The Political Novel in Historiographical and Sociological Perspective: Structures and Analogies

The project “The Cartography of the Political Novel in Europe” examines how literature, and the novel in particular, addresses political issues in different national and cultural contexts and thus contributes to shaping European societies and politics in the 21st century. What we call and defend as the political novel is currently gaining importance not only in strictly defined literary circles, but also in European societies as a whole. 

This Collection brings together selected contributions to the CAPONEU research workshop "Political Novel in Historiographical and Sociological Perspective: Structures and Analogies“, which took place in Zagreb from 15 to 16 March 2024. The participants addressed problematic relations between political novel and its critical, historiographical and sociological counterparts, as sets of complex signifying practices simultaneously forming particular configurations and exhibiting recurring patterns. In a series of mutually dependent theoretical discussions and case studies, they analysed in depth discourses, narrative handlings of what is presumed to constitute material, types of representation (reality effect) and modes of veridiction (historical, novelistic, sociological) in order to map the competitive field where they contrast, intertwine, overlap, complement and legitimize each other. 

This Collection is part of a series of CAPONEU Collections - the sister Collections can be found below:

• What is the Political Novel? Defining the Genre
• The Political Novel Through the Lens of Gender

Collection Advisor: Zvonimir Glavaš (University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Croatian Studies, Croatia)