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HORIZON 13 (1) 2024 : IV. Events : Call for Proposal: 290-292
ФЕНОМЕНОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ • STUDIES IN PHENOMENOLOGY • STUDIEN ZUR PHÄNOMENOLOGIE • ÉTUDES PHÉNOMÉNOLOGIQUES
IV. СОБЫТИЯ
CALL FOR PROPOSAL
HORIZONS BEYOND BORDERS: ESSAYS ON THE LEGACY OF PHENOMENOLOGY IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE IN 1945-1989
At its beginnings, the phenomenological movement flourished in the form of communal investigations that diverse groups of scholars undertook in reaction to Edmund Husserl's Logical Investigations, e.g., in the form of the Munich Circle or the Gottingen Circle. However, Husserl's philosophy also resonated outside Germany, leading to new developments in Central and Eastern Europe. This early period of intense development was brutally broken by the outbreak of World War II. Ultimately, post-war Europe was divided into two political blocs. In this context, it is worth referring to Milan Kundera's general remarks on Central European culture. In his classic essay "The Tragedy of Central Europe," Milan Kundera showed that Central European countries define their identity in the post-war period as a cultural protest or resistance to communism. As he writes, in regard to the centralized Soviet administration, Central European countries aimed to assert the independence of their cultural heritage by defending its plurality. Kundera's diagnosis—which, strictly speaking, concerns the post-war culture of Central European countries—can be applied to the heritage of the phenomenological movement in Central and Eastern Europe. After all, phenomenology in Central and Eastern Europe was developed after World War II as a pluralistic movement, often but not always restricted to national philosophies. Many of the contexts which determined phenomenology at that time have since been forgotten.
The central task of the planned volume is a presentation and a critical reassessment of the legacy of post-war phenomenology in Central and Eastern Europe before
the fall of the Berlin Wall, i.e., before the end of the East/West division. This period is unique in that many scholars from Central and Eastern Europe did not have the opportunity to introduce their contributions and innovations to international audiences. The volume seeks to explore a wide range of redefinitions, developments, applications, and reevaluations of phenomenology in Central Europe. Its aim is to collect chapters on both central figures and marginal readings on and in phenomenology. Chapters on important works, figures, or schools of thought are welcome. The volume will explore how the writings of, for instance, Edmund Husserl, Max Scheler, Edith Stein, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Emmanuel Levinas resonated in philosophy in Central and Eastern Europe. Moreover, it will also explore original post-war contributions of, to indicate only a few, Alexandra Dragomir, Roman Ingarden, Karel Kosik, Constantin Noica, Jan Patocka, Gajo Petrovic, Vasily Seseman, Mihaly Vajda, and their accounts and use of phenomenology.
Moreover, the volume seeks to address the question of how phenomenology was used in other disciplines, not only in confrontation with Marxism, but with other leading currents of that time. In doing so, the volume is planned to be a comprehensive handbook and an overview of the heritage of the phenomenological movement in Central and Eastern Europe in 1945-1989.
The volume concerns, but is not limited to, the following areas:
• Major and less well-known figures in the field who are commonly regarded as phenomenologists or scholars who used phenomenology as their method or a point of reference. Chapters on these figures should explore the main points of their theories in chronological order and in the contexts which shaped their theories.
• Critical and new developments in phenomenology in Central and Eastern Europe in 1945-89 which are not centered on one figure but explore some discussions, controversies, and reevaluations of the heritage of phenomenology.
• How phenomenology was regarded by the main currents in different countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Chapters in this area may explore whole schools of thought and confront them with phenomenology.
• Reassessments and redefinitions of the main methods, concepts, and problems of phenomenology formulated by Central and East European scholars.
Chapters should be 40.000-60.000 characters long, inclusive of bibliography and footnotes. Please send your abstracts (up to 500 words, incl. a short bibliography) accompanied by short CVs by June 1, 2024 to Witold Plotka
HORIZON 13 (1) 2024
291
(witoldplotka@gmail.com & w.plotka@uksw.edu.pl). Abstracts will be reviewed before the decision regarding acceptance or rejection.
Notifications of preliminary acceptance or rejection will be sent by September 1, 2024. Completed chapters will be expected by November 1, 2025.
The volume will be published by Springer in the "Contributions to Phenomenology" book series (probably) in 2026.
For more on the book series, see: https://www.springer.com/series/5811
Dr. habil. Witold Plotka Associate Professor Institute of Philosophy Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw
