CFP: Prāśnika: Journal of Subcontinental Thought & Imagination — Philosophy and Poesy: Tracing the Lives of Imagination in the Subcontinent

Issue 1: Monsoon 2026 

Philosophy and Poesy: Tracing the Lives of Imagination in the Subcontinent 

The inaugural Monsoon 2026 issue of Prāśnika seeks to understand the relationship between philosophy and poetry: whether such a relationship exists; whether it should exist; and whether their co-occurrence ought to be avoided and undermined at all costs. What is philosophy? What is poetry? What is the relationship between the two? Do we philosophise when we poetise? Do we poetise when we philosophise? We invite submissions creatively engaging with the questions of the shared space (or lack thereof) between philosophy and poesy, that are anchored in and beyond intellectual traditions and literary practices of the subcontinent. These reflections on the lives of imagination need to be oriented towards Prāśnika’s aim of producing knowledge that discloses something meaningful about our day-to-day engagements with the world, thereby deepening our affective entanglement with the world we inhabit. 

With this in mind, we invite contributions on the following themes, but not limited to them:

1. How does poetry influence philosophy? And vice versa?
2. How does the status of the poet and the philosopher change across the ancient to modern sources? Is there a difference between the two therein?
3. What is the role of thinking in poetics?  
4. Is poetics sensitive to its own (philosophical) assumptions? 
5. How sensitive is philosophical literature to the hermeneutic horizon shaped by the poetic traditions?
6. How do poets across various literary traditions envision or conceptualise the relationship between philosophy and poetry?
7. How do oral traditions conceive the role of a poet or philosopher?

Submission Categories

1. Book Reviews: Books relevant to the theme of the issue ~2000 words
2. Philosophy Essays: Original pieces of writing engaging with the theme  of the issue; ~4000 words (including footnotes and bibliography) 
3. Translated Articles/Fiction/Poetry: Pieces of writing on the theme of the issue outside the Anglophone literature