Cultural Narratologies: Form and Context in Contemporary Narrative Theory (Between, vol. XVI.32, Nov. 2026)

Cultural Narratologies: Form and Context in Contemporary Narrative Theory

Submission deadline: Sunday, 31th May 2026.

Peer-review (est.): August 2026.

Publication date: 30 November 2026.

Editors: Federico Bertoni (University of Bologna), Gabriele D’Amato (University of L’Aquila and Ghent University), Luca Diani (University of L’Aquila), Massimo Fusillo (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)

 Since the late twentieth century, narrative theory has undergone a profound transformation, moving beyond the taxonomic paradigms of structuralist narratology (Genette 1980; Prince 1982) to engage more directly with the historical, ideological, and ethical dimensions of storytelling. Within this evolving context, a hermeneutically oriented strand of narrative theory had already begun to challenge the dichotomy between narrative and cultural meaning. Paul Ricœur’s reflections on the temporal dimension of storytelling (1984), Frank Kermode’s explorations of narrative configuration and the “sense of an ending” (2000 [1966]), and Peter Brooks’s analysis of desire as the engine of plot progression (1984) each suggested how narrative form cannot be uncoupled from its context but works as a site for the interpretation and negotiation of affective, cultural, and ideological values. These approaches thus anticipated many of the key questions that would later define cultural narratology. Emerging from the “postclassical” turn (Herman 1999), cultural or “contextualist” (Nünning 2009) narratology proposes that narrative cannot be understood apart from the social practices, material media, and ideological frameworks that shape it. These frameworks redefine narratology not as a purely descriptive or taxonomic discipline, but as a contextually situated mode of interpretation, one that investigates how stories participate in the mediation and reproduction of cultural meanings.

            This renewed attention to context does not entail the dismissal of form; rather, it redefines form itself as a site of interaction between aesthetic organization and ideological meaning. This is a shared concern with other formally oriented approaches to culture, such as New Formalism and queer formalism (Fawaz 2022). For Caroline Levine, one of the most prominent scholars in New Formalism, narrative stands as a macro-form that can bring together and reflect a multiplicity of stylistic and ideological forms (2015; 2023). Therefore, contemporary narratologists and literary theorists increasingly view narrative form as a site of negotiation: a dynamic structure through which cultural meanings are produced, contested, and transformed. The so-called “basic elements of narrative” (Herman 2009)—such as temporality, spatiality, mediation, and perspective—are not neutral containers of content; they are, instead, culturally embedded formal properties with the potential of addressing and challenging dominant discourses and value systems. Luc Herman and Bart Vervaeck’s notion of “narrative negotiation” (2017) effectively captures this dynamic: each aesthetic modulation of narrative across media—whether verbal or audiovisual, fictional or nonfictional—intervenes in an ongoing field of cultural stories, values, and expectations, negotiating its position among them.

            In this light, narratology has become an essential framework for addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time. Work in the subfields of econarratology (James 2015; James and Morel 2020), postcolonial narratology (Dwivedi et al. 2018), feminist narratology (Warhol and Lanser 2015), queer narrative theory (Bradway 2021), or trans* narrative studies (Mejeur and Pellegrini 2024) has powerfully shown how formal choices are always closely tied to values and assumptions circulating in a culture. Take, for example, the formal strategy of nonlinear temporal sequentiality, which, by disrupting narrative’s teleological progression and Anthropocentric binaries, is well-suited to mirror the complex enmeshment of human-nonhuman relations (Caracciolo 2021). Similarly, first-person narration in English holds particular promise in trans* narratives: as noted by Susan S. Lanser, trans* narrators frequently exploit both the linguistic and the ideological freedom of the first-person pronoun as opposed to the gender-specific third person singular (Lanser 2024). 

This issue of Between devoted to “Cultural Narratologies: Form and Context in Contemporary Narrative Theory” aims to explore these developments and to map the new directions of narrative theory in dialogue with cultural critique. The issue seeks contributions that investigate how narrative form engages with and responds to the pressures of historical change, global crisis, and ideological transformation. Contributions may engage with literary, audiovisual, or digital narratives, as well as with the broader implications of narratological analysis in today’s cultural and academic landscape.

Possible areas of inquiry include (but are not limited to):

Theoretical developments in cultural narratologies (e.g., econarratology, feminist narratology, postcolonial narratology).
The role of specific narrative strategies (e.g., you-narration, we-narration, multilinearity, multiperspectivity) in shaping cultural meaning.
The ideological implications of experimental narrative techniques across media.
Diachronic explorations between narrative form and cultural context.
The medium-specific cultural affordances of narrative forms.
The relationship between form and context in a specific narrative genre.
 

Submissions are accepted in Italian, English, and French; bilingual submissions will also be accepted. Submissions in a language other than Italian and bilingual submissions (with one language being English or French) are appreciated and encouraged, especially for papers relating to foreign authors.

Guidelines for paper presentation

Articles ready for publication must use the provided Template and have to be accompanied by the abstract and metadata (author’s name and surname, e-mail address, title of the submission, keywords: minimum 5, maximum 7; author’s bio-bibliographical profile). The submission deadline is 31 May 2026. Please follow the instructions on the Submissions page of Between’s website. Accepted articles will be published on 30 November 2026 (Issue 32).

Notice: those interested in submitting a proposal are kindly requested to register on the journal’s website a few days before the deadline.

Please remember that authors must provide an English version of their proposal’s metadata in addition to the submission’s original language.

Article body maximum length: 38,000 characters, including spaces (excluding: title, abstract, keywords, author bio and final references).

Title’s maximum length: 220 characters, including spaces.

Abstract’s maximum length: 200 words.

Author bio’s maximum length: 150 words. Author bio should include name and surname, professional title and institution, email address, areas of interest and research, and no more than five publications cited concisely: Title (year of publication).

In case of any doubts and/or further information, do not hesitate to email the editors