CFP Autumn 2027: Conflict, Body, Class. Literary Perspectives on Social Transformations between Politics and Ecology.

Guest Editors: 

Dr. Sabrina Huber (sahuber@uni-wuppertal.de)

Dr. Antonia Villinger (antonia.villinger@fau.de)

A look at history reveals that processes of socio-political transformation have often been closely intertwined with ecological questions. One prominent example is the implementation of forestry legislation and the institutionalization of modern forestry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the German speaking area. Closely related were the agrarian reforms of the same period, which brought about the redistribution of land ownership, the emancipation of the peasantry, and the dismantling of feudal structures, while simultaneously giving rise to new forms of land use and cultivation. Likewise, the Industrial Revolution and the accompanying transformation of landscapes through urbanization, environmental pollution, and the exploitation of natural resources demonstrate the close entanglement of political and social restructuring with ecological dimensions. The large-scale energy and infrastructure projects of the post-war era, as well as the environmental movements that emerged in both West and East Germany from the 1970s onward, further illustrate the reciprocal relationship between nature and politics. Today, this interplay reaches a point of culmination in the political and social conflicts surrounding the climate crisis.

Transformations of this kind are not merely political, ecological, or economic processes; they are also profoundly cultural and narrative phenomena. They are imagined, interpreted, stabilized, and at times challenged through storytelling. As a medium of cultural reflection, literature does not simply represent processes of societal transformation—it actively shapes and models them. This is evident, for example, in the genre of the social novel (sozialer Roman) during the Vormärz, which engaged intensively with political developments before and after the Revolution of 1848. More recently, Climate Fiction has repeatedly imagined alternative social models and possible futures. Literature thus participates in processes of transformation by narrating ruptures and continuities, conflicts and reconfigurations, as well as the possibilities of societal change. In doing so, it also exerts an active influence on broader social and democratic processes.

This special section seeks to examine the interrelations between political, social, and ecological dimensions in literature from the revolutionary year of 1848 to the present. Our aim is to explore the extent to which ecological and political dynamics have been—and continue to be—closely interconnected, particularly within democratic processes of negotiation and contestation.

We have chosen 1848 as our point of departure because it marks a decisive political turning point. On the one hand, it was the first moment in which demands for freedom, democracy, and social participation were publicly articulated on a broad scale. On the other hand, this period of political upheaval coincided with profound socio-economic transformations that also affected relationships to land, nature, and natural resources, manifesting themselves above all in class conflicts. By tracing these narratives diachronically, the conference aims to reconstruct the ways in which societal transformations have been narrated in relation to democracy and human–nature relations.

At the center of the special section are three key concepts that we consider to provide a productive point of intersection for these thematic concerns: 

1) Conflict functions as a defining feature of transformation. Literary narratives structure moments of societal rupture through narratives of conflict—for example, debates over political participation, social or ecological justice, or the future of political order. Conflict operates not only on the level of theme but also as a structural principle: it drives narrative dynamics, organizes temporal sequences, and generates tension and movement within literary texts.

2) Body is understood as a material, symbolic, and political point of reference for processes of societal transformation. Literature stages bodies as sites of domination and emancipation, as repositories of social experience, and as arenas of political contestation. The conference is particularly interested in the interconnections between bodies and societal transformation. Building on ecocritical approaches, we seek to move beyond an exclusive focus on human bodies and also consider bodies of nature and landscape, as well as forms of planetary corporeality.

3) Class is approached from a dual perspective. On the one hand, we invite contributions that engage with the traditionally Marxist understanding of social class relations, addressing issues such as property, labor, and exploitation. On the other hand, we are equally interested in emerging conceptualizations of class, including the notion of an "ecological class" proposed by Bruno Latour and Nikolaj Schultz, as well as new cosmologies and alternative forms of collective belonging.

While the special section particularly welcomes contributions informed by the Environmental Humanities, Energy Humanities, Material Studies, Class Studies, Intersectionality Studies, and the Sociology of Literature, submissions are by no means limited to these approaches.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Narrative configurations of societal transformation: Literary conceptions and narrative strategies of political, social, and ecological change, including contract fictions, narratives of revolution, and stories of democratic refoundation.
• Poetics of transition, rupture, and instability: Narrative forms and aesthetic strategies through which literature represents transformation, ranging from fragmentation, montage, and polyphony to reflections on literary genres such as the manifesto, the pamphlet, the political novel, and Climate Fiction.
• Entanglements of body, gender, and society: Representations of materiality and corporeality as sites of conflict and negotiation within processes of societal transformation.
• Class dynamics in periods of societal upheaval: Literary reflections on social, economic, and ecological inequalities, as well as forms of collective mobilization; emerging concepts of class in the context of climate change and the Anthropocene, such as the notion of the ecological class (Schultz/Latour), and conceptions of cosmological collectives.
• Alternative social imaginaries and models of coexistence: Literary visions of new forms of society, ranging from contracts and utopias to narratives of community, cooperation, and more-than-human collectives.
• The temporalities and spatialities of narratives of conflict and transformation: Literary constructions of time and space, including narrative configurations of permanent crisis, tipping points, periods of orientation or blocked futures, figures of acceleration and deceleration, and spaces of departure and new beginnings.
• Materialities and aesthetics of societal transformation: Literary representations of material relations, materialities, and corporealities as dynamic forces in processes of social change and historical transformation.

Contributions may be sent in English or German. Please submit a 300-word abstract proposal by September 15, 2026, to the editors: Sabrina Huber (sahuber@uni-wuppertal.de) and Antonia Villinger (antonia.villinger@fau.de). We will provide feedback on your proposal by October 1.

Final essays for the Special Focus section should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words (including abstract, keywords, and bibliography). Completed manuscripts are due January 15, 2027, via the Ecozon@ website, which also provides a style guide and instructions for submission.