Volume 10: no. 2/2026
Phenomenology and Narrative
This issue of our journal will be \;devoted to \;the relationship between phenomenology and the topic of narrative. We \;would like to \;invite contributions presenting interdisciplinary methodologies involving perspectives of phenomenology\, hermeneutics\, narratology and structuralism. We \;would also welcome historical approaches to \;the genealogy of the relationship between phenomenology and narrative.
\nThe relationship between phenomenology and narrative seems to \;be \;nearly as \;old as \;phenomenology itself but at \;the same time often unnoticed or \;undervalued. Starting from Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel&rsquo\;s narratively structured Phenomenology of Spirit and vast analysis of historical teleology that had a \;great impact on \;the philosophy of history\, Hegel&rsquo\;s phenomenology was interpreted as \;an example of a \;Bildungsroman (Josiah Royce). In \;Metahistory\, Hayden White ascribed to \;Hegel&rsquo\;s philosophy the potential to \;transgress the ironical paradigm of storytelling. This was followed by \;Edmund Husserl&rsquo\;s perspective on \;the roots of reason in \;ancient Greek culture and transcendental phenomenology being the major accomplishment of human history\, presented in \;the text titled Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology.
\nAmong the most famous representatives of Herbert Spiegelberg&rsquo\;s so-called phenomenological movement\, phenomenology and narratives often walked side by \;side\, readily manifesting their strong and troublesome kinship. On \;the one hand\, phenomenology aspiring to \;scientific rigorous analysis seemed to \;turn its back on \;narratives\, understood as \;an example of imaginative preposterous fiction. On \;the other hand\, vivid interest in \;literature was the common and perpetual thread in \;the writings of Husserl&rsquo\;s successors: Martin Heidegger\, Roman Ingarden\, Maurice Merleau-Ponty\, Jean-Paul Sartre\, and Emmanuel Levinas.
\nThe constant presence of narrative issues among phenomenological writers is partially manifested in \;the structure of their texts\, mixing formal analysis with literary language (as \;in \;examples of Martin Heidegger\, Maurice Merleau-Ponty\, or \;Jean-Paul Sartre). Sometimes phenomenologists organized their texts in \;the form of narrative dialogues (see Heidegger&rsquo\;s Country Path Conversations)\; in \;other cases\, they were even writing prose and dramas (given the examples of Sartre&rsquo\;s Nausea\, The Flies\, or \;The Wall). Most importantly\, the relationship between phenomenology and narrative was a \;thread that indirectly but recurrently came back as \;a \;task for philosophical thinking. From Heidegger&rsquo\;s reflection about the philosophical role of poetry\, following with Merleau-Ponty&rsquo\;s observations about language being the prose of the world\, Sartre&rsquo\;s reflection about the role of imagination\, and Roman Ingarden&rsquo\;s analysis of the intentionality of the work of art (with a \;strong emphasis on \;literary art)\, phenomenologists constantly and tacitly seemed to \;focus on \;the theme of narrative.
\nPaul Ricoeur&rsquo\;s famous work titled Time and Narrative may be \;perceived as \;the direct manifestation of this recurrent phenomenological tendency to \;gravitate toward narratively driven issues. Ricoeur elaborates on \;the concept of emplotment which connects Aristotle&rsquo\;s Poetics with St. Augustine and Edmund Husserl&rsquo\;s reflection about the nature of time. In \;his research\, he \;conjoins hermeneutical and phenomenological methodology. A \;similar tendency may be \;found in \;Hans-Georg Gadamer who\, in \;Truth and Method\, analyzed hermeneutical phenomena presenting a \;grand narrative about the meaning of humanistic sciences. Although Gadamer does not focus directly on \;the phenomenon of narrative and is mostly interested in \;the relationship between language and understanding\, his own work is structured in \;the form of a \;historical narrative tackling major concepts of humanities such as \;truth\, method\, understanding\, taste\, and education (Bildung).
\nContemporary phenomenology has noticed the importance of narrative\, which can be \;analyzed not only with structuralist or \;narratological tools but also from a \;phenomenological perspective. David Carr in \;Time\, Narrative\, and History presented original insights into the nature of history\, combining phenomenology\, narrative studies\, and Hegel&rsquo\;s philosophy.
\nAmong contemporary phenomenologists\, Nicolas de \;Warren is an author who often combines phenomenology with narrative discourse. In \;The Original Forgiveness\, he \;combines classics of literature such as \;Shakespeare\, Herman Melville\, Simon Wiesenthal\, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky with a \;philosophical discourse that oscillates around the topic of forgiveness. Following Sartre&rsquo\;s footsteps\, he \;often draws inspiration from literature\, shaping parts of his own text in \;a \;form that resembles great novelistic narratives. In \;the book Husserl and the Promise of Time\, he \;reimagines Husserl as \;one of the characters from Raymond Queneau&rsquo\;s Sunday of Life who tries to \;grasp the pattern of time but often fails in \;this attempt. In \;a \;book titled A \;Momentary Breathlessness in \;the Sadness of Time &ndash\; On \;Krzysztof Michalski&rsquo\;s Nietzsche\, de \;Warren presents a \;personal and poetic narrative about the passing of his teacher Krzysztof Michalski. This narrative is naturally intertwined with conceptual considerations devoted to \;the topic of time. In \;his work\, de \;Warren often combines phenomenological insights and rigorous conceptual analysis with narratives tackling personal experience and biographical facts. In \;a \;Hegelian manner\, he \;presents philosophical concepts such as \;sadness of time and original forgiveness as \;heroes of grander narratives present in \;a \;lifelong journey of a \;human being.
\nAll of these mentioned examples represent the recurring theme of phenomenology moving closer and closer to \;the problems of narrative. Therefore\, the relationship between phenomenology and narrative seems to \;be \;worthy of scholarly attention. We \;will welcome papers related to \;members of the phenomenological movement as \;well as \;those devoted to \;thinkers who reflected on \;the role of phenomenology but preceded the origins of 20th-century phenomenological formation (Lambert\, Kant\, Hegel). Original contemporary contributions addressing the problem of the relationship between phenomenology and narrative will be \;considered with great eagerness.
\nAs \;an academic journal\, we \;expect well-researched\, in-depth analyses fulfilling the standards provided for academic contributions. In \;accordance with the profile of our journal\, we \;are open not only to \;purely philosophical essays but also to \;contributions from other cultural disciplines.
\nPapers should be \;submitted by \;November 30th\, 2025 \;to: eidos.ed@uw.edu.pl.
\nThey have to \;be \;previously unpublished\, and they cannot be \;under consideration for publication elsewhere. They should be \;prepared for a \;double-blind review process. Please make sure that your paper complies \;with our submission standards which are posted here: https://eidos.uw.edu.pl/submissions/
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