University of Siedlce

Institute of Linguistics and Literary Studies

and

University of the Balearic Islands

Faculty of Philosophy and Art

would like to kindly invite all scholars from across the Humanities to take part

in the International Conference

Thinking by Parts: Analogy, Fragmentation,

and the Search for Wholeness in Literature and Philosophy

to be held at the University of the Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca,

for the purpose of presenting unpublished research findings in English

on November 5th- 6th, 2026.

Analogy and totality/fragmentation intersect around a shared epistemological problem: how meaning is produced when unity is no longer given but must be constructed. Fragmentation—whether textual, social, metaphysical, or epistemic—marks the breakdown of stable wholes: narratives splinter, subjects divide, traditions disperse, and systems lose their totalizing authority. In such contexts, analogy emerges not as a decorative figure of thought but as a method of relational thinking. Rather than restoring totality directly, analogy establishes partial correspondences across fragments, allowing meaning to circulate without presupposing a complete system. Analogy thus operates in the space between the whole and the fragment. It neither dissolves difference nor enforces unity; instead, it holds fragments together provisionally, enabling thought to move across discontinuities. In literature, this can take the form of metaphor, montage, intertextual echoes, or allegorical structures that gesture toward coherence without closure. In philosophy, analogy functions as a tool for mediating between finite and infinite, particular and universal, empirical and transcendental. Together, analogy and fragmentation suggest a model of totality that is relational, dynamic, and open-ended—a whole that is never full present but continually reconfigured through analogical connections.

Suggested Research Areas

Literature:

-        How modern and postmodern texts use analogy to create meaning across non-linear, discontinuous narrative structures.

-        The transformation of allegory in periods marked by historical rupture, trauma, or ideological collapse.

-        The role of extended metaphor in unifying fragmented poetic or prose forms.

-        Reading citation, rewriting, and literary allusion as modes of analogical totality across texts.

-        Romantic, modernist, and contemporary fragmentary writing and its implicit claims concerning totality.

-        Visual and textual montage as techniques that rely on analogy rather than narrative continuity.

-        How analogical figures mediate between shattered experience and narrative reconstruction.

-        Analogy as a tool for thinking global literary systems without reducing them to a single totalizing model.

Philosophy:

-        Classical and contemporary debates on analogy in metaphysics and theology.

-        Post-Hegelian and post-structuralist critiques of totality and the role of analogical reasoning.

-        Analogy as a philosophical response to divided or decentred subjectivity.

-        Adorno, negative dialectics, and the problem of thinking wholes without domination.

-        How analogy structures understanding in fragmented fields of knowledge.

-        Analogy in thinking society, community, and collectivity after the collapse of grand narratives.

-        Analogical reasoning as a mode of knowledge in anti-foundational or pluralist philosophies.

Oral Sessions

Each presentation will be scheduled for a 20-minute slot, followed by a 10-minute discussion. The provisional programme envisages dedicating the first day to literary sessions, while the second day will be devoted to philosophy.

Abstract Submission

An abstract of 200-300 words (including a bibliography) should be submitted by September 15th, 2026 to Katarzyna Kozak katarzyna.kozak@uws.edu.pl. Your abstract must be accompanied by the following information: name of the author, title of the paper, affiliation, academic degree, research area and a biographical note of 60-80 words in length.

Venue: University of the Balearic Islands

Conference Fee

A conference fee of 200 EUR will be charged to all accepted participants. The fee covers the costs of publication and organizational expenses.

Please note that accommodation and meals are not included in the conference fee and must be arranged and covered individually by participants.

Publication

Submitted text proposals will be considered for inclusion in the monograph issued by Peter Lang (planned for 2028) or the journal Forum for Contemporary Issues in Language and Literature (vol. 8/2027). The texts will need to be submitted by January 31st, 2027 to katarzyna.kozak@uws.edu.pl.

Please note that participants will cover all the costs associated with money transfer services.

Organising Committee

Edward Colerick (University of Siedlce)

Andrés L. Jaume (University of the Balearic Islands)

Katarzyna Kozak (University of Siedlce)

Sergio García-Rodríguez (University of the Balearic Islands)

Charlie Jorge (University of the Balearic Islands)