This edited volume aims to explore the concept of veleno, that is poison, in its material and symbolic
dimensions, examining how it functions as a cultural construct and/or a discursive category within
Italian literature—considered in dialogue with cultural practices and discursive uses of language—
from the Middle Ages to the contemporary period.
Across Italian cultural history, poison operates on a threshold between pharmakon (in its Derridean
sense) and toxin, between language that heals or contaminates, between scientific knowledge and
moral accountability. Far from being confined to medical or chemical meanings, poison emerges as a
deeply ambivalent notion: a substance that can both cure and kill, a metaphor for moral and political
corruption, a figure of excessive passions, social degeneration, and the toxicity of power, but also a
critical instrument capable of revealing hidden structures of domination and ethical responsibility.
Literary texts, philosophical reflections, artistic practices, and linguistic discourses have continuously
elaborated a symbolic toxicology, reading evil not as a singular event but as a pervasive process—
often invisible—that infiltrates bodies, identities, institutions, and collective imaginaries.
The scholarly landscape reveals discussions on poison in the form of individual essays or chapters
(see, for instance, Morpurgo 2008; Pastore 2017; Palma 2021) within broader interdisciplinary
collections (e.g., Mordegli & Paravicini Bagliani 2022) where literary texts are read alongside historical,
scientific, and cultural frameworks. While there are some Italian monographs that address this theme
from historical and cultural perspectives (Pastore 2010; Del Bo 2024), it appears that poison in Italian
literature, considered within the strict scope of literary studies as a humanistic discipline, has not yet
received sustained attention in the form of a dedicated collective volume.
By bringing together perspectives from literary studies, cultural history, linguistics, philosophy, and
the history of science, this volume aims to investigate how Italian literature has conceptualized toxicity
as both a generative and destructive force.
Topics of Interest
(Indicative and non-exhaustive)
 Poison as an ethical and moral metaphor in Italian literature
 Language, rhetoric, and discourse as toxic or therapeutic agents
 Narrative, fiction, and storytelling as symbolic antidotes to collective crises
 The toxicity of power, political violence, and moral responsibility
 Passion, desire, and affect as internal poisons
 Contaminated spaces: social, industrial, colonial, or marginal landscapes
 Poisoned identities, social masks, alienation, and fragmentation of the self
 Science, alchemy, medicine, and technical knowledge between cure and harm
 The ethics of chemistry, technology, and scientific progress
 Modern and contemporary toxicity: information overload, speed, and symbolic saturation
 The lexicon and semantics of poison: linguistic, historical, and discursive analyses
 Cultural translations of toxicity: adaptations, rewritings, and transmedial forms
Interdisciplinary approaches are particularly encouraged, provided that contributions maintain a clear
theoretical framework and a strong connection to Italian literary, cultural, or linguistic contexts.

Language of Publication
 English only
Submission Guidelines
Interested contributors are invited to submit to: veleni.poison@gmail.com
 An abstract of max 300 words
 Five keywords
 A short biographical note (max. 100-150 words)
Full chapters must not exceed 7,000 words, including footnotes/endnotes and bibliography.
All submissions will undergo a double-blind peer review process. Detailed information regarding
the publication will be provided upon acceptance of the abstract, together with the guidelines for the
preparation of the chapter.
Timeline
 Abstract submission deadline: 01.03.2026
 Notification of acceptance: 31.03.2026
 Full chapter submission: 31.07.2026
For any further information or inquiries, please contact: veleni.poison@gmail.com