Call for Papers: “The Affective Turn of Phenomenology” (2020)

BSP News Item Thumbnail

Tópicos del Seminario / Journal of Semiotics aspires to explore the topic of affectivity in the field of phenomenological research.

Tópicos del Seminario. Journal of Semiotics.
Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla

Deadline: May 22, 2020

Guest Editors:
> Ángel Xolocotzi Yáñez ([email protected])
> Jean Orejarena Torres ([email protected])

Articles in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and English are accepted. It is intended that these articles will be translated and published in Spanish.

Orientation Text

Similar to the Linguistic Turn with which Gustav Bergmann and Richard Rorty characterized philosophical research in the middle of the last century, and whose central theme was language. Nowadays, we talk about an Affective Turn, or a Turn to Affect, whose central theme has to do with the study of anything that has been understood by a long tradition as the translation of the Greek pathos: affects, passions, emotions, moods, feelings, etc. It is possible to argue that in the last few years the topic of affectivity has established a true revolution in contemporary philosophy and widely diverse disciplines such as biology, anthropology, psychology, linguistics, semiotics, neuroscience, social sciences, among others. However, this revolution should not be understood as if it were dealing with a topic that is in style in any of the many branches of contemporary philosophical research. The 20th Century philosophy was characterized by the division into two rather differentiated areas: analytical and continental. In the face of this division, the study of affectivity has been one of those topics that have permeated the wall that divides both traditions and that has contributed to the overcoming of their differences and the search for common ground in philosophical work.

This issue of Tópicos del Seminario aspires to demonstrate the vitality of the topic of affectivity in the field of phenomenological research. From the abundant unpublished works of phenomenologists such as E. Husserl, M. Heidegger, A. Pfänder, M. Geiger, M. Scheler, L. Langrebe, etc. – most of the writing since the beginning of the last century – the contemporary work of phenomenology has focused on their efforts in rebuilding this productive facet of research. The connection of phenomenological reflection on effect with such different but closely related topics, such as natural attitude, lifeworld (Lebenswelt), historicity, empathy, passivity, etc., has been an area of research that has more than shown the fertility of the meticulous work of the description of affective experiences.

Especially are welcome contributions that make analyses of affectivity, in connection with problems of enunciation, judgment, and (ante) predicativity, and that also connect these analyses with perspectives from semiotics and the general study of language. However, given the wide range of themes that could be addressed, we offer the following guide:

> Phenomenological analysis of specific moods.
> Historical-critical perspective of affectivity in phenomenology.
> Affectivity in phenomenology in comparison with philosophical concepts of affect coming from Western philosophical tradition.
> Affectivity in phenomenology in connection with philosophical concepts of affect coming from contemporary philosophy in general (analytical philosophy, hermeneutics, philosophy of mind, structuralism, etc.)
> Affectivity in phenomenology in relation to concepts of affect, coming from the so-called Affective Turn.
> The theme of affectivity in the semiotics of discourse. Theoretical implications of the consideration of moods in the production and interpretation of meaning.

The deadline for the reception of papers via e-mail is May 22, 2020. Please send your paper through the Tópicos del Seminario website. Authors will have to follow instructions to register and to submit their articles.

Complementary information

The articles should be unpublished; Tópicos del Seminario publishes original, relevant and recent work in the field of the disciplines dealing with meaning. Articles in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and English are accepted, although preferably, if approved by arbitration and published, the text written in these languages will be translated to Spanish by specialists in the field. The articles will be subject to dual arbitration.

The articles will have maximum length of 35,000 characters. The texts will be accompanied by an abstract of approximately 130 words (about 700 characters), with three key terms and the following information: author’s name, institution, school, institutional address, telephone number, fax number and e-mail.

Diagrams, graphs and tables will be presented separately, on numbered pages. If the text includes images, these will also be presented separately and should have the corresponding permission for reproduction. A copy of said permission will be attached to the text. The images will be given already digitalized with a 300 dpi resolution in .jpg format in a separate file. The Editorial Board of the journal will decide if images will be printed in color. Materials should be delivered electronically. All correspondence should be sent to the following address:

Tópicos del Seminario
3 Oriente 212
Centro Histórico
72000 Puebla, Puebla
Telephone: + 52 222 229 55 02

To see the previous volumes of Tópicos del Seminario that have been published, please refer to the Tópicos del Seminario website.