Concept Note

Contributions on varied dimensions of Popular Literature in the Nineteenth Century are invited for Volume XIII of Critical Imprints (ISSN: 2319-4774), the annual peer-reviewed journal of the Department of English, Loreto College, Kolkata.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Theoretical approaches on the “popular” and its position relative to the “canon”
• Popular genres (sensation fiction, gothic fiction, crime & detective fiction, science fiction, adventure fiction, children’s literature and juvenile fiction, romance and erotica, etc.)
• Popular forms: serialised fiction, short fiction, popular poetry
• The periodical press in the nineteenth century
• Mass market texts: penny dreadfuls, yellowbacks, dime novels, etc.
• Street literature and ephemera: broadsides, chapbooks, pamphlets, tracts, almanacs, advertisements
• Illustrated texts and visual storytelling
• Popular literature and material culture: book production, circulation, pricing
• Reading practices and the reception of popular texts
• Intersections of class, gender, race, sexuality, and disability in popular literature
• The political and socio-cultural functions of popular literature
• Popular literature and popular science
• Popular literature and colonialism
• Popular literature and censorship
• The language of popular texts
• Archival studies and digital approaches

Submission Guidelines:

1. The article must be sent as an MS-Word document, with all citations following the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition.
2. Full articles must be no longer than 7,000 words, including endnotes and references.
3. Any images to be included with the text must be sent in JPEG format only, with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Any permissions required for images must be obtained by the author before the deadline for sending in the completed article.
4. The completed article must also be accompanied by a 300-word abstract, 4–5 keywords, and a brief bio-note of the contributor/s.

Disclaimer: The editors of the journal reserve the right to edit the bio-note if required. The copy-editing of the text will also be at the discretion of the editorial board.

Please mail your articles to lcengjournal@gmail.com by November 30, 2025.

All queries may be addressed to chattopadhyay.sulagna27@gmail.com.