Call for papers - Vol. 21, n. 2/2027 - Ritual, Aesthetics, and Language (eds. D'Ammando, Oliva, Velardi)

2026-11-11

Call for papers - Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio www.rifl.unical.it

Vol. 21, N.2/2027: Ritual, Aesthetics, and Language

eds. Andrea D’Ammando, Stefano Oliva, and Andrea Velardi

Submission deadline: 10.05.2027

In recent years, fuelled by the crises that have disrupted — and continue to disrupt — the social, political and cultural order from many quarters, creating a state of 'multiple crises', the recourse to new and old rituals seems to provide means capable of helping to confront uncertainty, reorient individual and collective experience, organise perception and produce meaning. However, they can also act as ambiguous instruments of hegemony and manipulation of beliefs.

Beyond their disciplinary specificities, the three terms — ritual, aesthetics, and language — share an inseparable yet critical relationship that must be specified and examined. Rituals employ material objects, artefacts, gestures, words, symbols and narratives that evoke emotional and cognitive resonances in participants, which are an essential element in the effectiveness of the ritual itself. Conversely, the aesthetic experience, especially in its artistic manifestation, has historically emerged within the cultic sphere and appears poised to inherit a search for meaning that has been disappointed elsewhere. Finally, linguistic expression draws upon the codification of ritualised behaviours and plays a primary role in the repetition of ritual formulas.

This issue of RIFL aims to investigate the connections between ritual, aesthetics and language from various disciplinary perspectives, including philosophy, semiotics, the history of religions, theology, psychoanalysis, ethnography, anthropology, the sociology of religion, and the history and criticism of contemporary arts. We welcome contributions that explore the following themes:

 

  • Ritual and performativity: the performative dimension of ritual practices, with particular attention to the relationship between language, action, and the production of meaning;
  • Ritual in the artistic practice: the appropriation, reworking, and reinvention of ritual forms, structures, and gestures in contemporary arts;
  • Myth, ritual, and language: characteristics of ritual language, functions of narration, and the actualisation of myth through ritual;
  • Ritual, crisis of presence, and apocalyptic imaginaries: cultural and psychopathological apocalypses in relation to the theme of the end of the world;
  • Ritual and psychopathology: relationships between ritual behaviours and psychopathological phenomena (compulsion to repeat, obsessive-compulsive disorder, manic-depressive disorder);
  • Linguistic ritualisation and artistic creation: semiotic processes in different forms of artistic expression.

 

Manuscripts may be submitted in Italian or English. All submissions must include a title, an abstract of no more than 250 words, and five keywords, all in English. Manuscripts must be prepared for blind review: the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and the title of the contribution must be provided in a separate file.

Manuscripts must be sent to segreteria.rifl@gmail.com

 

Guidelines:

Max length:
40000 characters (including spaces) for articles (including the references) and reviews;
20000 characters (including spaces) for interviews;
10000 characters (including spaces) for specific paper review

The manuscript must be prepared using the template at this link: https://www.rifl.unical.it/authortemplate/template_eng.doc.

 

Submission deadline: 10/05/2027
Issue publication: December 2027