Call for papers

in the monograph:

Slavonic Killing

The Institute of Slavonic Studies AMU in Poznań invites you to publish your texts in
the next monograph from the series “Spaces of Culture”. The monograph will be dedicated to
the problem of killing in literature, language, folklore and culture of the Slavs.
Being an act which causes the greatest harm to a victim – taking his/her life, killing is
deemed morally reprehensible in the vast majority of cases. Jeff McMahan1, who perceived a
murder as the most heinous crime, emphasized situations in which it was acceptable and
rationally justified. He pointed out cases that are qualified differently, in which moral
boundaries that prohibited someone from causing harm could be changed, e.g. when the status
of physical integrity was breached or someone’s death was a consequence of the acts
performed – murder in self-defence, during a war or treated as a kind of punishment;
situations in which death brought a benefit (for some individuals), not harm – suicide; cases in
which the metaphysical or moral status of those killed was uncertain, e.g. infanticide, taking
the life of ill or retarded persons; finally, the most controversial among all cases of killing –
murder as an act which led to the greater good.
Images of killing, which are also vividly presented in Slavonic cultural texts, acts such
as qualified homicide, judicial homicide or voluntary manslaughter, suicide, infanticide,
murder of an enemy (during wartime and outside it), execution and torture, show the
evolution of the process of killing and attitude towards both this act and the perpetrator of
murder/suicide throughout history. This is an apparent expression of legal-cultural
transformations which have been taken place among Slavs, also reflecting the revision of the
sense of justice, morality, and of “us – them” or “insider – outsider” relations.
Is it possible to define a cultural-linguistic or cultural-literary paradigm of Slavonic
killing (common or different for the East, West and South Slavs)? Is it characterized with
fineness or maybe strong brutality? To what extent did intercultural relations, created in
circumstances of war and peace, influence the forms of killing and attitudes towards it
(presented in cultural texts and language).

1
J. McMahan, Etyka zabijania. Problemy na obrzeżach życia [The Ethics of Killing. Problems at the Margins of
Life], trans. J. Bednarek, K. Kuś, Warszawa 2012, p. 9-10.
 Proposed research areas:

- symbolism of killing
- images of homicide and suicide in literature, cinema and folklore
- attitudes towards murder and suicide in cultural texts
- the linguistic experience of killing
- killing as a literary motif
- killing in ethical dimension
- killing in religious dimension
- killing in legislative dimension
- murders in national mythologies
- the perception of killing from the historical perspective

Please send subjects of your papers until the end of February 2023 to the following e-mail
address: przestrzenie.kultury3@gmail.com

We wait for your articles (in all Slavonic languages or in English) until the end of April
2023

The suggested length of papers of up to 30000 characters including spaces.

Please prepare an abstract (about 5 sentences), the translated title of your article and 5
keywords in English.

All authors are requested to follow the style guide and pay attention to the editorial
requirements, especially those which refer to footnotes, citation style and bibliography.
Articles should be edited according to the instructions on the website:
http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/pss/about/submissions#authorGuidelines