Call for Papers
Bread and Circuses
Volume 1, Issue 2
Summer 2012
“Bread and Circuses”: the possible catchphrase of all politics. The Romans used it in its most literal sense, yet our tribunes and senators still defer to its symbolic significance. While we constantly worry about our bread in these depressed economic times, we are also constantly subjected to a 24-hour view of the gladiatorial arena of our cultural circus. For the second issue of The Wide Net, the country’s first journal exclusively for Master’s level research in English and cultural studies, we want to examine the contemporary cultural relevance of the phrase.
On the most literal level, how do the two—performances and food—affect our lives and our studies? On a more figurative level, how do we understand the As Master’s students, how does the phrase relate to our lives? Who are the contemporary writers engaging with these issues?
Topics could include, but are not limited to:
Performativity, the carnimalesque, political theory, literature and politics, visual culture and art history, food studies, literary analysis, anything else that fits our theme and has contemporary relevance.
Article submissions should not exceed 7,000 words and should follow all conventions of 2009 MLA format. Creative submissions should not exceed 5,000 words. Literature reviews should not exceed 1,000 words.
Please include a cover page with your name, university affiliation, title of your paper and an abstract of 150 words or fewer followed by the actual submission with no identifiable markings.
Email submissions to thewidenet@truman.edu by Friday, June 29, 2012. Direct inquiries to:
Anthony Meyer or Zeeshan Reshamwala
ameyer@truman.edu reshamwala@truman.edu
