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CALL FOR PAPERS (Articles & Translations)

Remainders Reimagined: The Aesthetics of Disposability In, Around, and Across Contemporary Koreas

Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia (PAHA)—a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the Ateneo de Manila University—invites submissions for a special issue on contemporary Korea organized around the theme of remainder and disposability.

Theodor Adorno (1966, 1970) famously theorized the remainder as that which resists complete subsumption into dominant social systems, serving as the “truth content” of art and a basis for ethico-political dissent. More recently, in the context of neoliberal Philippines, Neferti X. M. Tadiar (2022) reconceptualized the remainder as “other practices of life-making” that harbor “tangential, fugitive, and recalcitrant creative social capacities.” While capitalism depends on the disposability of such lives, their vitality crucially exceeds the vitality of productive labor on which capitalism relies. Remaindering, then, is an effect of marginalization and erasure by hegemonic processes, as well as an opening for new possibilities.

This special issue welcomes contributions from across the Korean humanities that expand upon and innovate on these formulations. Beyond Marxian-humanist frameworks, the problem of remaindering and disposability can also resonate with inquiries in areas such as media archaeology, ecocriticism, posthumanism, and disabilities studies. Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following questions:

• How have generic or representational modalities once marginalized or ghettoized (e.g., science fiction, sinpa) been repurposed to address new challenges?
• In what ways have new regimes of production and legitimization produced remainders in the arts?
• How have the arts responded to the interrelationship between the disposability of the human and the nonhuman?
• How are forms of social abjection or abandonment being represented under neoliberal capitalism?
• How do forms of non-normative embodiment by queer, diasporic, or disabled subjects generate new modes of aesthetic vitality?
• How do the remainders of colonialism and the Cold War (cf. Ann Stoler’s notion of “imperial debris”) manifest in contemporary aesthetics?

The subtitle—“in, around, and across contemporary Koreas”—underscores our transnational orientation, encompassing North Korea, South Korea, and the global Korean diaspora. The term contemporary is used in an open and inclusive sense, recognizing the non-synchronous and heterogeneous character of historical contemporaneity.

Submission Guidelines

Abstracts

Please submit an abstract (up to 300 words) along with a short C.V. (maximum 3 pages). Include up to five keywords. While you are not required to use the terms “remainder” or “disposability” in the abstract or the title, the connection should be made clear in your description.

• Article Abstracts should outline the main argument and the key intervention.
• Translation Abstracts should describe the text and author as well as its significance. Critically informed approaches to translation are especially encouraged.

Manuscripts

• Articles: up to 6,000 words. Submissions may come from literary studies, film studies, visual culture studies, performance studies, art history, sound studies, diaspora studies, discard studies, and related fields. We welcome sharp, clear, rigorous, and sensitive writing suitable for undergraduate instruction.
• Translations: up to 6,000 words (fiction, poetry, essay, or other media texts). Translations must be accompanied by a critical commentary (up to 1,000 words). Translations from languages beyond Korean (e.g., Chinese, French) are also welcome. Translators are responsible for securing permissions from copyright holders.

Timeline

• Abstract submission deadline: November 15, 2025
• Notification of acceptance: December 1, 2025
• Complete manuscript due: March 1, 2026
• Publication of special issue: Late 2026

Inquiries and Submissions

Please send abstracts, C.V.s, and any questions to:

Jae Won Edward Chung

Assistant Professor

Asian Languages and Cultures

Rutgers University–New Brunswick

Email: jchung@alc.rutgers.edu

CC: paha@ateneo.edu