Guest Editors: Dr. Julia Borst, University of Bremen, and Dr. Juliane Tauchnitz, University of Leipzig

Although there are an increasing number of African and Afro-European authors writing in Spanish or Catalan nowadays, their texts are still condemned to be marginalized in scientific research or—as in the case of Hispano-Maghrebi writings—are often not even considered a distinct literary field. In this special issue, however, we do not aim to simply present these literatures and authors. Rather we aim to approach them systematically by examining how writers from very different historical, sociocultural, or political backgrounds reflect on migratory movements, diasporic constructions, and transcultural subject positions. These writers come from Spanish-speaking countries or areas with a Spanish-speaking minority, such as Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara, and the Maghreb; as well as from non Spanish-speaking African countries, authors who have migrated to Spain and adopted Spanish or Catalan as the language of their literary production. By taking into account the large thematic and structural heterogeneity of their texts, the call focuses on ways of (re)thinking, “articulating,” and even creating complex relations between notions such as homeland, hostland, and geopolitical, physical, psychical, and/or epistemic passages. For their writings do not only cover experiences of migration, but also connect them to more general questions of transnational and/or transcultural existence, such as of coloniality, discrimination, language, of pluridirectional belonging and experiences of alienation, as well as of nomadic identities and transcultural coexistence.

But on an individual or collective level, what strategies do African and Afro-European literary texts written in Spanish or Catalan develop to describe diasporic situations and subjectivities or issues of forced or voluntary, legal, or clandestine migration? What is the political impetus that actuates these writings? And where does their innovative, often subversive, analytical potential to face those topics lie?

Areas of interest may include:

• (Re)presentational strategies and alternative readings of migratory, transnational, and diasporic phenomena
• Literary tropes of belonging and/or the construction of Otherness
• Notions of transterritorial identity constructions and plural subject positions
• Concepts of transcultural thinking patterns and literary models of transcultural coexistence
• Challenging and decentering notions of a global hispanidad that marginalize Spanish and Catalan African voices, including reflections on the influence of other cultures from the Spanish-speaking world on these voices and vice versa
• Performatory options and restrictions of different literary genres

All finished manuscripts are expected to conform to the standard RAL guidelines published in every issue of the journal and all submissions will be subject to peer review.

Prospective contributors should send their 300–500 word abstracts by Monday April 18, 2016 and expect notification of selection by Friday May 6, 2016. Final papers are due by Friday July 8, 2016. The guest editors encourage potential contributors to establish early contact via email through borst@uni-bremen.de and jtauch@rz.uni-leipzig.de.