Call for papers 2023

Issue 2023:

STRANGE CONNECTIONS 
About the coexistence of languages and cultures in Central Europe

Guest editors Annalisa Cosentino and Libuše Heczková

The long coexistence of cultures, particularly of Slavic and Germanic languages and cultures, in Central Europe has certainly been fruitful and full of positive interference, and not only conflictual. In this context it may be interesting to identify some relationships that go beyond the habit, the "strange connections": relationships, perceived as unusual, which at certain historical moments can raise suspicion and arouse defensive reactions. On the other hand, opposite reactions are also important, those that exclude specific individual traits and positions in order to pursue ideological homogeneity. The other is excluded as evil, insane or just “strange”. Exclusion often results in a sort of "ablation", in the deletion of the other, of the stranger, of the different; in a reduction of possible misunderstandings and differences.

Among the many “strange connections” that characterize the history of Central European space it is possible to follow the traces of different trajectories and lives and their intersections; for example:

  • non-canonical methods of artistic creation and communication between different ethnic groups and cultures in Central Europe;
  • unusual interactions between different religions and confessions, Reformation and Counter-Reformations in literary and philosophical works;
  • erasing and deformation of memory caused by mechanisms of exclusion, by different ideologies, by gender determination;
  • extraordinary individual destinies and acts, also with respect to particularly watchful illiberal regimes;
  • "strange connections" among Germanic and Slavic languages and cultures and non-Germanic and non-Slavic languages and cultures in Central Europe; 
  • “strange connections" among languages in Central Europe.

Proposals (no more than 350 words) can be sent to ricercheslavistiche.seai@uniroma1.it, annalisa.cosentino@uniroma1.it, libuse.heczkova@ff.cuni.cz by 31 August 2022. Papers accepted for publication, written in Italian or in English, must be submitted by 31 February 2023; papers cannot exceed 45,000 characters, including spaces.