Call For Papers
(English)
Embedded Files
May 11th and 12th, 2026. Faculty of Filology (Building A), Complutense University of Madrid.
The “affective turn” has reconfigured the overview of literary studies. The revalorization of the roles of the body and emotions in cultural dynamics has proposed new theoretical and methodological approaches that open new paths for literary criticism and creation, while reopening former discussions. This congress “Echoes from within: aesthetic and political possibilities of the affects in literature” invites young researchers to explore how affects work in, through, and beyond literary texts: how they produce and mobilise imaginaries, integrate trauma, or trigger resistance.
A brief historical overview allows us to reveal the omnipresence of affects in literary criticism and theory: from the importance of Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics, where pathos was seen as a key discursive element to mobilise emotions and produce effects in the receptor; to Medieval Humourism, which linked emotionality to a moral and corporal physiology, opening a new approach to explain human behaviour and character construction; without forgetting Romantic poetics of the 18th century, which situated emotions in the center of the aesthetic experience, and whose literary forms fostered the expression of the self; cristalising, thus, in the psychoanalytic practices developed at the beginning of the last century, with Sigmund Freud and his theories about desire, repression, and trauma, and how these reconfigurated the notions of subjectivity and showed that affects work in the conscious level as well as in the subconscious one. This perspective is fundamental to understanding the postmodern turn, in which the recovery of Baruch Spinoza’s theories —especially his conception of affect as a variation of the power of acting of the body— allows authors such as Gilles Deleuze to rethink emotions not as internal states, but as intensities and forces that cross bodies, environments, and cultural practices.
In this way, in contrast to the disintegration of the subject defined by the postmodern Episteme, the congress “Echoes from within” aligns with the different contemporary lines of affect theory, which understand affects as dynamic and situated phenomena, whose impact is decisive in social life. Being understood as a basic response to stimuli (Tomkins, 1995; Sedgwick, 2003) or as forces of intensity embodied, precognitive, and prepersonal (Deleuze and Guattari, 1991; Massumi, 2002), affects imply modulations that emerge from the interaction between bodies, agents, contexts, and media. Even ecology and digital technology have taken on the affective component: from the relationship between humans and environments, to emotional design and artificial intelligence able to detect and shape our affective responses.
In this context of revalorization of the embodied mediations (Ahmed, 2004), this congress is proposed as an interdisciplinary forum where literature works as a site of critical experimentation to think about the aesthetic and political power of affect. Similar to the theories proposed by Ann Cvetkovich (2003) about affective archives of trauma, to the affective reading suggested by Stephen Ahern (2019) and Alex Houen (2020), or the philosophical contributions of Martha Nussbaum (2001), Guilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari (1980), this congress aims to contribute to the discussion of the complex affective life of the texts.
In this way, the following lines of research are proposed:
Contributions to affect theory in literature. Affect theory has been consolidated into a field that pushes emotional analysis towards precognitive and relational depths. While authors, such as Brian Massumi (2002) and Sara Ahmed (2004; 2010), have emphasized the political and social dimensions of affect, in literature it is representation and mediation which have become the focus. In particular, cognitive poetics applies linguistic tools and cognitive psychology to textual analysis. Researchers like Peter Stockwell and Elena Semino have worked on topics such as deixis, conceptual metaphors and immersive narratives as key entry points to understand readers’ emotional responses. Alternatively, Alexa Weik von Mossner (2017) has developed the frame of affective ecologies, which allows for the analysis of how literature configures environmental sensitivities and empathy links, intertwining the aesthetic experience with environmental conscience. In all, this research line calls for theoretical approaches to affective analysis in literature studies.
Representations or thematizations of feelings and emotions in literary works. Throughout the history of literature, several works have been recognised to be determined by the affects or emotions that they represent or use as themes. Either as an epic poem about Achilles’ rage or, following Simone Weil (1945), as an epopee about strength, the Iliad offers a perfect example of such a question. From Antigone’s inconsolable grief, through the passions of Tristan and Iseult, the fear and surprise that pervades Gothic castles, the sentimental irony of Flaubert, the modern evil of alienation that torments Kafka’s characters, to more contemporary formulations like a defence of cheesy poetics, this research line is an invitation to present works dedicated to the different ways in which literature represents, themes and modulates emotions.
