CALL FOR PAPERS
Papers are invited for the first issue of the peer-reviewed journal PARERGA
A Journal of the Postgraduate Department of English of Maulana Azad College with an annual frequency
Frequently Asked Questions
Why ‘Parerga’?
Greeks thought that the matter or the truth was ergon and what was beyond it or supplementary was parergon. The concept was important and was dealt with by Kant and Heidegger. Derrida gave a twist to the idea by troubling the hierarchy of the core and the supplement or the margin and the periphery to suit our postmodern reality. In plural ‘Parerga’ thus projects a semantic play of the truths lying beyond the accepted truths or the dicta, the received knowledge: what is there, yet what eludes us — throwing a sceptical glance at conjectural truth. Let us add the supplement to what we know and do not know.
What Parerga does?
Parerga’s scope encompasses the literariness of art, architecture, literature, theatre, music, philosophy, film, and history of present as well as past periods. In short, Parerga intends not to indoctrinate its imagined readers in one single school of thought but strives to offer perspectives on literary readings/re-readings of a world as lived, perceived and (most importantly) imagined. It attempts to sufficiently capture and float unique ideas and innovative ways of seeing what one sees. While recent reports indicate that several universities are closing their doors to literature departments to cater to ‘career-oriented’ degrees, the Postgraduate Department of English at Maulana Azad College (Kolkata) strives to make windows to literary explorations, mappings and imaginings with a commitment to restore critical thinking, diversification of perspectives, eco-ethical coexistence and holistic wellness.
How to appear in Parerga?
The Postgraduate Department of English proposes in a new form its journal as a new series. It invites research articles and book reviews. The research articles should be original research – carried out without bias and with a legitimate research question and methodology. Book reviews should expose and analyse critical or imaginative works keeping in touch with the modern trends in writing. The word limit range for Research Article is from 4000 to 8000 words and for Book Review from 1000 to 2000 words. All Research Articles and Book Reviews will be double-blind peer reviewed.
At the outset, we are not setting any theme for the forthcoming issue. The journal will be published both in print and online versions.
The journal strictly follows its ethics policy and plagiarism, if found, will lead to the blacklisting of the author.
Patron:
Dr Krishnendu Dutta
Editor-in-Chief:
Dr Niranjan Goswami
Editorial Board:
- Sri Parimal Bhattacharya
- Smt. Resha Barman
- Dr Nilanjana Chatterjee
- Smt. Saranya Mukherjee
- Sri Somraj Banerjee
The Editorial Board reserves the right to accept or reject any contribution and to make suitable alterations and amendments, without assigning any reason.
Guidelines for submission
- Submissions should be original and not previously published elsewhere or submitted for consideration to any other journal.
- Authors should submit a declaration to this intent along with the manuscript.
- Manuscripts may be rejected without peer review by the Editor- in-Chief if they do not comply with the instructions for authors.
- The Title Sheet should be a separate file indicating the Title of the Article/Book Review; Name; Designation; and Affiliation of the Author(s).
- In no case, these particulars should be mentioned in the file containing the article itself to help the double-blind peer review process.
- All submissions should be double spaced in MS Word, Times New Roman, Font size 11.
- All Research Articles should be in the range of 4000 to 8000 words and Book Reviews from 1000 to 2000 words.
Files to submit for Research Articles or Book Review:
1. Abstract: A separate file should be sent for an abstract within 300 words and four/five keywords along with it in MS Word. The abstract should contain the title of the paper. It should not contain author’s details. The abstract should provide the gist of the argument of the paper indicating the scope, range and theoretical perspectives. It is submitted to different indexing bodies and collections of abstracts. Therefore, it should be written in lucid English keeping the international reader in mind.
2. Author’s Declaration: A separate file must contain author’s declaration that the article submitted is an original writing by the author and it has not been submitted to any other journal or publisher for publication. Once a paper is submitted to Parerga, it cannot be withdrawn without permission.
3. Title Sheet: A separate file must contain the Title Sheet with the Title of the article, Name/s of Author/s, Designation and Affiliation, mobile number and e-mail ID.
4. The Article: A separate file must contain the main article with its title. It must not contain the name or any information about the author. There should be no borders or decorations.
5. Charts, tables, figures and illustrations should be placed on a separate file or page. Authors will be responsible for negotiating permission if and where necessary for reproducing illustrations, etc. Permission should be sought well in time so that the press is not held up.
General Instructions
The contributor should provide only soft copy of the text in MS Word, Times New Roman Font size 11 in a separate file. The text and endnotes should be double spaced. The notes should be inserted using the References tab of MS Word, superscripted and in Arabic numerals, Font size 10. Do not justify the text or the notes.
All citations should follow the MLA Style.
British spellings are preferred to American alternatives. Quotations should follow the American spellings in the source.
Copyright: The copyright of all Articles published in the journal will belong to Maulana Azad College. Please send your submissions in the prescribed format to parerga.mac25@gmail.com within the 30th of June 2025 for the November 2025 issue. Articles received later than this date will be taken on a rolling basis and may be considered for later issues.
For Book Review:
Individuals may send reviews of books not published or submitted by them elsewhere to the dedicated e-mail of Parerga mentioned below. Publishers may send books for review to
Editor-in-Chief
PARERGA
A Journal of the Postgraduate Department of English of Maulana Azad College
Maulana Azad College
8, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road
Kolkata – 700013
Phone: 033 2226 4306
Please send your submissions in the prescribed format to parerga.mac25@gmail.com within the 30th of June 2025 for the November 2025 issue. Articles received later than this date will be taken on a rolling basis and may be considered for later issues.
Dr Niranjan Goswami
Head of the Department
Postgraduate Department of English Maulana Azad College
Kolkata