Nature Remembers: War, Trauma, and Environmental Postmemory in Contemporary Anglophone Literature and Culture
We are happy to share the Call for Papers for our upcoming collected volume “Nature Remembers: War, Trauma, and Environmental Postmemory in Contemporary Anglophone Literature and Culture.” In the same spirit as our homonymous October seminar, which showcased a variety of literary and cultural texts, critical approaches, and presentation formats, we welcome proposals that examine novel and interdisciplinary methodologies.
Suggested Themes and Topics
We welcome contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following areas and questions:
- Landscapes of Memory: How do battlefields, nuclear test sites, or deforested war zones operate as lieux de mémoire carrying the scars of conflict?
- Postmemory and Non-Human Witnesses: What kinds of non-human witnessing do literary and cultural texts stage, and what do these perspectives disclose about loss, endurance, or responsibility?
- Anthropocene and Slow Violence: To what extent can narrative make the slow, long-term environmental harm of conflict legible—especially in relation to broader Anthropocene crises?
- Intergenerational Trauma and Ecological Inheritance: How is the memory of conflict passed on through damaged environments and the stories communities tell about them?
- Postcolonial Ecologies and Environmental Justice: What does environmental postmemory look like when reframed through postcolonial, Indigenous, or decolonial approaches to environmental justice?
- Silenced Environmental Histories: Which war-related ecological traumas remain marginalised or forgotten, and how do cultural texts bring them into view?
- Resilience and Reconciliation with Nature: How do texts imagine ecological recovery after conflict, and what ethical forms of care or reconciliation do they propose?
Submission Guidelines
We would be grateful to receive contributions from POSTLIT members as well as colleagues outside our research group. Please submit an abstract of 300-500 words, outlining your proposed chapter’s topic, approach, and main arguments, along with a tentative title and a 100-word-long author biographical note listing affiliation, research interests, and key publications by 30 April 2026 at ultrapostmemoria@gmail.com.