Appel à contribution : « Strange Encounters in the Italian Baroque », Quaderni d’Italianistica, date limite le 31 août 2020

Quaderni d’Italianistica – Special Issue

Strange Encounters in the Italian Baroque

This special issue of Quaderni d’Italianistica will explore the centrality of the strange, the weird, and the Other in the Italian Baroque. The late 16th, the 17th and 18th centuries are a complex and vivid cultural chapter in the history of Italy, a period often described as both skeptical and spiritual, brutal and urbane, theatrical, passionate, sensual and logical at the same time. As a product of this period of significant changes and doubt concerning religion, politics, and society, the Baroque saw in otherness one of its main protagonists. From the ideal inhabitants of fantastic worlds to the far civilizations of Asia, Africa, and the Americas, from Counter-Reformation depictions of the divine to discoveries in the world of science and medicine: the Italian Baroque era was a world in a continuous dialogue with alterity and novelty.

In such a context, what role played the Other in the culture of the time? What forms of otherness endured the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque? Which ones transitioned from the Baroque to the Enlightenment? What are the new forms of alterity that characterize the Italian Baroque? The special issue will investigate some of these cases and draw on a burgeoning body of research on modern religion, art, and literature to address the vital question of how fears and desires for the Other evolved and persisted in the Baroque.

Topics will include but are not limited to:

• The Marvellous and the Monstrous.
• The Body as the Other.
• Otherness and Religion.
• Sensuality and Alterity.
• Gender and Otherness.
• Alterity and Discovery.
• Otherness and Doubt.

Please send a 300-word (max) biography, a title and a 150-word abstract to Marco Piana. Essay proposals must include the author’s full name, current affiliation, email address, and Ph.D. completion date (past or expected).

Deadline for abstracts: August 31, 2020.

Submissions in English, French, and Italian will be accepted until October 31, 2020. The publication is expected in the Spring/Fall 2021. Articles should not exceed thirty typewritten pages, double spaced. They should follow the MLA Style sheet (7th edition). Consult the full editorial policies here.