This chapter will be part of an edited collection that aims at examining (the intersections between) the notions of monstrosity and evil in the literary and artistic depictions of non-human and hybrid (or post-human) intelligence in different cultural and historical contexts. It focuses on the representation of monsters and creatures that have cognitive abilities as well as on the demonizing and vilification of artificially or magically enhanced human intelligence. It also deals with the depiction of malignant non-human entities interfering with human thoughts and evil non-human cosmic intelligences interfering with human destinies. It attempts to examine the representations and interpretations of evil non-human intelligence in literary and artistic works from different cultures. This includes studying creatures and beings such as gods, angels, monsters, spacefaring aliens, intelligent machines as well as humans with nonhuman or superhuman intelligence. Non-human intelligence and hybrid human intelligence are represented in different literary and artistic genres such as myths, legends, epics, science fiction literature and films, oral traditions, video games, comic books, manga, horror films, folktales, and sagas.

The chapter should be concerned with creatures that can bend the will of humans through  magic or other mysterious powers. We are also interested in creatures that convert humans to members of their species like Vampires (but we appreciate non-Western variations of these kinds of creatures). We already have an article about Lovecraft's Cthulhu and the Deep ones and an article about Mass Effect's Reapers (computer-brain interfacing technology). Because unfortunately some authors failed to deliver their article in the appointed date, we urge you not to send an abstract if you cannot deliver the article. If you have the article ready that would be even better.  The chapter can be about one of the following topics or any related topics:

- Parasitical creatures that feed on/consume human thoughts

- Stories of demonic possession (non-Western)

- Creatures that turn humans into members of their species 

- Rituals that transform humans into monsters

-  Humans with monstrous or demonic ancestry 

- Non-Western variations of the Vampires

- Telepathic monsters

- Non-Greek and Roman variations of Cupid - Gods and creatures that mysteriously cause humans to feel love or desire (e.g. Hindu Kamadeva)

- fictional behavior altering parasites that control humans 

This book also features two interviews with two scholars and authors who speak about intelligent monsters in Medieval literature and Postcolonial literature. The collection can use an interview with a film director (preferrably female since the other two interviewees are male) about intelligent monsters in cinema (If you can interview Coralie Fargeat about the Substance or Marielle Heller about Nightbitch that would be amazing).  

Please send your abstract along with a short bio to nizarzouidinizar@outlook.com no later than February 10th, 2025. If your abstract is accepted, you will be requested to send a full article at an appointed date. Full articles should follow Chicago author date style. They will be peer reviewed before inclusion in the collection.

About the editor:

Nizar Zouidi (Ph.D.) is assistant professor of English language and literature at the university of Gafsa, Tunisia and Sattam Ibn Abdulaziz University, KSA. He is the author of several articles and book chapters about characters in Renaissance drama and other literary periods and genres. He has recently contributed to the Routledge Companion to Humanism and Literature (2021) and Woke Shakespeare:Rethinking Shakespeare for a New Era (2024). Nizar is the editor of a collection on villainy in Anglophone literature (Performativity of Villainy and Evil in Anglophone Literature) published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2021 and a collection about monarchs in world literature and cinema (The Monarch and the (Non)Human in Literature and Cinema: Western and Global Perspectives) published by Routledge in 2023. He also attended several conferences worldwide.