Call for papers

Special Issue of Ponoptikum journal: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoid Narratives

Guest editors: prof. Patrycja Włodek and prof. Sebastian Jakub Konefał

Paranoid narratives are becoming one of the dominant elements of contemporary social media and the audiovisual landscape. In movie plots, television, video games and comics, they arouse the suspicion that there is a great secret guarded by powerful forces. The figure of an outsider fighting alone against an undefined opponent – in the broadest sense "others", state institutions and various kinds of authorities – operates in an atmosphere of chaos (on a societal level or on an individual level – in one's own mind). A series of disinformation strategies at the narrative level are intended to give the recipient the feeling that the reality depicted in the story is something other than it appears to be.

The ontological creation outlined in this way can be perceived as a pop-cultural instrument in times of fear and uncertainty, which represents an attempt to deal with fears and the complexity of the world – not just the one depicted.

 

On the other hand, cinema, comics, video games and television series abound with productions that show and expose real conspiracies – political, medical, corporate and even espionage conspiracies – their backgrounds, their course and often their fall and disgrace.

Theoretical approaches also link the global atmosphere of overproduction of conspiracy theories with an interest in paranoid structures, which are interpreted as an attempt to reflect existential insecurity, information chaos and the expression of a longing for "order".

 

The proposed framework for the themes discussed in the texts is:

 

- the function of paranoia as a theme/plot trope

- paranoid narratives and other conspiracy narratives – frameworks of convention

- practitioners and theorists of the paranoid imagination and conspiracy theories (Eco, Pynchon, Dick, Le Tellier)

- artistic function of paranoid narratives – presented diachronically and/or synchronously

- paranoia as an individual state of the character

- unreliable narration in films/series (and other "paranoid" narrative devices)

- paranoia as a metaphor for reality

- thematization of real conspiracies on the screen

- particularly influential paranoid narratives and their heirs on screen

- conspiracy theories and new media (connectivity/network/hypertextuality)

- conspiracy theories and post-secular thinking, the legacy of counterculture and New Age

 

We expect the submission of text proposals (title and abstract) by January 31, 2024.

Deadline for acceptance of texts: July 1, 2024.