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Bibliomanie: Call for Papers for Issue 55 (June 2023) - British Association for American Studies

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Bibliomanie: Call for Papers for Issue 55 (June 2023)

Bibliomanie: Letterature, Storiografie, Semiotiche (www.bibliomanie.it)

Call for Papers for Issue 55 (June 2023)

“HAPPINESS: HISTORICAL, LITERARY, SEMIOTIC DECLINATIONS”

The idea of happiness was at the centre of many reflections in the classical world (the “common good” behind Aristotle’s political action; the “inner balance” for Horace; the virtuous journey for Seneca; the tranquillity of body and mind for Epicurus; the bliss, faith and knowledge which lead to God for the fathers of the Church), but it was not until the modern age, with the American Declaration of Independence, that “the search for happiness” became an “inalienable right”.  An ideal and idealized concept, over time this “search” led to a definition of “happiness” above all as material security, triggering standards and styles of living which, from the Nineteenth Century until this day, have transcended from the North American context to characterize first the West, then the globalized world.  The search for happiness has thus often been reduced to consumeristic rather than existential concerns, imparted or perceived more as a duty than as a right.  It is precisely the “pursuit of happiness” according to dominant standards which today is being reconsidered in the context of new narrations and social, economic, and cultural policies which question less the original “inalienable rights” to happiness, but rather their conception around the idea of an unequal society founded on the unhappiness of many.

The interdisciplinary journal “Bibliomanie” (www.bibliomanie.it), invites reflection, through dialogue across the fields of literature, semiotics, and history, upon narrations and discourses capable of opening new ethical-political horizons and new semantics, in order to (re)define the very idea of happiness in the Twenty-First Century.  It welcomes contributions to the “Articles” section of the 55th edition (June 2023) on one of the following themes:

  • The classics and happiness in the Twenty-First Century: resilience, obsolescence, re-readings; paths from the Middle Ages to the contemporary.
  • Pursuing happiness: right or duty?
  • Writing about happiness in the Twenty-First Century: utopia or achievable project?
  • alterNative narrations about happiness;
  • Public happiness as a government objective and prospect of community life;
  • Individual potential and private happiness; happiness, corporeality, hedonism: still a relevant perspective?
  • Consumerism, well-being, popularity: the marketing of happiness;
  • Entertainment as a form or experience of happiness.

The article proposals should not exceed 8,000 characters and must be submitted to info@bibliomanie.it by 20 December 2022, accompanied by a separate list of sources and a bibliography. The editorial board will contact those authors who have been selected by 15 January 2023.  The deadline for submission of the articles (maximum 50,000 characters) is expected to be 15 April 2023.

The journal welcomes contributions in English, Italian, French and Spanish.

Subsequently, each contribution will undergo double blind peer review. Authors will be notified of the two referees’ assessments of their article.

Bibliomanie will also accept proposals for contributions to other sections of the journal: “Notes and Reflections”, “Book Reviews”, “Translated, Unpublished and Rare Works”, and “Teaching”. Anyone interested should contact the editorial board: info@bibliomanie.it