Cfp Between XIV.27 (May 2024). “Other Possible Worlds (Theory, Narration, Thought)”
Between XV.27 (May 2023), Other Possible Worlds (Theory, Narration, Thought)
Edited by Paola Del Zoppo (UNITUS - Tuscia University), Giovanna Fiordaliso (UNITUS - Tuscia University), Alessandro Cifariello (UNITUS - Tuscia University) and Emanuela De Blasio (UNITUS - Tuscia University).
Submission deadline extended to: 2023-06-30 (Friday)
Estimated review response: 2023-10
Publication date: 2024-05-31 (Friday)
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Objects of critical and theoretical attention since a long time, fiction and its frontiers continue to occupy a central position in the conceptual, aesthetic, methodological discussion, for the XX century as well as at the beginning of the XXI. The boundaries between fiction and non-fiction open connections with the invention of possible worlds in literary and artistic texts in general: utopias, eutopias, dystopias, anti-utopias, all of which are clearly identifiable in representations and writings due to peculiar aesthetic strategies.
Given the large number of studies and investigations focused on the relationship between fact and fiction in the last decades, our aim is to open a dialogue to deepen the different meanings and messages as well as the aesthetic forms developed, in particular in the literary field. The examination of different formulations of cosmogonies, of alternative worlds, of parallel universes (Dolezel 1997), constructed and made liveable through the continuous fluctuation concerning fact and fiction, and the variants and alternatives given by an open and plural conception of the latter, also opening a reflection on the ethics of fiction and fictions.
Cultural artefacts are conceived under the banner of plurality and hybridism, and the analysis of the literary and artistic phenomena gains in depth thanks to the multifocal and interdisciplinary perspective, as well as to the interaction and constant dialogue between different languages and cultures, each characterized by specific contexts.
The fruitful dialogue between various cultures, languages and disciplines as well as between different regions of the world, immediately enlightens the ideas and concepts of reality and of social imaginary, as well as on identity issues - both individual and collective - in a familiar world, or an alienated / alienating world.
This thread of analysis also celebrates the human longing for knowledge. Dual concepts can be seen as oppositions: reality and fiction, truth and imagination, or truth and lie, history and invention, simulation and dissimulation, manipulation. These comparisons are to be observed not necessarily with the purpose of reconciliation. Binomials can be fruitfully built up to reflect upon the dialogue reality and truth that literature teaches us to read as a necessary and vibrant space to exercise knowledge and plan the collective future as a community.
The monographic issue therefore intends to fit into this dialogue by collecting contributions focused on the following areas of investigation:
- Possible worlds: theory, methodology, systems of thought (philosophical, historical, ideological). the phenomenology and conceptual function of possible worlds, formulated within philosophical and / or thought systems, linked to the relationship between reality and fiction and its perception;
- Utopia and politics: the imagination of a better world. Utopian and eutopian themes in literature and arts of the Twentieth and Twenty-first centuries;
- Utopia, anti-utopia, fantautopia: between thought and imagination. Schemes and manifestations in a post-humanistic and / or technological-science-fiction key;
- Reality and fiction in theater, performing arts, media and film language.
- Post-truth and post-fiction, fictional documentary literature and the mockumentary.
For more detailed information or to assess the relevance of their proposals, interested parties are kindly requested to contact the editors before sending their contributions. Proposals (papers potentially ready for publication together with their abstracts and metadata) must be sent by 31st of May 2023 following the instructions available on the submissions page of Between’s website. Papers will have to pass a double blind peer review. The accepted papers will be published in May 2024.
Proposals in a language other than Italian, preferably English and French, are appreciated and encouraged, especially if they relate to foreign authors.
