PSA XXXI (2018)

Co-editors: Lisa Sarti and Michael Subialka

In light of growing attention to the multimedia dimensions of modernist production across Europe and the globe, the next issue of PSA (the journal of the Pirandello Society of America) will be devoted to “Modernism across the Arts: Charting Pirandello’s World.” We seek contributions from scholars across disciplines to examine modernist experimenters who bridged not just genre but media, like Luigi Pirandello himself. We aim to chart how the culture of modernist multimedia experimentation developed, both in relation to Pirandello and as a broader cultural movement.

This special issue invites contributions not only from scholars of Pirandello but from all those working on the relationships of the arts in the modernist moment. We take Pirandello as a model, but we recognize the rich breadth of these forms of experimentation, both in Italy and beyond. Contributions may thus focus on Pirandello, look at Pirandello comparatively, or even look not at Pirandello but rather at the broader culture of modernist multimedia production that helps to situate Pirandello’s work and impact.

Article submissions should generally be between 5,000 and 10,000 words, following MLA formatting, and can be made via email (send a word document with separate cover sheet including personal information) to: editorpsa@gmail.com The submission deadline for this issue is December 31, 2018. Questions for the editors can be directed to the email address above. (PSA is a peer-reviewed journal, and submissions are sent to readers anonymously for expert review.)

Topics of possible inquiry include (but are not limited to):

• The link between modernist experimentation (rupture with tradition) and the need to work across the arts
  • Pirandello as a model
  • Models for Pirandello
  • The broader culture of experimentation and multimedia rupture in its transnational dimensions
• The ambivalence of experimentation in modernism (modernist traditionalism, etc.) and the challenges or possibilities of multimedia work
  • Pirandello himself had an ambivalent relationship to experimentation. How might his views be related to those of his contemporaries? How might his contemporaries’ views situate his?
• Views on progress or decline in relation to the use of media and understanding of the system of the arts
• Using media to convey key modernist tropes or to work through key modernist problems
  • Are there links between different modernist movements or figures in this regard?
• Pirandello’s literature and theatre in relation to modernist visual and performing arts, including film
• And any other topic that might fit with the scope of the issue’s theme…

In addition to article submissions, PSA seeks submissions that would fit into its other sections:

• Interviews for publication in the journal’s “In Conversation” section. We are happy to accept submissions consisting of interviews with directors, actors, filmmakers, or other artists who work on Pirandello or who connect themselves to Pirandellian themes.
• New translations of Pirandello’s work.
• Original creative work inspired by or relating to Pirandello.
• Finally, the journal also publishes book and performance reviews relating to Pirandello

We are happy to accept submissions for these on a rolling basis. These submissions can likewise be made via email (as a word document) to: editorpsa@gmail.com

PSA

PSA, the Pirandello Society Annual journal, invites articles from multiple disciplines for volume XXIX (2016) of the publication. We welcome articles that engage Pirandello’s work and influence from perspectives including film, literature, theatre or the visual arts. We welcome comparative and interdisciplinary work that examines a range of topics including: the historical context of Pirandello’s work, the broader discourses in which his work and ideas can be read, theoretical perspectives that might enrich our understanding of his work and the work of his contemporaries, studies of the sources relevant to Pirandello’s work, studies of the reception of the reception and legacy of Pirandello in Italy and/or globally.

We also seek reviews of recent performances, adaptations, and publications on these and related topics.

PSA is a leading source of English-language research on Pirandello that regularly features work by both established and emerging scholars. In publication since 1985, it is committed to fostering both specialized research on Pirandello as well as comparative and interdisciplinary approaches; likewise, the Pirandello Society of America strongly supports not only the study but also the production of Pirandello’s theatrical work. All submissions to the journal are read by the issue editor(s), and all published articles go through a process of double-blind peer review. Volume XXIX (2016) of the journal will be in print in early 2017.

PSA submission guidelines:

Use the current MLA Style Manual (references in the text, minimal endnotes, Works Cited following the endnotes) for articles (15-25 MS pages) and book or performance reviews (2-3 MS pages). Please, do not use automatic formatting. Any images included must be available in separate, high resolution files and the author will be responsible for securing permission if needed. Manuscripts will be peer reviewed.

Articles should be accompanied by a short abstract and bio.

Please, submit articles in MS Word format (.doc or .docx) via email to editorpsa@gmail.com by July 31, 2016. Please provide a separate cover page giving the author’s name and contact information. Leave no self-identifying information in any portion of the text. Submit via email attachment. Mark your subject line: PSA 29.

Please direct any inquires to the editor at the same address.

