Call for Book Chapters: Mary Shelley’s The Last Man and Global Issues

Editor: Dr Reyam Rammahi

Publisher: Vernon Press

General information

Additional chapter proposals are invited for Mary Shelley’s The Last Man and Global Issues, an edited collection examining the political, racial, and pandemic-related questions raised by Shelley’s novel.

The collection seeks to situate discussion of The Last Man within the literary traditions and historical debates of its time, while considering its relevance to global issues. It brings different critical readings into conversation, exploring how the novel represents disease, national identity, colonial relationships, and the vulnerabilities of human societies.

We welcome contributions engaging with postcolonial studies, medical humanities, biopolitics, disability studies, and related approaches. Chapters should offer an argument grounded in close reading and relevant scholarship. Comparative studies are welcome where The Last Man remains central to the discussion.

Possible topics include:

• Disease, plague, and the political dimensions of public health.

• Race, national identity, and representations of cultural difference.

• Empire, colonial relationships, and slavery.

• War, political ambition, and social responsibility.

• Disability, exclusion, and belonging.

• Gender and the representation of vulnerability.

• Geographical boundaries, movement, and the spread of disease.

• The Last Man in relation to other eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary works.

• The possibilities and limitations of reading the novel alongside contemporary global crises.

The collection aims to develop a scholarly dialogue between different interpretations of the novel. Contributions should make their critical position clear and explain how their analysis advances understanding of Shelley’s work. Discussions of contemporary issues should attend to historical differences as well as connections.

Submission guidelines

Please send a proposed chapter title, an abstract of 250–300 words, and a biography of approximately 100 words to reyam.rammahi@gmail.com by November 13, 2026.

Completed chapters should be approximately 8,000–10,000 words, including notes and Works Cited, and follow MLA style.

Provisional timetable

Submissions must be original and unpublished. All contributions will be subject to editorial assessment and the publisher’s review requirements.