Effects of the affects. Mindful of the subjective turn in literary theories and critical works, we propose to rescue the term that defines Wolfgang Iser’s theoretical project (1976): reading as an “effect” of the text in the reader’s consciousness. The importance that this German author confers the reader in the creation of the literary text serves as a starting point to establish a research line dedicated to the phenomena of the affective reception of texts. Thus, works that tackle affect theory from a reader’s perspective, implicit or explicit, will belong in this line of research: investigations on the affective reception of literary works, including the transformations that rewritings or modifications to the canon may cause in this field, as well as their community reception phenomena; reflections on reading theories, especially those mediated by affects— reading as seen through the physical body, reading as an emotional practice, reading against the text —; investigations on the affective dimension of literary criticism, amongst other approaches.
Comparisons, contacts and movements between languages and traditions. This research line offers the possibility to carry out a critical study of the affective dimension in different literary traditions. From a comparative perspective, it tends to the diversity of representations and expressions for one emotion in different cultures or literary traditions, to the role of emotions that is born from contact or tension between different languages and/or cultures— alluding both to the influences between traditions and to the counterhegemonic writings —, as well as the evolution of their expression within the same tradition— for example, the diacronical analysis of the comical styles within Spanish literature, from picaresque to Esperpento —. Therefore, this line encourages a reflection on the relationship between literary texts from different times and cultures from an affective perspective.
Comparisons, contacts and movements between media. The affective dimension in literature and the arts is not limited to the representational plane, it is constructed by the languages, materiality and technical conditions of each medium (Riley, 2005; Houen, 2020). This research line proposes to examine the relationship— contacts, friction, divergences —between literature, cinema, the graphic arts, digital media, performance arts, and other media. It is an invitation to explore how the particularities of each medium affect the articulation of emotion, and what happens when literary texts are transferred to, establish a dialogue with, or reformulate themselves in other media and languages. All in all, this line will gather contributions that, from a comparative perspective, maintain literature as the axis from which to investigate the formulations, transmission, and reception of the affective dimension in different media of creation or communication.
Genres and affects. This research line will include proposals which analyse in what way certain literary genres— such as comedy; horror, from the Gothic to the contemporary, which tackles social questions, as we can see in Mariana Enriquez’s short stories; sentimental narratives, from epistolary novels like Pamela or Abelardo y Eloísa to the contemporary romantasy; utopias and distopias, which articulate future affective imaginaries; amongst others —constructed by a particular emphasis on the affective dimension, either from its enunciation— with a special interest in autobiographical writings and autofiction —, from its destinatary, or its function. It would be interesting to explore how feelings and emotions are incorporated into the architecture of literary works through themes, motifs, and other structural and stylistic recourses, and how they therefore generate specific affective experiences.
Affective politics. Through this research line, we call for an investigation of the different manners in which literature and the arts showcase how the affective is not merely an internal state but a political force that construes ways of life, collective memories, and power structures. Proposals that approach the affective dimension’s ability to regulate or destabilise the social order (Ahmed, 2010; Berlant, 2011) will be of particular interest; literary manners to remember, silence, or refigure the past, as well as those focused on how the affective intervenes in the different modes of thinking about the future, will also be of note. Similarly, we would encourage approaches to trauma or grief narratives that create an affective archive (Cvetkovich, 2003), as well as those that explore the affective ethics, paying attention to the role of emotions in moral and judgement construction (Nussbaum, 2001).
CONTRIBUTION PROPOSALS
Communication proposals must be original and unpublished. Said communications must be made in Spanish or English, and be no longer than 15 minutes. Proposals must be sent through the available form, which has been explicitly authorised for this purpose and can be found on the Congress website.
The deadline for the submission of proposals will be on February 6th 2026 at 23:59, CET.
REGISTRATION
Once a communication proposal has been received, a confirmation email will be sent. All proposals will be then submitted to the evaluation process carried out by the Scientific Committee of the Congress through a blind peer review process. The Organization Committee will contact participants to inform them of the acceptance or rejection of their proposal at the end of February.
Once a communication proposal has been accepted, registration can be formalised through the payment of a 30€ fee. Payment of this fee will be made through a bank transfer to the following bank account:
CONGRESO DEL-MEL
IBAN: ES7900492196022914707921
BIC: BSCHESMMXXX
Afterwards, the payment receipt will need to be sent via email to the Organization Committee (a congresodelmel@gmail.com).
