CfP Between XVII.33 (May 2027). “The Passage of Time and Generational Conflicts: Theory, Narrative, Thought”
Submission deadline: Friday, 30th October 2026. We kindly invite prospective authors to register on the journal website some days ahead of the deadline.
Peer-review (est.): March 2027.
Publication date: 30 May 2027.
Editors: Alessandro Cifariello (University of Tuscia), Emanuela De Blasio (University of Tuscia), Giovanni Palilla (University of Tuscia), Roberto Romagnino (University of Tuscia), Victoria Almonte (University of Tuscia)
The investigation of temporal perception and generational dynamics remains a vital interdisciplinary and comparative endeavour, deeply rooted in literary and philosophical traditions. As Peter Brooks argues, narrative constitutes one of the principal mechanisms through which we seek to order and extract meaning from human temporality—serving as “the principal ordering force of those meanings that we try to wrest from human temporality” (Brooks 1992: xi). Within the context of contemporary society—marked by unprecedented historical accelerations, continual reappraisal of collective memory, and profound ruptures of identity—the study of how literature has portrayed, narrated, and theorised the inexorable passage of time and the multifaceted conflicts between generations becomes particularly urgent and fruitful. In this sense, plot is not merely the arrangement of events, but a structuring operation that shapes our apprehension of experience through time (“... the meaning dealt with by narrative, and thus perhaps narrative’s raison d’être, is of and in time”; Brooks 1992: 10)—a process especially relevant to the transmission of memory, trauma, and cultural inheritance across generations. As Frantz Fanon aptly notes, “every human problem must be considered from the standpoint of time” (Fanon 1986: 14–15); it is thus from this temporal vantage point that the present issue seeks to explore the narrative, theoretical, and experiential articulations of generational dynamics. As Tzvetan Todorov reminds us, collective memory is not a mechanical recording of the past, but rather a process involving selective choices, mediations, and moral stances—raising the question of whether memory is invariably beneficial or, at times, a source of new challenges (Todorov 2001). Thus, the transmission of memory across generations is never neutral, but forms part of the ongoing negotiation of identity and collective responsibility in the aftermath of historical trauma.
This issue aims to interrogate the multifaceted narrative and discursive frameworks through which various literary traditions have negotiated tension, dialogue, and dialectics between generations. Generations, far from constituting mere chronological cohorts defined by birth dates, function as symbolic constellations—entities that are perpetually reconstituted through historical and individual temporalities, through specific socio-cultural contexts, and, crucially, through the narratives and languages that configure and represent them (Bhabha 1994: 2-6). Similarly, this perspective resonates with the work of Edmunds and Turner, who emphasise that generational identity emerges not simply from age or cohort, but through shared historical experiences, collective memory, and the ritual processes that mediate the transmission of cultural narratives and trauma. Generational consciousness thus reflects the dynamic interplay between stability and rupture, “active” and “passive” generations, and the potential for literature and cultural production to catalyse both individual and collective transformation (Edmunds & Turner 2002). Drawing on Jurij Lotman’s notion of “polychronism” (Lotman 1990)—which conceptualises cultures as intersected by coexisting and interacting temporal codes—generational dialogue is understood here as emerging from the intersection of asynchronous temporalities, wherein the present does not simply follow the past but continuously reshapes it through memory, conflict, and acts of re-signification. Such an approach is anchored in a dual cosmopolitan ethic—combining universal moral obligation towards others with the recognition of cultural particularity (Appiah 2006: xiv–xv).
Special emphasis will be placed on diasporic and post-migrant literatures, in which generational conflict, dialogue, and negotiation acquire complex spatial and temporal configurations—exemplified by Bachtin’s concept of the literary chronotope (Bachtin 1979). Such narratives frequently foreground generational tensions that arise from the disparities between the temporal-spatial frameworks of cultures of origin and those of host societies, often resulting in divergent values, identities, and senses of belonging (Bhabha 1994: 7-11; Korostelёv 2010). The concept of the “unnoticed generation”, developed in Russian émigré literary criticism, encapsulates the notion of deferred intergenerational transmission, revealing a suspended zone between erasure and resurgence of memory and identity (Korostelёv 2008; Korostelёv 2010).
