call for nr. 55 - Traveling to the future: prophecies and projections

Traveling to the future: prophecies and projections
Guest editors: Paulo Braz (UFRJ) and Rodrigo Denubila (UFU)

Submission deadline: until June 30th, 2025
Issue scheduled for January 2026

Ruy Belo once wrote: “O Portugal futuro é um país/ aonde o puro pássaro é possível” (BELO, 2009, p. 266). The author of Toda a Terra was an artist beyond his time, and his words not only projected a non-existent Portugal, they made it emerge, by the lyrical act, a land to come.

Thinking, dreaming, writing, imagining, predicting the future is a task to which literature has always been dedicated. Be it by prophetics books, utopics speeches, fantastic imagination or by science ficction, the time to come is continually a matter of strong interest. In Portuguese Literature, there are many examples of works that look to the future, finding in it a way of producing meanings to think about History. We can notice such a thing in the memorable História do futuro, by Father António Vieira, in the reinterpretations of the prophetic sebastianist myth by Fernando Pessoa, in the Lusiads World Machine overview, and in projections of possible worlds through contemporary literary expressions, like A nossa alegria chegou, by Alexandra Lucas Coelho, and Hífen, by Patrícia Portela.

This volume of Convergência Lusíada will accept articles that deal with projections of the future in Portuguese Literature, as well as possible comparative dialogues. We will receive articles that cover everything from prophecies and teleologies to modern visionary poetics; from futuristic aesthetics to Western dystopian narratives; from time travel in science fiction to all sorts of texts that reflect on the destiny of individuals, societies and humanity. This dossier will problematize the role of the future in Portuguese Literature as well as the connection between prophetic visions and human projections of the future, so we can think about today connecting it to yesterday and tomorrow.