CALL FOR PAPERS 2022 - ENDED
Submissions: zrl@uni.lodz.pl
1/2022: Exile, emigration, and Abdulrazak Gurnah`s novels
Refugees and emigrants are becoming more and more central in the Western world and its highly developed societies, testing the boundaries of humanity and culture. The literary world reacts vividly to these phenomena, as underlined by the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Abdulrazak Gurnah and of the Goucourt Prize to Mohamed Mbougar Sarr. Postcolonial literature especially has thus become an important cultural laboratory, with the process of “decolonising the Mind” (Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o) ongoing and taking new forms. We are asking how literature reacts to the situations and circumstances
of emigration and refugeeism.
We are interested in articles concerning: the form and genres of literature on refugees and emigration; refugee literature and literature about refugees; the role of non-fictional literature in depicting the phenomenon of refugeeism; poetics, narrative modes, and mythical figures accompanying the literary description and diagnosis thereof; the issues of emancipation, feminism, gender, ecological criticism appearing in postcolonial literature; the role of the family saga genre; the role of the historical novel; questions of empire and nation in relation to movements of people and ideas.
We are also eagerly awaiting texts dedicated to Abdulrazak Gurnah`s novels.
We are open to texts on the above-mentioned phenomena in cinema, theatre, and new media.
Volume editors:
Professor Donna Landry (FRAS, Rutherford College, University of Kent)
Post-doctoral, Professor UŁ Natalia Lemann (University of Lodz)
Languages of the issue: Polish and English
Submissions: February 28, 2022.
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2/2022: Culture-forming potential of the discourse about the family
The family discourse evolves along with socio-political changes, and these changes always find a reflection in different kinds of narrations: literature, theater, visual, or audiovisual arts. New ways
of defining the family and determining the roles played in the family by individuals and genders generate new ways of talking about the family in the broadly understood culture (criticism of the traditional family model, demythologization of the figure of the Mother, the figure of the New Father, alternative families, non-heteronormative families, families of choice, etc.).
At the same time, literature is experiencing a renaissance of the saga genre, a sentimental return to the Great Narratives, which may result from the need of stabilization in the (post)modern world, or may be a contribution to rewriting stories about the family and the history of nations. How is the family presented in popular culture? Can we talk about new literary/cultural trends related to it? Also in
non-fiction literature, family themes (and the related search for one's roots and identity) prove to be extremely relevant.
We are waiting for original theoretical articles on the transformations of literary genres and their relations to the contemporary family discourse, for interpretations of the latest cultural texts with the use of methodologies applied in the studies of family and gender, as well as for re-interpretations of old texts. We are also interested in essays on the image of family in culture and reviews of scientific publications (published in 2020 and later) related to the main topic of the issue.
Volume Editors:
Professor Ewa Kraskowska (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań)
Anna Zatora, Ph.D. (University of Lodz)
Submissions: April 30, 2022.
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3/2022: no specific theme
As every year, we leave at least one issue of “The Problems of Literary Genres” "free". Thus, we create an opportunity to publish original texts, which fit the profile of the journal, but do not fit into the current research trends.
We are waiting for previously unpublished scientific articles, essays, reviews of scientific publications (published in 2020–2022), and other texts related to the disciplines: literary studies, cultural and religious sciences, art sciences. The "free" issue should be a space for the presentation of the results of current research that will affect the development of scientific thought in the humanities.
Volume Editor:
Professor Jarosław Płuciennik (University of Lodz)
Submissions: June 30, 2022.
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4/2022: Transmedial second-person narratives
Since the publication of the famous La Modification by Michel Butor, narrative theory, with a different intensity, strives to pin up the phenomenon of second person narrative. It is commonly perceived as experimental, unnatural, and even ephemeral, and maybe for that reason it has not yet found its place in narratological typologies on equal terms with first- and third-person narratives. An increased interest in second person could be observed in narrative theory in the last decade of the 20th century and the first years of the 21st century. It has diminished, however, before the beginning of the You Turn, which recently marked the domains of philosophy (of mind, of language, ethics and epistemology), social sciences, psychology and neuroscience. Still, in literature all around the world, both in fiction and nonfiction, a growing interest in second person writing can be noticed. A new cultural context for various uses of the second person was also provided by the digital revolution, new technologies and the new media. Video games, hipertexts, interactive technologies and collaborative writing practices, as well as social platforms, often employ this type of narrative.
We would like to cordially invite you to participate in research on different forms of second person writing in both historical and contemporary perspectives. Contributions on traditional and digital literature, new-media narratives, and fictional and nonfictional texts are all very welcome. Among the possible subject matters are the problem of reception of second person narratives in different media, possible ways of shaping relations between the “you” and the “I”, and their respective ethical implications. We are also interested in analyses of specific texts and forms employing the second person.
Volume editors:
Post-doctoral, professor of The Institute of Literary Research Magdalena Rembowska-Płuciennik (Polish Academy of Sciences)
Joanna Jeziorska-Haładyj, Ph.D. (University of Warsaw)
Submissions: July 31, 2022.
