CALL FOR PAPERS
Special Issue on: “Popular Literature: Culture, Power, and the Politics of the Popular”
Vol. 8 No.2
Concept Note
Popular literature has long occupied a contested space within literary and cultural studies. Traditionally marginalized as “non-canonical” or “mass” literature, popular writing has nonetheless played a central role in shaping public imagination, ideological discourse, and everyday cultural practices. From romance, detective fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and horror to graphic narratives, crime thrillers, and digital fan fiction, pulp fiction, children’s literature, and digital storytelling, popular literature provides a rich archive for understanding social anxieties, aspirations, and transformations.
Cultural theorists such as Raymond Williams (1976) and Stuart Hall (1981) have shown that popular culture is not merely a site of passive consumption but a dynamic arena of negotiation, resistance, and identity formation. Popular literature often engages questions of class, caste, gender, race, environment, technology, migration, nationalism, and globalization. It mediates between market forces and creative expression, challenging hierarchies between “high” and “low” art while expanding the democratic reach of storytelling.
From global phenomena like Harry Potter to regional pulp fiction traditions, from dystopian narratives to digital storytelling platforms, popular literature participates in constructing collective memory and shaping the politics of representation. It challenges hierarchies between “serious” and “entertainment” literature and invites us to rethink readership, authorship, and cultural authority in democratic societies. This special issue seeks to explore the aesthetic strategies, ideological functions, market dynamics, and political implications of popular literary forms across cultures and historical contexts. We welcome interdisciplinary approaches drawing from literary studies, cultural studies, media studies, sociology, translation studies, gender studies, and environmental humanities.
Sub-themes: (Not limited to)
- Popular Literature and Cultural Studies
- Genre Fiction (Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Romance, Crime, Horror, Thriller)
- Popular Literature and National/Regional Identity
- Caste, Race, and Ethnicity in Popular Narratives
- Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Readings of Popular Texts
- Environmental Concerns in Popular Fiction
- Youth Culture and Young Adult Fiction
- Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga
- Adaptation Studies: Literature to Film/Web Series
- Digital Platforms, Fan Fiction, and Participatory Culture
- Translation and Circulation of Popular Texts
- Popular Myth, Folklore, and Retellings
- Marketplace, Publishing, and Literary Capital
- Popular Literature and Pedagogy
- Dystopia, Utopia, and Political Allegory
- Popular Literature and Postcolonial Contexts
Submission Guidelines:
Manuscripts should adhere to the guidelines of New Literaria journal, available on our website(https://newliteraria.com/for-authors/submission-guidelines/).
Submissions must be original, unpublished work and should not be under consideration elsewhere.
Length of the paper: 4000-7000 words, including references.
Referencing Style: APA 7th Edition.
Papers should be submitted to newliteraria@gmail.com
Submission Deadline: 30th June, 2026
Publication Date: 1st Aug, 2026
References
Adorno, T. W., & Horkheimer, M. (2002). Dialectic of enlightenment (E. Jephcott, Trans.).
Stanford University Press. (Original work published 1944)
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Harvard
University Press.
Certeau, M. de. (1984). The practice of everyday life. University of California Press.
Fiske, J. (1989). Understanding popular culture. Routledge.
Hall, S. (1981). Notes on deconstructing “the popular.” In R. Samuel (Ed.), People’s history
and socialist theory (pp. 227-240). Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Williams, R. (1976). Keywords: A vocabulary of culture and society. Fontana.