CFP: Call for Papers: /”Dissolving the false gold“: on the relationship between philosophy and detective novel

The present issue of Odradek. Studies in Philosophy of Literature, Aesthetics and New Media aims to investigate the detective novel as the focal point of different philosophical tensions. During the 20th century,philosophy has deeply redefined its own forms of rationality encountering this specific literary genre.The process of searching for clues, as Ernst Bloch emphasizes in his 1965 essay, acts like the nitric acid:it dissolves the false gold at the surface of things and shows signs and evidences hidden into them, which could disclose how the world is and how it could be.Far from having a marginal function in his thought, this image set forth the strict bond between philosophical inquiry and detective’s investigation.The metaphoric framework,involving the pursuit of footsteps, the hunting of traces and the anamnestic and diagnostic reconstruction of the accomplished murder, makes possible to pinpoint the strict analogy between the philosopher and the detective,who both inspect the hidden sides of present time.

The detective novel dwells at the core of different theoretical perspectives:starting from its relevance to historical method (see, Carlo Ginzburg) and to the relation between literary products and reality(Italo Calvino, Gianni Celati) up to its importance for the semiotics (Umberto Eco – Thomas A.Sebeok),the detective novel becomes a productive space to intersect various fields of knowledge.

On the threshold of its emergence as a consumer genre, starting from the early years of 20th century,the so-called “Krimi” or detective novel was explored by different thinkers between Italy and Germany,who find in its specific plot clues to investigate the larger conflicts and contradictions of modernity and of its society. Authors such as Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch,but also Siegfried Kracauer, Bertold Brecht and Antonio Gramsci locate into the aesthetical and ideological traits of detective novels signs of: 1) the tendencies of high and popular culture; 2) the contingent and structural transformations of modern juridical and legal system;3)the different orientations within modern reason.Thanks to the circulation of the becoming classical detective (characters such as Dupin; Sherlock Holmes; Poirot;Father Brown), these authors could access to a new widespread narrative imagery, in order to search through it: 1) the mirror of the changes in the power structures of modernity; 2) the ways of intersection between consumer literature and popular tastes and orientations;3) the indications of the transformation of scientific methods of investigation (from the first detective story ‘example’ in Voltaire's Zadig to Chesterton's ‘priest-detective’) 4) the ways of redefining philosophical research, not only on a strictly linguistic and epistemic level, but also on the field of its orientation and ability to detect the temporal articulations of reality.

From the general question concerning the reason why the crime novel becomes a shared object-problem for all these thinkers, this issue would collect contributions involving preferably, though not exclusively, the following themes:

•  Bloch’, Benjamin’,Brecht’, Kracauer’and Gramsci’s consideration of the detective novel and of the process of searching for clues in their analogies or differences;
• Thehistorical-philosophical background of this investigation of detective novels as well as its privileged detective characters;
• The philosophical inquiries on the detective novel as the main source to reconstruct spaces, temporalities and behaviors of modern daily life;
•  The connection between the literary interpretation of changing political and legal institutions within detective novel and its restitution for a large popular use;
• The relevance of the process of searching for clues for philosophical inquiry in its ability to restitute the past and the present and to locate signs and languages which contaminate its rational orientation.

The deadline for submitting the papers is May31,2025.Manuscripts should be no longer than 50.000 characters.Papers should be in Italian, English, French, German. Receivedpaperswillbeevaluatedaccordingthedouble-blind peerreview.

Authors can find submission guidelines at the following link:https://odradek.cfs.unipi.it/index.php/odradek/about/submissions

For further information please feel free to contact:[email protected]