These lines of inquiry are essential not only for literary studies, but also for a broader comprehension of how narratives mediate both collective and individual identity across historical periods and cultural boundaries. In this context, recent scholarship on the evolution of literary form in modernity has drawn attention to the phenomenon of so-called “world-epics”—ambitious, encyclopedic works that seek to become cultural monuments or “sacred texts” for entire societies. As theorised by Franco Moretti (2003), these narratives do not simply recount the fate of a single nation, but instead aim to engage with the totality and contradictions of the modern world through polyphonic, experimental, and structurally innovative strategies. Such works reveal both the possibilities and the challenges of representing collective memory, identity, and historical change in an age marked by fragmentation and globalisation. The world-epic, with its capacity for polyphony, collage, and narrative bricolage, becomes a privileged site for negotiating the tensions between individual experience and collective history, between the desire for totality and the realities of division and rupture in contemporary societies (Moretti 2003).
This thematic issue draws inspiration from previous interdisciplinary initiatives, such as the volume Padri e figli (Alessi, Baccarini, Cifariello 2010), which foregrounded the generational dialogue as a privileged lens for analysing family bonds, literary and artistic filiation, cultural transmission, and the forms of rebellion and innovation that traverse different disciplines and historical periods. The essays in that volume demonstrated how the negotiation of generational relations—in literature, history, education, and the arts—serves as a mirror and laboratory for understanding broader social transformations, the persistence or rupture of memory, and the (re)construction of identities. Likewise, the collective volume La somma dei giorni. Generazioni a confronto nella letteratura moderna e contemporanea (Rutigliano 2013) further illustrates how the motif of generational confrontation permeates a broad spectrum of genres and national literatures, ranging from children's poetry to the family saga and the Bildungsroman. This diversity highlights the thematic richness and methodological plurality that the study of generational dynamics offers, encompassing questions of memory, identity, tradition, and transformation. It also foregrounds the necessity of comparative and interdisciplinary approaches.
In the spirit of fostering “conversation between people from different ways of life” (Appiah 2006: xxi), we particularly encourage comparative perspectives spanning a wide range of linguistic and cultural traditions (including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish), in order to promote a genuinely transnational dialogue and to cultivate what Bhabha has termed a “vernacular cosmopolitanism”—one that recognises the “right to difference in equality” within and across cultures (Bhabha 1994: xiv-xvii).
We invite innovative contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following thematic areas—bearing in mind, as Brooks contends, that “our lives are ceaselessly intertwined with narrative, with the stories that we tell and hear told”, and that narrative serves as a privileged medium for exploring the “anticipation of retrospection”, which structures memory, identity, and the logic of generational transmission itself (Brooks 1992: 3, 23). Contributions are encouraged to explore the following aspects:
- Generational conflicts and literary representation of temporal acceleration
- Continuity, duration, and rupture within poetic traditions
- Historical and ideological perspectives on generational dynamics in literature (e.g., anti-surrealist historiography, picaresque novel)
- The function of classical myths as metaphors for migration, displacement, and hospitality
- Cross-cultural representation and translation in travel literature
- Literary chronotopes and generational narratives
- Trauma, memory, and intergenerational transmission in diasporic literatures
- Literary portrayals of generational rebellion and cultural innovation
- Narrative strategies of memory, forgetting, and identity reconstruction
- Semiotic and narratological analyses of generational tensions
- Literary responses to technological shifts and digital intergenerational communication
- Critical reassessment of cultural heritage, values, and traditions across generations
- Bakhtinian polyphony (Bachtin 1968) and Šklovskian defamiliarisation (Šklovskij 1976) in representing generational dialogue or rupture
Guidelines for paper presentation
Articles ready for publication must use the provided Template and have to be accompanied by the abstract and metadata (author’s name and surname, e-mail address, title of the submission, keywords: minimum 5, maximum 7; author’s bio-bibliographical profile). The submission deadline is 30 October 2026. Please follow the instructions on the Submissions page of Between’s website. Accepted articles will be published on 30 May 2027 (issue 33).
Notice: those interested in submitting a proposal are kindly requested to register on the journal’s website a few days before the deadline.
Please remember that authors must provide an English version of their proposal’s metadata in addition to the submission’s original language.
Article body maximum length: 38,000 characters, including spaces (excluding: title, abstract, keywords, author bio and final references).
Title’s maximum length: 220 characters, including spaces.
Abstract’s maximum length: 200 words.
Author bio’s maximum length: 150 words. Author bio should include name and surname, professional title and institution, email address, areas of interest and research, and no more than five publications cited concisely: Title (year of publication).
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