The deadline to formalise registration as a speaker will be on March 11th 2026.
The deadline to register as an attendee will be on May 10th 2026 and will not require any fee. In order to receive an attendance certificate, it will be necessary to be present for at least 80% of the Congress activities.
REFERENCES
AHERN, Stephen (2019). Affect Theory and Literary Critical Practice: A Feel for the Text. Palgrave Macmillan.
AHMED, Sara (2004). The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Routledge.
AHMED, Sara (2010). The Promise of Happiness. Duke University Press.
BERLANT, Lauren (2011). Cruel Optimism. Duke University Press.
CVETKOVICH, Ann (2003). Archive of Feelings. Duke University Press.
DELEUZE, Gilles y Felix GUATTARI (1980). Mille plateaux: capitalisme et schizophrénie. Les Editions de Minuit.
DELEUZE, Gilles y Felix GUATTARI (1991). Qu'est-ce que la philosophie? Les Editions de Minuit.
FELSKI, Rita (2008). Uses of Literature. Blackwell Publishing.
GRACIA GASPAR, María Luz (2023). El giro cognitivo en los estudios literarios y artísticos. Escritura e Imagen, 19, 25–41.
HOGAN, Patrick Colm (2011). Affective Narratology: The Emotional Structure of Stories. University of Nebraska Press.
HOUEN, Alex (Ed.) (2020). Affect and Literature. Cambridge University Press.
ILLOUZ, Eva (2007). Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism. Polity Press.
ISER, Wolfgang (1976). Der Akt des Lesens: Theorie ästhetischer Wirkung. W. Fink.
JAMESON, Fredric (1991). Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Duke University Press.
KEEN, Suzanne (2007). Empathy and the Novel. Oxford University Press.
LABANYI, Jo (2010). Doing Things: Emotion, Affect, and Materiality. Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 11(3–4), 223–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/14636204.2010.538244
MASSUMI, Brian (2002). Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Duke University Press.
MOYANO ARIZA, Sandra (2020). Teoría del afecto en la literatura y el arte: en la representación y más allá de la representación. Athenea Digital, 20(2), e2319. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/athenea.2319
NUSSBAUM, Martha (2001). Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions. Cambridge University Press.
PHELAN, James (2007). Experiencing Fiction. Ohio State University Press.
PONS, Margalida (2021). Potencias afectivas de la poesía catalana contemporánea: exposición y propuestas de un proyecto de investigación. Theory Now: Journal of Literature, Critique and Thought 4(1), 129–150. https://doi.org/10.30827/tnj.v4i1.16216
PONS JAUME, Margalida y Caterina CALAFAT (2022). Poesía contemporánea y estudios afectivos: aproximaciones teóricas y lecturas. Cultura, Lenguaje y Representación, 29, 7–14. https://doi.org/10.6035/clr.7016
RILEY, Denise (2005). Impersonal Passion: Language as Affect. Duke University Press.
SEDGWICK, Eve K. (2003). Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Duke University Press.
SEMINO, Elena; Zsófia DEMJÉN, Andrew HARDIE, Sheila PAYNE y Paul RAYSON (2018). Metaphor, Cancer and the End of Life. A Corpus-Based Study. Routledge.
STOCKWELL, Peter (2009). Texture: A Cognitive Aesthetics of Reading. Edinburgh University Press.
TOMKINS, Silvan (1995). What are affects? En Eve K. Sedgwick y Adam Frank (eds.), Shame and Its Sisters: A Silvan Tomkins Reader (pp. 33–74). Duke University Press.
WEIL, Simone (1945 [1940]). “The Iliad or, The Poem of Force”. Politics (noviembre de 1945), 321–331.
WEIK VON MOSSNER, Alexa (2017). Affective Ecologies: Empathy, Emotion, and Environmental Narrative. Ohio State University Press.
ZUNSHINE, Lisa (2006). Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel. Ohio State University Press.
Deadline for proposal submission: February 6th 2026
Deadline for acceptance of proposal: end of February 2026
Deadline for registration as attendee: May 10th 2026
Dates in which the conference will be held: May 11th-12th 2026
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