May 27, 2019
Painting by Vogel’s friend and collaborator, Henryk Streng (1927)
We are seeking submissions for a Special Issue dedicated to the work and legacy of Debora Vogel (also rendered ‘Dvoyre Fogel’). Pieces might include, but are not limited to:
* Peer-reviewed articles on Vogel’s poetics, art criticism, and philosophy. Papers might examine her collaborations with Rachel Auerbach, Bruno Schulz, Henryk Streng, and other writers and artists. We particularly welcome studies of gender, poetics, multilingualism, and Yiddish Modernism.
* Reviews of monographs on Vogel recently published in Polish, German, and other languages.
* Translations. We would welcome submissions of English translations of Vogel’s writing, as well as translations from recent Polish- and German-language scholarship on Vogel (possibly from the work of Karolina Szymaniak, Anette Werberger, and Anna Maia Misiak, among others). This would represent a particularly vital bridge between European and US scholars who have not had access to this material previously.
* Pedagogy. Reflections and/or pedagogical materials from educators on teaching Vogel, especially in the context of Yiddish or Eastern European modernism.
* A multimedia portfolio of contemporary art and art contemporary to Vogel. Submissions may include the presentation of twentieth century paintings, music, poetry that provide context for Vogel’s work and/or a selection of works by present-day visual artists inspired by Vogel.
In geveb’s dynamic format offers an exciting opportunity to bring together scholars, artists, and translators to recover and re-examine Vogel’s work. We hope this special issue will bring her work into conversation with new scholarship in modernist studies, aesthetics, and women’s literary studies.
About Vogel
Debora Vogel (1900-1942) was a Modernist writer, philosopher, translator, and art critic. (Her name is also transliterated as ‘Dvoyre Fogel’ from the Yiddish, but since she was a multilingual poet, we follow the spelling she herself used in Latin letters.) The author’s Yiddish poems exemplify Cubist-Constructivist experimentation, exhibiting a style both lyrical and philosophical that challenges many notions of form and politics in Yiddish literature. Her prose similarly pushes boundaries, transplanting experiments in photography, film, and painting, onto the written page. Vogel’s journalism and criticism take up a variety of topics from feminism, abstract art, and artists such as Marc Chagall and Fernand Leger, to matters of applied arts, architecture, the typography of children’s books, and fashion. Vogel’s essays further examine racism and antisemitism, progressive intellectuals’ engagement in society, and the use of literary montage as a way literature “does politics.” Vogel’s extensive travels to Berlin, Stockholm, Vienna, and Paris, and her intimate familiarity with the cityscapes of her native Lviv are reflected in her writings. The goal of this special issue is to situate Vogel as a key—yet under-recognized—figure in Yiddish letters and beyond. Recent exhibits and translations of Vogel’s work have drawn new attention in Eastern Europe, Russia, and the UK, making this an auspicious moment to introduce Vogel to English-language readership.
Please send an abstract (400-500 words) for papers or a proposal for translations and art pieces to [email protected] by July 1, 2019. After a review of the abstracts, final submissions will be due at a later date in the fall/winter. The issue will be co-edited by Kathryn Hellerstein, Anastasiya Lyubas, and Anna Elena Torres. Please review In geveb’s detailed guidelines for submissions in different genres: https://ingeveb.org/submit
Thank you. We look forward to reading your proposals!
