Call for Papers

Routledge Volume: Chinese Literature and the Broader Sinophone World in Italy: Translation and Reception

Editors:

  • Prof. Dr. Riccardo Moratto (Tongji University, Shanghai, China)
  • Prof. Dr. Silvia Pozzi (University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy)

Overview

This edited volume, Chinese, Sinophone, and China-Imagined Literature in Italy: History, Translation, and Reception, seeks to provide a comprehensive exploration of the journey of Chinese literature into the Italian cultural and linguistic landscape. While acknowledging the historical roots of Italian Sinology and early transmissions from Jesuit missionaries and travel writing, this volume focuses primarily on the modern and contemporary periods. It aims to map how Chinese literature has been translated, mediated, and received in Italy, examining how translators, publishers, digital platforms, and readers have contributed to shaping Italian perceptions of Chinese literature and of works written in Chinese in the Sinosphere, or otherwise directly or indirectly connected to Chinese culture. The volume brings together perspectives from translation studies, sinology, comparative literature, reception studies, publishing studies, and digital humanities.

The volume is organized around three major thematic axes:

  1. Historical and translational foundations of Chinese literature in Italy, with particular attention to the modern and contemporary periods;
  2. Dissemination, reception, and circulation, including genre fiction (e.g. fantasy, science fiction), online platforms, social media, reviews, readership communities, and modern and contemporary poetry; importance of translation;
  3. Case studies of authors, translators, approaches (theoretical frameworks) and practices, publishers, genres, and institutions that have shaped the Italian reception of Chinese literature.

The volume seeks to map how Chinese literature has been constructed, selected, translated, marketed, interpreted, and recontextualized within the Italian literary and cultural system, and how these processes reflect broader dynamics of world literature, cultural mediation, and asymmetrical literary exchange.

Scope and Themes

We invite original chapter proposals addressing (but not limited to) the following areas:

  • The early dissemination of Chinese literature in Italy;
  • Key historical figures;
  • The development of modern Italian approaches to Chinese literary translation;
  • The role of institutions, academic networks, and cultural diplomacy in shaping access to Chinese literature;
  • Translation strategies, approaches (theoretical frameworks) and practices, and paratexts in Chinese–Italian literary translation;
  • Domestication, foreignization, and the construction of “Chineseness” in Italian translations;
  • Indirect (relay) translation from English, French, or other intermediary languages;
  • Translation of modern and contemporary Chinese poetry: form, voice, and aesthetic transfer;
  • The impact of AI, machine translation, and digital tools on literary translation practices;
  • The reception of major modern and contemporary Chinese authors in Italy;
  • Contemporary Chinese fiction in the Italian market;
  • Women writers and gendered patterns of translation and reception;
  • LGBTQIA+ and queer writing in Chinese literature and its Italian circulation;
  • Genre fiction (e.g. science fiction, fantasy, wuxia, xianxia, romance, crime fiction, etc.) and its online and offline reception;
  • Comparative case studies of specific works, authors, translators, or translation series;
  • Italian publishers, series editors, and literary agents as gatekeepers;
  • Rights acquisition, marketing strategies, and editorial mediation;
  • Literary festivals, book fairs, cultural institutes, and institutional promotion of Chinese literature;
  • Italian readers, critics, and academic reception of Chinese literature;
  • Reviews, online platforms, social media, and reader communities;
  • Digital platforms, audiobooks, online fiction, and new modes of circulation;
  • The future of Chinese literature in Italy in the context of digitalization and global literary markets.

Submission Guidelines and Deadlines

  • Abstract Submission (300–500 words): May 1, 2026
    Notification of Acceptance: August 1, 2026
  • Full Chapter Submission (5,000–6,000 words): March 1, 2027 (Chicago author-date citation style)

How to Submit

Please send your abstract and a short academic bio to both editors at:

  • Prof. Dr. Riccardo Moratto: moratto@tongji.edu.cn
  • Prof. Dr. Silvia Pozzi: silvia.pozzi@unimib.it

In your email subject line, please write:
CFP – Chinese Literature in Italy – [Your Name]

All the information and the full text of the call for papers here.