*CFP* "MEN AND MASCULINITIES", POTENTIAL SPECIAL ISSUE, MIDDLE EASTERN LITERATURES JOURNAL

MEL (Middle Eastern Literatures) is willing to consider a potential special issue on men and masculinities to discuss the changing social construction of masculinities in Middle Eastern literatures, and to elaborate on how literature as a field can contribute to the theorization of masculinities. This special issue is intended to explore masculinities as dynamic and multifaceted phenomena emerging within contradictory cultural, material and discursive contexts of the Middle East. The aim is to locate and dislocate masculinities, along the line of thought presented by Andrea Cornwall and Nancy Lindisfarne in Dislocating Masculinity (1994). Cornwall and Lindisfarne punctuated the importance of considering the various ways people understand masculinities in particular settings, so that it becomes possible to explore how masculinities are defined and redefined in social interaction.

The joint effort for theorizing masculinities has globally thrived since 1990s, and this special issue is planned as a contribution to understand transformations associated with masculinity in the Middle East, following the array of recent critical studies on men and masculinities. The scope is not limited to cis-gender and heterosexual men and masculinities, but perspectives on queer and transgender masculinities are also invited. In this special issue, the aim is to discuss how literature treats/questions masculinity as a metaphor of power; to interrogate the plurality of masculinities in a wide range of alternatives from hegemonic masculinities to subordinated/marginalized masculinities; to analyze the negotiation of masculinities around social and economic problems and political turmoils; and to strengthen the efforts to theorize the study of masculinities in the Middle East.

Articles will be selected on the basis of their content and scholarship, and the special issue will be considered if there are enough number of papers that fulfill the high-quality requirements of the journal. Please note that each paper will undergo peer review process and will be peer-reviewed independently.

Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:

• contributions from literature as a field to the theoretical developments in the study of men and masculinities
• fashion, style and appearance of masculinities, men’s body images, circumcision
• representations of hegemonic masculinities, hypermasculinities, metrosexuality etc. and transformations of men
• 19th century masculinities, post-war masculinities
• military, war, shell-shock, war-trauma, male hysteria, illness, disability
• prison experiences, torture, victimization of men, violence
• fathering, power dynamics in family, forced marriages, aging men
• incels, misogyny, homosocial anxieties of men
• class, precarity, breadwinning, male consumerism
• race, minority and subaltern masculinities, refugees, slavery, eunuchs 
• queer and transgender masculinities.

Prospective authors are invited to submit their biographies and abstracts before 30th September 2020 to Dr. Çimen Günay-Erkol, Ozyegin University. Please email to Cimen.Gunay@ozyegin.edu.tr. Deadline for submissions of full papers will be announced later. You can refer to MEL’s homepage at Taylor & Francis Online for all relevant information such as word templates, reference guides, style guidelines etc. but at this preliminary stage, please direct your questions to the guest editor.