The 12th issue of On_Culture seeks to explore ambiguity in its potential and limits as an analytical tool for research in the study of culture. By the same token, the issue is also interested in perspectives on ambiguity as a cultural phenomenon in its historical situatedness and political dimensions.

Argument

As a topic that is both timeless and current, the variety of manifestations and functions of ambiguity in culture, politics and everyday life has inspired scholars from various disciplines in the study of culture, from gender and queer studies (Engel 2002, Wilkerson 2007) to art history and theory (Eco 1962, Franklin 2020), and social sciences (Bauman 2007). The 12th issue of On_Culture seeks to explore ambiguity in its potential and limits as an analytical tool for research in the study of culture. By the same token, the issue is also interested in perspectives on ambiguity as a cultural phenomenon in its historical situatedness and political dimensions.

The act of renouncing fixed binary oppositions in social and cultural environment, although often celebrated for its dynamic power and political potential, can fuel reactionary and anti-democratic backlashes and calls for cultural homogeneity. Especially in times of crisis, such as the ongoing pandemic, simple answers to complex questions seem to be growing in popularity. In a study on the connection between totalitarianism, authoritarianism and ambiguity intolerance, Adorno et al. (1950) pointed out that “ambiguity tolerance” (Frenkel-Brunswick 1949) decreases, when the social and cultural environment is uncertain. More recently, Thomas Bauer (2018, 2021) has also argued that modern societies show a comparatively high level of ambiguity intolerance in comparison to pre-modern societies.

From literary fiction to political discourse, ambiguity counts among the narrative effects of the increasingly noticeable blurring of the fact/fiction boundaries. What are the implications of this epistemological ambiguity and what does it reveal about the cultural landscape which gives rise to this situation? While the concept of ambiguity is often employed to describe equivocal, open, and enigmatic phenomena, the following questions often remain unanswered: What exactly is meant when something is characterized as ambiguous? Are there different stages, degrees, or variations of ambiguity, and can they be differentiated terminologically and analytically? How can we include ambiguity’s historicity in our conceptual reflections and theoretical discussions? To what extent are the production, perception, transformation and functions of ambiguity shaped by the occidental western tradition of thought, and what are the challenging phenomena?

We welcome (disciplinary and interdisciplinary) contributions that go beyond the mere statement of ambiguity, and instead carefully describe different ambiguous phenomena and investigate what means are used to produce this ambiguity, how it functions, and what different levels and forms exist in its production and reception. Though the editorial team would be delighted to see unequivocal answers to some of the previously raised questions, this issue also seeks to disrupt traditional expectations of scientific knowledge production by raising more (new) questions than giving final answers.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• (systematic) approaches to ambiguity in art, visual culture, and literature
• ambiguity and epistemology
• undisambiguation in theory and praxis (e.g. deconstructive (re-)reading, queering)
• conceptual proximity (vis-à-vis ambivalence, hybridity, liminality, queer, opacity, abstraction)
• critique of ambiguity and alternative concepts
• historicity of ambiguity: historical manifestations and transformation processes
• ambiguity and narrative (e.g. fact/fiction boundaries, (post)modern poetics)
• ambiguity and (political and/or activist) engagement: strategic use of ambiguity (e.g. as camouflage and self/protection)
• ambiguity (in)tolerance in everyday life or in times of crisis (COVID-19 pandemic, peak phase of the AIDS epidemic, etc.)
• significance of ambiguity for gender studies, queer studies, and post/decolonial studies
• ambiguity and its potentials for (political-democratic) education and pedagogy
• culture(s) of ambiguity in religions

Instructions for Authors

If you are interested in having a peer-reviewed academic article featured in the next issue, please submit an abstract of 300 words with the article title and a short biographical note to content@on-culture.org (subject line “Abstract Submission Issue 12”)

no later than February 28, 2021.

You will be notified by March 15, 2021 whether your paper proposal has been accepted. The final date for full paper submissions is June 15, 2021.

