21st century writing | 21st century approaches
The works of criticism in this issue, while not intentionally organised around a theme, nevertheless cohere around ideas of relation and belonging. In the wake of the recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, and in the midst of the ongoing Brexit saga, the emphasis in a number of these articles on notions of care and kinship—those forms of relation which look to challenge and highlight violence against marginalised others—is a welcome reminder of the love and hope at the center of an interconnected world.
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This article considers the role of queer kinship in Jackie Kay’s debut poetry collection The Adoption Papers (1991). I do not seek here a systematic explication of this theoretical approach, but rather follow recent scholarship in highlighting the capacity of “non-normative relational configurations” to challenge heteronormative kinship norms enculturated by the capitalist state (Mizielińska 2).
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With Black Movie (2015), Danez Smith, a Black American, queer, poz, non-binary (they/them) spoken-word poet, pitches new ideas for the representation of blackness in Hollywood films, while critiquing the reality of being black off-screen in the US.
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In the novel All That Man Is (2016), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, nine protagonists travel the European continent, from Lille over Budapest to Copenhagen and beyond. The author, David Szalay, is quite a traveller himself: a Canadian citizen raised in London who is now based in Budapest and published in the United Kingdom. In 2013, he was named as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. But can such a book, or indeed such an author, be fully understood if considered only as a ‘British’?
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Oct 11, 2019
We invite proposals for our December special issue: Contemporary Storytelling and Seriality: Production, Consumption, Reception. The deadline for abstracts is now extended to 23 October and we particularly welcome proposals on comics, games, film, television and podcasts. We’re keen to include voices from a range of academic...
Aug 27, 2019
Alluvium is an open access journal featuring short essays of around 2000 words on key issues and emerging trends in 21st century writing and criticism. The journal publishes six issues a year, employing a system of post-publication peer-review by the engaged commentariat on the message boards of the journal’s website, enabling vital current...
Jul 10, 2019
Call For Papers for the Alluvium Panel at English: Shared Futures, Manchester 2020.
Aug 22, 2019
The works of criticism in this issue, while not intentionally organised around a theme, nevertheless cohere around ideas of relation and belonging. In the wake of the recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, and in the midst of the ongoing Brexit saga, the emphasis in a number of these articles on notions of care and kinship—those forms of relation which look to challenge and highlight violence against marginalised others—is a welcome reminder of the love and hope at the center of an interconnected world.
Aug 22, 2019
This article considers the role of queer kinship in Jackie Kay’s debut poetry collection The Adoption Papers (1991). I do not seek here a systematic explication of this theoretical approach, but rather follow recent scholarship in highlighting the capacity of “non-normative relational configurations” to challenge heteronormative kinship norms enculturated by the capitalist state (Mizielińska 2).
Aug 22, 2019
With Black Movie (2015), Danez Smith, a Black American, queer, poz, non-binary (they/them) spoken-word poet, pitches new ideas for the representation of blackness in Hollywood films, while critiquing the reality of being black off-screen in the US.
Aug 22, 2019
In the novel All That Man Is (2016), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, nine protagonists travel the European continent, from Lille over Budapest to Copenhagen and beyond. The author, David Szalay, is quite a traveller himself: a Canadian citizen raised in London who is now based in Budapest and published in the United Kingdom. In 2013, he was named as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. But can such a book, or indeed such an author, be fully understood if considered only as a ‘British’?
Aug 22, 2019
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" suggested George Santayana in 1905. A century of cyclically returning violence later, it is time to re-phrase this question: what if those who cannot imagine the future are condemned to repeat the past?
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