Literary Journal 2022/2. Literature and Science

The cultural turn in literary studies has been going on for decades now in our country as well, so the question may rightfully arise: to what extent has our scientific self-perception changed as a result? What are the differences between literary studies and cultural studies? The chapters in this issue are introduced by interviews that take account of the theoretical and practical challenges of literary and cultural studies, while at the same time identifying the main lines of discussion.

The first part reviews the role of biography in literary studies, the history and theoretical issues of literary historiography, while the second deals with theoretical and methodological issues of the interaction between literary and cultural studies, the evolution of the definition of the subject of literary studies, and the impact of the turn in cultural studies on literary theory and philology.

The third thematic unit examines the psychoanalytical and philosophical aspects of literary and cultural studies, their impact on each other, and the phenomenological determination of the act of reading. The fourth unit looks at the possibility of narrative theory's scientific autonomy, the challenges of philology in the 21st century, the impact of the digital turn, recent literary phenomena in mass culture, and the possibilities of scientific dissemination.

In addition to archival photographs, the visual material of the issue consists of self-referential artworks that harmonise with the nature of the theme, artist books that explore writing as image, book sculptures, graphics and abstract paintings.