Since the 70s, the word postmodernity has articulated a tendency, a state of mind, and a condition that resists conceptualization or complete definition. Although the intellectual community has agreed to situate J. F. Lyotard and his key work, The Postmodern condition (1979), as the origin of the debate on this phenomenon, the truth is that the literary theorist Ihab Hassan had already used the word systematically in 1971. Since that date, the notion has spread across the fields of Literature, Architecture, Visual Arts, and the Social Sciences. These are two of the problems that one faces when approaching the surface of the postmodern phenomenon: its lack of definition and its ambiguous periodization.

Argument

Since the 70s, the word postmodernity has articulated a tendency, a state of mind, and a condition that resists conceptualization or complete definition. Although the intellectual community has agreed to situate J. F. Lyotard and his key work, The Postmodern condition (1979), as the origin of the debate on this phenomenon, the truth is that the literary theorist Ihab Hassan had already used the word systematically in 1971. Since that date, the notion has spread across the fields of Literature, Architecture, Visual Arts, and the Social Sciences. These are two of the problems that one faces when approaching the surface of the postmodern phenomenon: its lack of definition and its ambiguous periodization. Along with these concerns, the thematic and disciplinary diversity of that which has been normalized under the name of postmodernity calls for a reassessment and a reconceptualization capable of assimilating decades of thinking under this subject. In this sense, a monographic issue dedicated to the question “what remains of postmodernity?” – without ignoring the potential controversy implicit therein – proposes the following questions in order to stimulate the debate:

Can we outline a definition of postmodernity or does the word keep fleeing the margins of the concept? It is not strange that in his Postscript to “the Name of the Rose”, U. Eco (1984) pointed out that “postmodern” is a word that is used for anything; and that is –in our opinion- due to the difficulties of thematization with which this phenomenon tends to operate.

What are the signs that allow us to talk about the postmodern in those areas in which it has had an impact, such as Philosophy, Literature, Art or the Social Sciences? Each area claims for itself a specific translation of the Zeitgeist in its particular framework. But, beyond that, what exactly allows us to speak about the Zeitgeist in such areas? What makes them specifically postmodern?

Are we really still within the margins of what is called postmodernity? Moreover: did “postmodernity” ever actually exist? Although the critiques of J. Habermas (1985) respecting the postmodern ethos are well known –in which there is an implicit recognition of its existence- we must also address the thought of those who define our current time as “hypermodernity”, either because they believe that we have never left modernity and rather operate in a certain extreme fold of it (G. Marramao: 1983; 2009); or because we have transcended the sociological signs that allowed us to speak about post-modernity, giving way to a hyper-modern society (G. Lipovetsky: 2004).

Where can we observe the current influence of the postmodern phenomenon? Are not gender studies, postcolonial studies or cultural studies, as well as other new fields of knowledge, among those fields indebted to those factors thematized by postmodernity? In other words: what is the current condition that we can recognize after decades of thinking through the framework of postmodernity?

In order to encourage conversation about a phenomenon that involves us all, and without whose debate we cannot elucidate alternatives to our present, we invite anyone who feels called to this issue to contribute from those different approaches that the subject allows. The authors of possible interest to this study certainly exceed those who have been briefly mentioned here; and the potential questions increase with each intervention in the dialogue. Therefore, this issue is open to all those approaches that allow us to delve into a phenomenon that has left no one indifferent and which demands a retrospective view in accordance with the multiple aspects that this subject has opened for our time.

As specified in the Editorial Policy tab on the web page, all of the submissions undergo a double-blind peer review process by external readers. The articles must be submitted to our email: revista.forma@upf.edu along with a declaration of authorship that can be downloaded from our webpage. The file with the article should not contain the author’s name or affiliation, although this information should be provided in the declaration of authorship. For more information, please read our Author Guidelines.

Submission guidelines

Deadline: April 20th 2018

Authors have to read and accept the declaration of authorship attached here.

The declaration has to be sent to revista.forma@upf.edu together with the article.

Editorial policy

In order to ensure the quality of the publications of "FORMA. REVISTA D'HUMANITATS", the following system of arbitration is stipulated.

The evaluation process of the texts will follow this protocol:

• Call for articles will be open to original and academic texts. This call will be published on the journal website as well as on other international broadcast websites.
• All the articles sent to revista.forma@upf.edu will be evaluated by the Editorial Comittee. Each text will be read and edited for spelling and grammar. The evaluation will be based on qualitative and formal criteria contained in the "Posting Rules".
• Revisions and proof-reading will be available for articles submitted in Spanish, Catalan, Italian, French and English.
• Once the authors have introduced the changes and amendments suggested by the Editorial Committee, the article will be read by the Scientific Committee and occasionally by an expert who doesn't belong permanently to our board. The article will be communicated to the Scientific Comittee in an anonymous fashion in order to ensure the double-blind nature of the system.
• The article will then be sent back to the authors with the suggestions provided by the Scientific Comittee and with a final notification of "acceptance," "provisional acceptance," or "rejection." If corrections are pending, the publication of the article is always subject to a final review.
• The Editorial Committee reserves the right to re-send a once corrected item to the Scientific Committee for final approval or to suggest new corrections. Finally, a written verdict will be sent to the author regarding the final publication of the article.

Coordination and editorial direction

• Yaosca X. Bautista Gomez Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain) Comparative Literature, Gender Studies
• Teresa Gras Guisado Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain) Comparative Literature, Body Culture Studies, Philosphy
• Sergi Sancho Fibla TELEMME (Labexmed) CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université (France) Women History, Mediterranean Medieval Spirituality, Medieval Literature

Scientific committee

• Browne Sartori, Rodrigo F. (Universidad Austral de Chile, Chile) Communication Theory, Media theory, Culture and Communication, Intercultural Communication
• Cussen Abud, Felipe (Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile) Comparative Literature, Experimental Literature, Mysticism
• Fernández de Rota Irimia, Antón (Centro de estudios superiores, Universidade da Coruña, Spain) Political Anthropology, Sexuality, Governmentality
• Łukaszyk, Ewa (University of Warsaw, Poland) Wold Literature, Portuguese and Lusophone Literature, Romance Literature, Comparative Literature, Transcultural Humanities
• Mariscalco, Danilo (Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy) Cultural Studies, Visual Culture, Political Theory
• Mazzone, Massimo (Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Italy) Sculpture, Visual Arts
• Moscoso, Javier (Instituto de Historia, Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain) Cultural History, Philosophy of Experience
• Rosàs i Tosas, Mar (Universitat Ramon Llull, Spain) Jacques Derida, Contemporary Messianism, Political Philosophy, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Theories of Language, Ethics of Hospitality, Applied Ethics, Anthropology of Health
• Salmerón Infante, Miguel (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain) Aesthetics, Aesthetics of Music, Audiovisual and Media Semiotics, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Richard Wagner
• Siva Echeto, Víctor (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain)Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, Vistual Studies
• Wilhite, Valerie M. (University of the Virgin Islands, U.S. of Virgin Islands) Troubadour Studies, Mediterranean Studies, Medieval Romance-language Literature