09/07/2026
📚☀️ Summer School in Critical Theory and Praxis 2026 – Days 2 & 3 Recap ☀️📚
The second and third days of the CAPONEU Summer School in Critical Theory and Praxis brought together scholars and participants for a series of engaging discussions on the political novel, exploring questions of gender, memory, identity, power, and social transformation.
On Day 2, Mark Devenney and Joanna Kellond (University of Brighton) examined the relationship between gender, family, and the contemporary novel, considering how fiction can challenge dominant understandings of kinship, social reproduction, and collective life. Tara Talwar Windsor (University of Leeds) and Miriam Schwarz (University of Cambridge) then explored alternative epistemologies and the politics of memory in the works of Sharon Dodua Otoo and Kamila Shamsie, highlighting how literature can resist dominant narratives of colonialism, war, and the Holocaust by foregrounding marginalized experiences and forms of knowledge.
The day concluded with a thought-provoking plenary lecture by Juan E. De Castro (The New School, New York), who compared the political and aesthetic trajectories of Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa, reflecting on the enduring impact of magical realism and realism on contemporary political fiction.
On Day 3, Błażej Warkocki (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań) introduced participants to the political and cultural history of q***r literature in interwar Poland, exploring the emergence of local discourses of q***rness in relation to broader European developments. Rossita Terzieva-Artemis (University of Nicosia) then examined how Laurent Binet and Antonio Scurati use metafiction, documentary material, and narrative experimentation to rethink truth, history, and political power within the contemporary European political novel.
The evening plenary session, “From Practice to Policy: The Political Novel in Action,” featured Karin Doolan (Institute for Social Research in Zagreb) and Liam Mullally (Autonomy Institute), who presented findings from CAPONEU research on school reading lists and qualitative interviews with teachers. Their analysis formed the basis for policy recommendations on the role of literature in fostering democratic engagement, critical thinking, and social inclusion.
The programme concluded with a presentation by Marko Vuković from Slobodna domena, who introduced the CAPONEU digital platform and opened a stimulating discussion on the opportunities and challenges of creating a cartography of the political novel through digital humanities approaches.
A huge thank you to all speakers and participants for two days filled with insightful discussions, critical reflection, and inspiring intellectual exchange.