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Pirandello Studies, Volume 35

The next volume of Pirandello Studies, which will appear in the autumn of 2015, will include, amongst other material, articles based on the papers given at the October 2014 conference, PIRANDELLO AND CONFLICT: ONE HUNDRED YEARS FROM SARAJEVO. Further submissions on this or other topics relating to Pirandello’s work are welcomed, and should be sent to the Editor, Shirley Vinall, at s.w.vinall@reading.ac.uk. All submissions for the 2015 volume should reach her by 1 Feb. 2015; submissions for future volumes are also welcomed.

Pirandello’s Visual Philosophy: Imagination and Thought across Media

Edited by Lisa Sarti (BMCC, The City University of New York)

and Michael Subialka (University of Oxford)

In recent years English-language scholarship on Pirandello has begun to explore new directions that complement but also complicate the critical tradition around this seminal Italian modernist. Reflected in conference topics in the US and UK, as well as articles in various journals, this work expands on the ways in which Pirandello’s production spans not only cultures and continents but also media and traditions of philosophical inquiry. At the same time, Italian-language publications have placed increasing emphasis on aspects of Pirandello’s production that put him in dialogue with the visual arts, such as his own work as an amateur painter. Our volume aims to draw on the rich areas opened by these new insights to update the English-language scholarship with a book publication that will ground an expanded approach to Pirandello in theoretical and interdisciplinary frameworks.

The volume is situated at the juncture of the inter-medial study of Pirandello’s works and the exploration of his thought and its position in his intellectual and artistic context. Drawing on intersections with media such as film, the visual arts (photography, painting, etc.), music, and performance traditions, we are especially interested in the importance of the visual imagination to the unfolding of Pirandello’s rich worldview. In this sense we aim to open new avenues of discourse around Pirandello’s thought, acknowledging the central role of typical Pirandellian themes such as the clashes of form/life, illusion/reality, identity/uncertainty, etc., but also enlarging the scope of the discussion.

With these aims in mind, the topics of interest for the volume include, but are not limited to:

• Pirandello’s participation in the visual arts and in other media
• Imagination, fantasy, and creation as visual processes; the relation of inner images to philosophical stances or ways of thinking and understanding; the imagistic presentation of conceptual content
• Modernist visuality, intellectual history and art history in relation to Pirandello’s visual thought
• Music (Pirandello’s works as operas, and Pirandello’s own uses of music)
• Existential drama and visual thought
• The “utopian” effort to escape reality through artistic means, and the troubles of such an effort

Interested contributors are asked to submit an abstract proposal of around 300 words to pirandelloproject@gmail.com no later than January 16, 2015. Proposals will be reviewed, and the editors will invite full manuscripts of approximately 7,000-9,000 words to be published in English (meaning contributors will need to ensure the fluency of their essays). Further details will be communicated to authors whose proposals are chosen for inclusion in the volume, which will be peer reviewed to guarantee the highest academic standards for publication.

Rethinking Shakespeare and Italy: Cultural Exchanges from the Early Modern Period to the Present, ed. by Enza De Francisci and Chris Stamatakis (Routledge: Studies in Shakespeare Series)

This volume brings together international scholars from English literature, Italian studies, drama, and linguistics, as well as actors and playwrights, and offers new perspectives on the vibrant relationships that can be traced between Shakespeare and Italy from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. Besides offering a selection of individual examples of exchanges from Shakespeare’s own time to the present, this volume also ventures more theoretical paradigms to explain the fascinating dynamics by which exchange between Shakespeare and Italy is a two-way process. It is not simply that the literary, dramatic, and linguistic culture of Renaissance Italy shaped Shakespeare’s drama in his own time, but rather that, as this book shows by tracing his literary afterlife, Shakespeare’s plays helped shape Italian artistic culture in the ensuing centuries, in the realms of drama, opera, novels, and film. Unifying the chapters in this book is an interest in how Shakespeare’s drama represents, enacts, and becomes the subject of exchanges across the national, political, and cultural boundaries separating England and Italy.

Abstracts of approximately 250 words are sought for essays that address any period and any aspect of exchange between Shakespeare and Pirandello. Essays can be either empirical or more theoretical in nature, and can explore any mode of cultural interchange. The deadline for submissions is 12^th December 2014. Abstracts should be sent to e.francisci@ucl.ac.uk, and will be subjected to peer review. First drafts of chapters (c. 6,000 words) should then be submitted to the editors ideally by March 2015.

For any questions or further information, please do not hesitate to contact e.francisci@ucl.ac.uk or c.stamatakis@ucl.ac.uk.