CALL FOR PAPERS XI, 26, 2025: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF KAFKA

 

Dead line: January, 30  2025

 

This issue of ‘Logoi’, which is edited by Aisling Reid and Valentina Surace, is dedicated to Franz Kafka (1883–1924), marking the centenary of his death.
Walter Benjamin noted that to understand Kafka’s work entirely, one must consider his perceived failure, as demonstrated by his last will, which directed that his works be destroyed. In this apparent failure, Kafka probes deeply into the human condition and existence. Kafka’s life, much like that of his character Hunter Gracchus—the eternal wanderer—mirrors that of a living dead man. His oeuvre forms an ellipse centred around two focal points: the alienating experience of modern urban life, dominated by an opaque legal and economic system, and his estranged relationship with Jewish tradition, feeling like an exile within his own heritage. Notably, the hybrid animals in his stories, hiding beneath the earth, shielded from the world above, symbolise Kafka’s own sense of alienation. This outsider perspective allowed Kafka to incisively capture the agony of the declining Habsburg empire, the “world of yesterday”, and to recognise the irreversible crisis of foundational values in a way that few other Central European writers of his era could. His enigmatic and unsettling work continues to engage not only literary but also philosophical interests, challenging us even today, a century after his passing, a testament to his enduring relevance.

Proposed topics might include (but are not limited to):

– Law
– Jewish identity and exile
– tradition and modernity
– animals
– human and non-human
– messianism
– Influence of Kafka on contemporary literature, art and thought
– Kafka and Psychoanalysis

 

Authors interested in responding to a Call for Papers are invited to

1. consult the ‘Submit’ section where they will find instructions for submitting materials;
2. read the editorial guidelines [pdf], Proposals not conforming to these guidelines will not be accepted.
3. Submissions should be sent to valentina.surace@unime.it e aislingreid1@hotmail.com (and info@logoi.ph) and can be submitted in Italian or English.

 

It is also worth noting that only unpublished contributions related to the monographic themes chosen by the Editorial Board for the journal will be considered.