Special Issue: Epistemologies of 20th Century French Literature

deadline for submissions: 
December 1, 2022
full name / name of organization: 
Anne McConnell, West Virginia State University
contact email: 

This is a call for paper submissions to a special issue of the open-access, peer-reviewed journal, Literature.  Here is the topic description:

This Special Issue is dedicated to a discussion of literary and philosophical texts that explore different ways of knowing, along with the implications of particular knowledge practices and approaches. While the topic certainly lends itself to an engagement with philosophical texts, as the title indicates we are equally interested in papers that examine epistemological questions that arise in fiction and poetry. With that in mind, we invite papers that consider the intersection of literature with other fields of study, such as ecology, ethology, anthropology, and psychology. In a century where many writers and thinkers define themselves against older empirical and rational models of knowing, we also see new knowledge practices arise, along with careful study of the way knowledge reflects particular social structures, cultural norms, and power dynamics. How do literary and philosophical texts—or those that blur the boundary between the two—respond to or manifest new epistemological questions and challenges that arise in the 20th century?  What assumptions do these texts challenge, and what new epistemologies do they posit? For this Special Issue, we understand the designation of “French” literature and thought as inclusive of all French-language texts and traditions of the 20th century.   

You can find the journal and submission directions here:  https://www.mdpi.com/journal/literature/special_issues/french_thought