Open Call: Contribute a Text Portrait to CAPONEU
Are you a PhD researcher, literary scholar, critic, academic, or student of literature interested in the relationship between literature and politics?
CAPONEU: The Cartography of the Political Novel in Europe invites contributors to take part in our growing collection of Text Portraits of political novels.
Text Portraits are concise, accessible critical essays devoted to individual novels and their political dimensions. Rather than offering an exhaustive scholarly account, they introduce the novel, place it in its historical and social context, and explore the questions, conflicts, or formal strategies that make it politically significant. Each portrait combines a brief presentation of the novel with critical analysis and is written for a broad readership, both academic and non-academic.
We warmly welcome contributions from doctoral and early-career researchers, established academics, literary critics and theorists, as well as MA and advanced undergraduate students of literature and related disciplines.
What novels are we looking for?
At this stage of the project, we are primarily collecting portraits of novels by European authors. However, we also welcome proposals for novels by non-European authors whose work engages substantially with Europe, whether by addressing European societies, histories and political realities, critically examining European ideas and identities, or reflecting on Europe and its relationship to other parts of the world.
We are particularly interested in expanding the geographical, linguistic, historical and thematic diversity of our collection. This includes both established works of political fiction and novels that have received less critical attention but deserve to be rediscovered or reconsidered through a political lens.
What is a Text Portrait?
A Text Portrait is a short critical essay of 700–1,300 words that combines an introduction to the novel with an analysis of its political relevance. The emphasis should be on the central questions raised by the novel, its historical and social context, and the ways in which its themes, narrative strategies or formal experimentation engage with politics and society.
Text Portraits should be accessible to a wider readership while maintaining scholarly standards, and should follow MLA referencing style. The balance between plot summary and analysis should be approximately 40:60, with the larger part of the portrait devoted to context, interpretation, reception and the political dimensions of the novel.
Where relevant, contributors are also encouraged to identify a central question or problem raised by the novel that could provide a starting point for discussion in university seminars, schools, civil society or other educational and public contexts.
Why contribute?
By contributing a Text Portrait, you will help us build an expanding, multilingual cartography of the political novel, bringing novels, authors, literary traditions and political questions from different cultures into conversation with one another.
Interested in contributing?
Explore CAPONEU and our existing collection of Text Portraits at:
https://www.caponeu.eu
If you have a novel in mind, please get in touch with us before you start writing so that we can confirm that the title is available and provide you with the template and detailed guidelines.
đź“© Contact:
aandabak@ffzg.unizg.hr
kdrzaic@ffzg.unizg.hr
zrinka.bozic@ffzg.unizg.hr
Join us in expanding the map of the political novel and bringing new voices, languages and perspectives into view.