 
madness we experience in The Poppy War trilogy, and the women 
overachievers populating the oeuvre of Philippa Gregory, are prominent 
examples of this trend. Contemporary historical fiction also capitalises 
on retelling popular stories and legends. Interestingly, in it we might 
also find prospective solutions to the limitations placed on women by 
the patriarchal world – as in Madeline Miller’s Circe – or alternatives 
to concepts coined by male intellectuals – as in the case of Hillary 
Mantel’s take on hauntology. Female perspectives in the subgenres of 
historical fiction have also redefined the “paths” already explored 
mostly by men, such as Kate Moses’s fictional biography Wintering: A 
Novel of Sylvia Plath, or generated new typological categories, such as 
medical historical novels, and historical sisters-in-arms works (for 
example, The Help and The Hidden Figures).
We invite authors and researchers working in various academic 
disciplines to submit chapter proposals that look at post-2000 
historical fiction, whether literary, visual and performing art, e.g., 
film and television series, or in games, and explore questions such as: 
what do women look for and, more importantly, find in the past? For what 
purposes and with what effects do female authors intersect historical 
fiction and reality? How does female historical fiction situate itself 
with regard to history? What insights does female historical fiction 
contribute to our current state of knowledge?

Proposals of chapters could include, but are not limited to the 
following topics:
• social and literary influences on and of contemporary female 
historical fiction
• historical fiction’s critical diagnoses of the present and engagement 
in current social problems
• female ways of reimagining the past in various media – from historical 
novels to strategic games and beyond
• reshaping, blurring, and transgressing the limits of the historical 
fiction subgenres
• changing representations of female historical figures (especially 
women in power)
• female wisdom – views and concepts non-existent within or alternative 
to male views and concepts
• female perspectives on the dominant discourse on history
• female historical truth and ways of knowing the past
• female participation in the construction of history
• entanglements of female historical knowledge with politics of memory, 
epistemic authorities, historical turns, and paradigm shifts
• female configurations of subjectivity and forms of community and 
individuality
• social, psychological, and intellectual mechanisms employed by women 
to protect themselves and fight against imposed patriarchal constraints
• female reshapings of the patriarchal language forms

The book editors – Michael Joseph (Rutgers University, USA, 
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8117-5739 
<https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8117-5739>) and Alicja Bemben (University 
of Silesia, Poland, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7342-7748 
<https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7342-7748>) – will be happy to consider 
relevant proposals from both experienced scholars and young academics at 
the start of their careers, as well as doctoral and graduate students. 
We strongly encourage contributions focusing on works from Asia and 
nations usefully referred to as The Global South. Only previously 
unpublished texts will be considered.

Submit titles, abstracts (about 600 words), and biographical notes 
(about 50 words) by 20 May 2022 to (mjoseph /at/ emeritus.rutgers.edu) 
<mailto:(mjoseph /at/ emeritus.rutgers.edu)> and (alicja.bemben /at/ us.edu.pl) 
<mailto:(alicja.bemben /at/ us.edu.pl)>. Please, make sure that the abstract 
explicitly states your proposed thesis, research methods and techniques, 
and the prospective structure of your chapter.

Timeline:
* Abstract submission: 20 May 2022
* Acceptance notice: 30 May 2022
* Draft chapter submission: 20 October 2022
* Final chapter submission: 20 December 2022 (5000-7000 words, 
all-inclusive)
No payment from the authors is required.
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