Posthumanism, Biocentrism, and Ecocriticism in Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature (NeMLA 2023)

Posthumanism, biocentrism, and ecocriticism have profoundly impacted the fields of literary studies and critical theory in the last two decades: more and more scholars have investigated how literature engages with the relationship between humans and other animals, or between humans and matter. It is, in particular, with the advent of modernity that authors become more interested in the poetics of the representation of such relationships and their political implications. Industrialization, the progress of technology, a more significant scientific awareness, and the dramatic changes affecting the planet only increased the thematization and the representation of these topics in literary texts, which attempt to interrogate or challenge our understanding of and our position within our ecosystem.

In this panel, we aim at examining this topic through discussions of Italian literary works written after 1750, that engage with either posthumanism, or biocentrism, or ecocriticism and matter. In particular, we encourage the analysis and discussion of texts that interrogate the relationship between species or between bios and matter, focusing on the formal strategies of such texts.

While there is already a rich scholarship on posthumanism, there is still little focus on how the literary thematization of this topic challenges traditional narrative modes, demanding instead unconventional or original formal strategies. We hope with this panel to shed more light on the interplay between posthuman perspectives and the employment of textual strategies that point to the subversion of traditional biological hierarchies, in order to contribute to critical discussions on the interconnections between literary forms and history of ideas.

The panel welcomes scholars from both Italian Studies and interdisciplinary humanities.

To submit a paper click here: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/19976