Call for Papers for a special issue of the journal focusing on Patočka’s engagement with and relevance to French philosophy.
The Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy
Special Issue: Jan Patočka and French Philosophy
Jan Patočka (1907-1977) is widely recognized as one of the most influential thinkers of the post-war Europe and as a philosophical figure of the Central European reform movements which helped to bring an end to European communist regimes. While he is principally known for his participation in the authorship of Charta 77 documents, which cost him his life, and for his lifelong concern with the crisis of European societies, Patočka’s original and provocative contributions are not limited to the political field. They extend to a variety of scholarly areas, including phenomenology, linguistics, cultural theory, and historical studies. In addition to the influence of Husserl, Heidegger, and Fink, Patočka’s work engages with many 20th century French intellectual movements, including phenomenology, hermeneutics, existentialism, structuralism, critical theory, and deconstruction. However, it is surprising that there has not been a journal issue or book dedicated entirely to the relation between Patočka’s thought and French philosophy thus far.
This special issue of The Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy (www.jffp.org) invites contributions that explore Patočka’s engagement with and relevance to contemporary French philosophy. The aim of this issue is to explore a range of questions concerning the potential connections and differences between the Czech thinker and French intellectual movements and thinkers. For example, does Patočka’s asubjective phenomenology stand in line with hermeneutic phenomenology and existential phenomenology, which are oriented to the lived meaning of experience and the study of concrete human existence? How can Patočka’s phenomenological description of the connection between the appearance of things and the lived body be analyzed in the light of the French phenomenological tradition? How can Patočka’s political philosophy offer resources to re-think and reevaluate the challenge to the cohesion of the European community in today’s time of crisis? This call also invites papers that engage in an in-depth analysis of Patočka’s thought in relation to prominent figures including Ricœur, Henry, Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Foucault, and Barbaras, among others.
Any questions concerning this special issue should be directed to the guest editor, Maria Cristina Vendra [[email protected]]. Completed papers must be submitted to the journal’s website by August 15, 2021. All submissions will undergo the journal’s peer-review process. The journal publishes articles written in English or French. Papers should not exceed 10,000 words in length (abstract and notes are excluded), and all citations should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style. For additional stylistic instructions, please consult the writing guidelines on the journal’s website.