In Honour of Michael Wessels
Original submissions are invited in honour of Michael Wessels, former Associate Professor of English and Head of Department at the University of the Western Cape, and Regional Chair of the Southern African Association for Commonwealth Literature and Languages (SAACLALS), who passed on in April 2018. Michael Wessels was well travelled locally, regionally and internationally; loved hiking and nature; and was inspired by indigenous arts and various forms of spirituality.
His love of the Drakensberg mountains led to his study of San/|Xam oral literatures and the publication of his book, Bushman Letters: Interpreting |Xam Narrative (2010). He played a significant role in establishing networks between the South African academy and the global world, as noted in the South Africa-Canada research project on indigenous literatures and SAACLALS activities.
Possible themes for papers include the following, although others related to literary and cultural studies can be proposed:
* eco-criticism, human–nature relations, literatures about mountains
* imagining the Cape/KwaZulu-Natal
* indigenous literatures, oral literature, |Xam/San narratives
* explorations of myths, traditions and trickster heroes
* South African, southern African and African literatures
* Commonwealth and other world literatures
* travel literatures
* cultures of resistance
* literature, nature and spirituality
* human experiences and identities
The ‘theme’ issue will be edited by Irikidzayi Manase and Cheryl Stobie.
Email a 200-word abstract and brief biographical note to [email protected] & [email protected] by 31 October 2020. The deadline for submission of the article, of about 6 000 words, is 28 February 2021.