Call for Book Chapters: “Death, Sickness, and Plagues in 19th-century British Literature”

Vernon Press invites book chapter proposals for the forthcoming edited volume “Death, Sickness, and Plagues in 19th-century British Literature”, edited by Reyam Rammahi.

Much research has already been done on some of the themes of interest to this volume, especially in relation to Victorian literature and its depiction of womanhood and sickness. Still, with the continuing and growing interest in race and gender studies, more is yet to be explored. The importance of this volume lies in its focus on critical issues for today’s literary studies such as race, gender, and the apocalypse and the interconnectedness of these issues. The volume is aimed at including such voices that tackle readings of such political implications in unprecedented ways. As more studies continue to emerge that apply postcolonial and feminist theories, for instance, to the works of the nineteenth century, this collection aims to combine such readings
under the specified theme to provide a connection among a number of literary works through issues of illness, race, gender, and politics. Whether in the Brontë sisters’ works or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or other works, less known or less discussed, we welcome studies that include such issues as the East/West binary, race, and oppositions between warring political, religious, and social factions, to name a few. Proposals that would especially be welcomed are those that tackle race and gender topics. We welcome proposals that tackle the following topics:

• Death, illness, and race
• Sickness of individuals representing sickness of nations
• Sickness and women
• Motherhood and sickness
• Madness, suicide, and Victorian heroines
• Female illness and the patriarchy
• Apocalypse
• The plague of people and nations
• Literary responses to plagues, epidemics, and pandemics

Please submit a one-page proposal and a short bio by May 1 st, 2023 to Reyam Rammahi at reyam.rammahi@gmail.com.