This is the annual call for papers for our journal Working Papers in the Humanities: we invite contributions to Volume 20 (2024), Scandal and Infamy, edited by Caitlin Sturrock and Agnes Fanning.

On 2nd December 1814, Donatien Alphonse François, the Marquis de Sade, died in the insane asylum, Charenton, on the outskirts of Paris. Imprisoned for just under thirty years, burned in effigy, and immortalised by the term ‘sadism’, he was as infamous for his personal life as he was for the libertine novels he wrote. Taking inspiration from this author, this issue of Working Papers in the Humanities aims to examine the traces of infamy and scandal on and in literary works.

Scandal brings the private into public view; infamy commits it to memory. These interrelated markers of notoriety taint both the public life and the literary works of an individual, calling into question the boundaries of morality and acceptability. Their role in literature can be interpreted in many ways: how scandal and infamy are narrated and represented as well as their influence on the constructions and legacies of literary works. We invite proposals engaging with (but not limited to) the following areas of study:

  • Censorship
  • Rehabilitation of image
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Reception and transmission of texts
  • Adaptation and parody
  • Dynamics of power
  • Transgression and taboo(s)
  • Memory and legacy
  • Morality and immorality
  • Violence
  • Desire
  • Courting scandal

Proposals may cover a range of periods (from the medieval and Early Modern to the twenty-first century) and different cultural contexts (including English-, French-, Germanic-, Hispanic-, Italian-, Portuguese-, and Slavonic-speaking cultures). We hope to attract scholars working in a variety of fields (Modern Languages, English Studies, Comparative Literature, Cultural History, Gender Studies, Queer Theory, Film and Media Studies, the Digital Humanities, Art History, Performance and Reception History).

MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities is an electronic open-access journal intended to allow researchers to present initial findings or hypotheses. As such it will be of particular interest to postgraduate and early-career researchers. We invite proposals for papers of up to 4000 words in MHRA style, with completed essays to be delivered to the editors by 4 April 2025. Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent, accompanied by a short biographical statement on the same page, to postgrads@mhra.org.uk, by 9 December 2024.


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