Please note: On_Culture also features a _perspectives section devoted to shorter, creative pieces pertaining to each issue topic. These can be interviews, essays, opinion pieces, reviews of exhibitions, analyses of cultural artifacts and events, photo galleries, videos, works of art… and more! These contributions are uploaded on a rolling basis. Interested in contributing? Send your ideas to the Editorial Team at any time: content@on-culture.org

About On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture

On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture (ISSN: 2366-4142) is a biannual, peer-reviewed academic Open Access Journal created and edited by doctoral researchers, postdocs and professors working at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC), Justus Liebig University Giessen. It provides a platform and forum for pursuing and reflecting on the study of culture. It investigates, problematizes and develops key concepts and methods in the field. More often than not, developing such new approaches and emerging topics is a collaborative and collective process. On_Culture is dedicated to fostering such collective processes and the cultural dynamics at work in thinking about and reflecting on culture.

The journal consists of three sections: peer-reviewed academic _Articles, _Essays and _Perspectives such as video clips, interviews and visual statements, which can be submitted on a rolling basis. On_Culture is the result of collaborative processes and emergent structures in the field of e-publishing. On_Culture puts new approaches and emerging topics in the (trans)national study of culture ‘on the line’ and, in so doing, fills the gap____ between ‘on’ and ‘culture.’ There are numerous ways of filling the gap, and the plurality of approaches is something for which we strive with each new issue.

Contributions to the _Perspectives section are possible at any time, also to previous issues. So if you are interested in also contributing  to one of the previous issues, get in touch with our Editorial Team at content@on-culture.org. Please find our Call for Abstracts Archive here: https://www.on-culture.org/submission/call-for-abstracts-archive/

As a commitment to the open access to scholarship, On_Culture does not charge any Article Processing Charges (APCs) for the publication of your contribution.

Editorial team

• Max Bergmann

Max Bergmann is publications coordinator and PhD candidate at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. In his doctoral project, he researches non-linear narration and digital network culture in contemporary film.Editorial Team Membership: Since May 2018Max.Bergmann@on-culture.org

ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4361-5518

• Marie-Christine Boucher

Marie-Christine Boucher is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at the IPP Literary and Cultural Studies with a background in German Studies. Her research focuses on the analytical potential of translation theory in literary analysis, which she is exploring through a corpus of contemporary German novels.Editorial Team Membership: Since July 2019Marie-Christine.Boucher@on-culture.org

ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2475-3184

• Oliver Klaassen

Oliver Klaassen is a PhD candidate at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture and a lecturer at different universities. In his doctoral project, he researches  radically ambiguous politics of queer in_visibilities in contemporary art photography with special consideration of their presentation in exhibitions.

Editorial Team Membership: Since August 2019

Oliver.Klaassen@on-culture.org

• Jens Kugele 

Jens Kugele is Head of Research Coordination and member of the Executive Board of the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. Anchored in the disciplines of Literary Studies and History of Religion, Jens’s postdoctoral research focuses on the construction of sacred spaces in literary and cultural history.

Editorial Team Membership: Since October 2014

Jens.Kugele@on-culture.org

• Ansgar Nünning

Ansgar Nünning is the Academic Director of the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) and Professor of English and American Literature and Cultural Studies in Giessen. He has published widely on English and American literature, cultures of memory, narratology, and literary and cultural theory.

Editorial Team Membership: Since 2013

Ansgar.Nuenning@anglistik.uni-giessen.de

• Çiçek Tanlı

Çiçek Tanlı is a PhD Candidate at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture and the coordinator forthe Research Network in Queer Studies, Decolonial Feminisms and Cultural Transformations. Her research focuses on the daily struggles of divorced mothers living in Germany with an immigration biography from Turkey.

Editorial Team Membership: Since July 2019

Cicek.Tanli@on-culture.org

• Lucia Toman

Lucia Toman is a PhD researcher in English Literature at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture in Giessen and the IPP Literary and Cultural Studies where she conducts her research on forms of unreliable narration in contemporary literature and the concept of fictional truth

Editorial Team Membership: Since March 2020

Lucia.Toman@on-culture.org