«Griseldaonline», vol. 26 (2027) – CfP: «Prisons»

Surveying the Italian literary tradition, one observes that imprisonment is not merely a narrative or poetic theme more or less frequently explored ‘in a trial run’ by authors. Rather, it asserts itself above all as a central metaphorical resource of the literary imagination, capable of assuming multiple meanings. Understood both as a physical space and a symbolic device, the prison is not only a place produced by an institution designed for isolation and control, but, in a broader sense, an existential condition of constraint and separation, closely linked to the redefinition of individual identity.

This appears even more significant if we consider that, even before being a biographical contingency actually experienced by many authors, the experience of imprisonment acts as a metaphor to describe an inner condition. Precisely in light of this symbolic function, incarceration has been represented both in fictional terms and in testimonial forms, with moral, political, and existential implications profoundly influenced by the literary imagination. Thus, even the account of the experience of real imprisonment is grafted onto an already consolidated imaginary representation, contributing to its redefinition and enriching it with further meanings.

From the communal and seigniorial prisons evoked in medieval literature, to the experiences of segregation and control involving figures such as Burchiello, Machiavelli, and Tasso; from the Risorgimento season of Pellico to the many twentieth-century writings marked by detention, up to hyper-contemporary voices – not only in narrative fiction but also in television series (think of Romanzo criminale or Mare fuori) – the prison emerges as a crossroads of tensions between the individual and power, between freedom and control, between deviance and norm. To this must be added a necessary broadening of perspective: the prison in the strict sense has always been in dialogue with other forms of confinement and segregation – exile, internal exile (confino), the Lager, the asylum – which, despite their historical specificity, share similar dynamics of exclusion, disciplining, and surveillance.

Scholarship in recent decades has highlighted the complexity and stratification of the relationship between literature and prison. On this question, see at least A.M. Babbi, T. Zanon (eds.), Le loro prigioni. Scritture dal carcere (Verona, Fiorini, 2007); and G. Traina, N. Zago (eds.), Carceri vere e d’invenzione dal tardo Cinquecento al Novecento (Acireale-Roma, Bonanno, 2009), which have investigated the plurality of writings born within or around incarceration. The prison thus emerges not only as an institution of segregation, but as a device for literary production: if prison is a space of separation, writing in prison becomes an opportunity for comparison, listening, and dialogue, in absence or in presence, with the external world and with the inner self. In recent years, moreover, reflection on the theme has been enriched thanks to the dialogue between academic research and workshop experiences of reading and writing in penitentiary contexts and – in parallel – a field of inquiry has opened on the literary representation of the school in prison, understood as a symbolic and political space for the re-elaboration of experience and biographical rewriting.

Telling the story of prison means first and foremost confronting a problem of language: describing imprisonment implies the identification of images and expressive tools adequate to render a place that, due to its separate and regulated nature, eludes full understanding by those who do not live it firsthand. This entails the acquisition of a veritable ‘grammar’ of incarceration, made up of specific lexicon, rhetoric, and codes. In this perspective, the prison is not only an object of representation, but a testing ground for literature itself.

In the upcoming volume of «Griseldaonline», therefore, we aim to explore prisons in Italian literature from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age, welcoming contributions that investigate incarceration as a historical experience, symbolic category, and critical device. We are thinking in particular of studies that focus both on writings born in conditions of detention or internment, and on representations of the prison as a space of identity transformation.

Particular attention may be paid to investigating the relationship between the lexicon of incarceration and narrative, lyrical, or dramatic construction; interrogating educational and didactic practices linked to reading and writing in penitentiary contexts; studying the intersections between ‘real’ prison and ‘invented’ prison; examining the intersemiotic translations of the carceral theme across different sign systems: performative, audiovisual, sonic, photographic, visual, comic, digital.

These are the areas of interest in relation to which scholars are invited to submit their proposals:

• Italian literature;
• Literary theory and comparative literature;
• Performing arts and media studies;
• Cinema, photography, and television;
• Latin language and literature;
• Classical philology.

The deadlines for submitting articles are as follows:
> Vol. 26, No. 1, to be published in August 2027 | by 1 April 2027;
> Vol. 26, No. 2, to be published in December 2027 | by 1 September 2027.