Call for papers (Transcr(é)ation, volume 9)

Call for papers (Transcr(é)ation, volume 9)
Directed by Ronan Charles
Presentation
Transcr(é)ation is a specialty journal dedicated to intermediality and the dialogues between texts and films, without prioritizing either. We welcome any theoretical or analytical works, interviews, and thematic dossiers on the questions of intermediality, transposition between media, dialogue between and through the arts, or any other foray into related subjects.
Languages: English or French

“Fictional Natures and Natural Fictions” Winter 2027)
For our 9th issue, dedicated to the relationship with nature through the lens of text-image intermediality, we welcome any reflection on the fictional dimension inevitably present in the documentary approach to nature. This problematic area includes (re)questioning the authenticity, informativeness, or didactic nature of documents dealing with the real and sensory reference that nature constitutes. Conversely, the call for papers considers research on the traditional, original, “natural” character of fiction and its use of both image and text. This avenue may correspond to an analysis of diegetic processes correlating the human propensity to imagine with what proves to be “independent of human will or action .” Reflections examining the de-specification of media, as well as the intangibility of medialities (which remains the fundamental condition of intermediality), are welcome, always from the perspective of fiction and/or nature. The proposals can, among other things, analyze the different “natures” of intermediality, which can then serve as a “test ” according to Bernard Guelton, or as a “gap” according to Jacques Rancière, for whom “cinema takes from literature its fictions by erasing its images and its philosophy .” Finally, semantic approaches can shed light on the reason why the imperial Latin fictio, "the act of shaping, creation ” became, in medieval Latin, “deception” as well as on its historical relationship with the Latin derived from nasci, “to be born” (ibid.).
The call for submissions is open to any textual and/or iconic overview of the relationship between genres of the imagination and nature, but also to any reflection on the differences in the implementation of the “supernatural ” between literary creation and images, bearing in mind that access to that “which is above the possibilities of nature, which escapes its laws” is fictitious. Quoting Fustel de Coulanges from his famous work Life and Death of the Image, Régis Debray offers us a valuable hypothesis for any historical, philosophical and/or anthropological analysis: “It is perhaps in the face of death that humankind first conceived of the supernatural and wished to hope beyond what it saw .” Could the “construction of the imagination ” – and particularly of the supernatural –, have arisen from the most natural of mysteries (death)? Therefore, analyses of diverse relationships with nature within the realms of the marvelous, the fantastic, or science fiction genres will be particularly welcome. This might involve, for example, comparisons between the works of John Ronald R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings, 1954) and Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings, 2001-2004), or correlating the romantic excesses of Mary Shelley (Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, 1821) with the world of James Cameron’s film Avatar (2009), or even examining the almost nonexistent nature of Philip K. Dick’s novel Blade Runner (1968). Articles addressing the historical and often lost functions of imaginary narratives such as legends are also considered—one of whose objectives , in the centuries preceding the technological advancements of meteorology, was to predict the recurrence of natural disasters.
This issue seeks to encourage reflection on a recurring theme in the philosophy of art, one that is proving to be profoundly disrupted by the ecological concerns of the Anthropocene: the relationship between art and nature. Considering the “ecology of images ” presented by Vivien Philizot, Sophie Suma, and Benjamin Thomas, or the “econology ” introduced by Jean-Michel Durafour, what concrete impact would a fictional or diegetic ecology have? Furthermore, while this opposing axis divides, among others, the viewpoints of anthropologists and philosophers , ecology and philosophy, since the opening of our theme’s fictional framework, have intersected with politics, ethics, and social contract theory. It therefore seems both pertinent and incongruous to question the possibilities of representing, for example, the “state of nature” (the human way of life prior to its organization into societies or civilizations) as developed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and introduced by Thomas Hobbes , especially since this notion was never derived from a real-world model. The cinematic interpretations of François Truffaut (The Wild Child, 1970), Hugh Hudson (Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, 1984), and, of course, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ famous novel (Tarzan of the Apes, 1912) can, for instance, give rise to relevant analogies that fall within the realm of intermediality or transmediality. Furthermore, the neologism “symbiocene ” coined by the environmentalist author Glenn Albrecht, by conceptualizing an ideal, fictitiously proposes a certain organization of the city and thus corresponds to what defines politics. But what prospects for evolution would a detailed fictional representation of such a concept reveal, namely a world where “the footprint of humans on Earth will be reduced to a minimum,” where “all human activities will be integrated into vital systems and will leave no trace”?
Please find below a proposed blueprint for reflection:
- Nature and fiction
- Nature and art
- Nature and the supernatural
- Nature and documentary
- Nature and intermediality
- Fiction and art
- Fiction and the supernatural
- Fiction and documentary
- Fiction and intermediality
We also accept interviews connected with the subject.
Timeline
- Deadline for submitting your proposal (including title, 250-300 word summary, email address, affiliation and author’s bio-bibliography (approx. 150 words)): July 15th, 2026, to: ronan-charles@live.fr (All submissions will be evaluated and you will receive an answer before the end of July)
- Deadline for submitting accepted articles (6,000 – 8,000 words) following the journal’s guidelines: November 1st, 2026 (peer-reviewing process could last until the end of December)
- Publication of the volume planned for March 2027