About the Journal

Transgressive Culture (ISSN 2043-7102) is a new international journal to be published by Gylphi Limited. It concerns the limits – in all of their guises – and what lies beyond them. The journal aims include: (1) questioning the meaning and significance of transgressive culture; (2) understanding more deeply how this reflects on contemporary culture; and (3) offering an opportunity for transgressive culture to be more widely known through analysis of existing work and through generating new creative work. There are planned themed editions on addiction, sexual abuse, Hubert Selby Jr., Will Self, and J. G. Ballard.

Editorial Team

Editor

Jason Lee (University of Derby)

Editorial Board

Feona Attwood (Sheffield Hallam University)
Charlie Blake (Liverpool Hope University)
Ken Gelder (University of Melbourne)
Paul Hegarty (University College Cork)
Mark Jancovich (UEA)
James Kincaid (University of Southern California)
Xavier Mendik (Brunel University)
Balan Muthurajah
Atte Oksanen (University of Tampere)
David Punter (University of Bristol)
Johnny Strike

Call for Submissions

The journal seeks to examine the boundaries of culture, both critically and creatively. Analysis of culture in all forms, including literature, art, film, media, and music, is welcome, with a focus primarily on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and the transnational. In terms of creative work, poetry, prose, screenwriting and writing for performance, non-fiction and, of course, work that transcends these boundaries is encouraged. Work needs to be informed by the ideas of key influential theorists of transgression, but this is not prescriptive. We encourage all writing that challenges norms and subverts expectations. Please send a 300-word outline of your work via email to Jason Lee (j.lee@derby.ac.uk).

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About the Book Series

This new and groundbreaking book series examines the trans-disciplinary area of transgression. Transgression, in this context, means the breaking of social, moral, and legal boundaries. This series focuses primarily on culture, but its scope goes beyond this. Sometimes transgression appears to be controversial, and yet transgression is frequently today absorbed by the mainstream. Many societies, both in the East and West, appear to be obsessed with this form of behaviour, with activities such as crime and addiction, dominating the news media. Whether this is actually led by a media seeking sensationalist stories to pump up sales, or is part of a deeper, darker, psychological need is an important question. In cultural theory, some highly influential thinkers, such as Nietzsche, Foucault, and Bataille, among others, are synonymous with transgression, and have been used by scholars to analyse transgression. Again, this has to lead to transgression being absorbed within mainstream culture. Degree programmes at mainstream universities include many courses in this area. The boundaries are blurring concerning what it means to 'transgress'. Ironically, perhaps, 'normality' is now transgression. Recent cultural theorists, such as Terry Eagleton and Slavoj Žižek, have examined transgression and 'evil' in contemporary culture. While 'evil' has relevance here, to call anything 'evil' lends it a power, and gives it a status beyond its reality. So, studying transgression actually diffuses some of its so-called power, hence a series such as this has both a scholarly and social and political value. Simply put, when boundaries are crossed by culture, frequently this reinforces the ideological norm. This series, therefore, fulfils a deep need in academic discourse, and beyond. From serial killers in real life, or in literature or television, such as American Psycho and the US television show Dexter, to paedophiles in the media and popular culture, and other forms of behaviour deemed to be anathema, this area both fascinates, and repulses societies, audiences, and individuals.

With a focus, primarily on culture, there is a crossover with the social sciences, particularly anthropology, sociology, history and social psychology. This series, therefore, welcomes work across the humanities, arts, and social sciences. 'Transgressive Culture' offers readers and writers the opportunity to explore these subjects in depth.

About the Editor

The editor, Jason Lee, is a world-authority on transgression, with work translated into six languages. He is Head of Film and Media with Creative and Professional Writing, and Assistant Head of Humanities/Assistant Dean, at the University of Derby. Among other work, he is the author of Pervasive Perversions: Child Sexual Abuse in Media/Culture (London: Free Association Books, 2005). According to James Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, at the University of Southern California, the leading international expert in this field during the 1980s and 1990s, Jason Lee's work is 'the finest to appear on the subject'. Cambria Press published Lee's Celebrity, Paedophilia and Ideology in American Culture in 2009, and are publishing an edited collection by him on addiction and obsession in 2010. He is editor of the international journal Transgressive Culture.

Forthcoming Books

Literature, Women and their Addictions: A Comparative Analysis

Nycole Prowse (American University in Dubai)

Addiction, Modernity and Urban Space

Christopher Smith (University of Pennsylvania)

Media Technologies, Japan, and Transgression

Adam Stapleton (University of Western Sydney)

Hedonism and Transgression in British Cinema since 1960

Felix Thompson (University of Derby)

Review Copies

If you would like to receive advance copies of any of the forthcoming publications, please contact us using the contact form opposite or via email (reviews@gylphi.co.uk) indicating the book(s) you would like to review and where the review will appear. If you would like to read an electronic version, please indicate whether you prefer to receive the book in ePUB or Kindle format.

Transgressive Culture