Call For Papers - Synergies vol. VI, 2025

The sixth volume of Synergies will host articles (min. 5,000 words – max. 9,000 words, including Abstract, Notes, and References) as well as reviews and/or interviews (min. 1,200 words – max. 3,000 words).

 

The issue will be structured as follows:

 

a/ a special section on the literary essay genre (please see below for more details)

b/ a miscellaneous section on texts, topics, and authors connected with the field of English literatures and cultures at large

c/ a final section including reviews and/or interviews

 

 

Special Section: Unfolding the Literary Essay: Explorations in Voice, Form, and Thought

Throughout its long history, the essay has emerged as a powerful literary form—one that fosters dialogue and critical reflection while allowing diverse voices to converge. In this fluid, often heretical, and always provisional aesthetic space, truths are reoriented, and established creeds are continually questioned. Defined by its unsystematic and anti-dogmatic nature, the essay resists ideological rigidity, offering an open, dynamic arena for intellectual exploration and personal growth. Moreover, at a time of global crises, political polarisation, and social fragmentation, the essay takes on renewed significance also as a site of civic engagement—where urgent social issues can be examined, debated, and even dismantled.

This special section of Synergies aims to explore the literary essay’s unique ability to bridge the personal and the political, the individual and the collective, the aesthetic and the activist. We invite contributions that investigate how essayistic writing engages with pressing social, political, and cultural concerns, fostering civic responsibility, empathy, and collective action. We are particularly interested in essays and scholarly articles (written in English or in Italian) that examine the essay’s role in shaping public discourse, challenging dominant narratives, and amplifying marginalised voices.

 

Possible topics include, but are not limited to

 

• The history of the essay as a counter-discourse to dogmatism
• The essay as a form of resistance and activism in contemporary literature
• The role of the essay in addressing global challenges such as climate change, inequality, migration, and human rights
• The intersection of personal narrative and collective memory in essayistic writing
• The essay’s relationship with digital media and its impact on civic engagement in the 21st century
• The ethics of essayistic writing: responsibility, authenticity, and representation
• The essay as a space for marginalised and underrepresented identities
• The imaginative construction of voice in essays
• Comparative studies of essayistic traditions across cultures and languages
• The pedagogical value of the essay in teaching critical thinking and civic responsibility
• Aesthetic and rhetorical strategies in the contemporary essay

 

We welcome submissions from scholars and writers across disciplines.

 

 

These are the deadlines for submissions regarding all the three journal sections:

Abstract submission deadline: 3 March 2025 

Notification of acceptance: 10 March 2025

Preliminary papers to the editors: 31 May 2025 

Revised peer-reviewed papers to the editors: 31 July 2025 

 

The abstract (both in English and Italian, max. 200 words for articles; max. 50 words for reviews and interviews) and a bio-bibliographical note (max. 150 words) should be sent to: roberta.ferrari@unipi.it  and  laura.giovannelli@unipi.it