Call for Papers 1/2026
In the introduction to the second edition of A Theory of Adaptation (2013), Linda Hutcheon recalls how the proliferation of new platforms and technologies has rapidly changed the way stories are adapted, told, and reconfigured: iPads, iPhones, YouTube, new digital media, videogames, AI Chatbots, as well as various social media, have probably irreversibly changed the world of creative communication, and therefore of imagination, giving rise to true interdependent and evolving narrative ecosystems. These ecosystems are reconfiguring, once again, the relationship between "author" and "reader"; these categories are increasingly difficult to frame into rigid roles and taxonomies, especially considering a cultural and consumerist industry conditioned by communities of fans capable of controlling the destiny (duration, success) of "stories," including their genealogy.
This issue of Dive-in magazine aims to explore the forms and modes of transmediality, crossmediality, spin-offs, prequels, and crossovers that enrich the contemporary narrative landscape, integrating established literary forms and theories (rewritings, adaptations) and opening them up to the heuristic potential offered by the combination of multiple forms: ergodic literature and game studies are just some of the new theoretical strands that are stimulating new narrative modes, as well as new theorizations on the ontological status of narrative practices that intersect and dialogue with technological innovation.
Editors invite submissions in the following (though not exclusive) areas of analysis
Classics and Technologies
- Rewritings, adaptations, contaminations
- Tradition, identity, future
- Rethinking the canon in the global/globalized village
Reading Practices
- Participatory experiences in digitext
- New dimensions and new sensorial of the act of reading
- New semantics: what does reading mean in the interconnected world?
Writing Practices
- Authorship, agency, and creativity
- Interactivity and seriality
- From the author/narrator to author communities
- Digital narratives and cultural inclusion
Literary Theories and Complex Environments
- New Narratives in the Age of AI
- Videogame Studies and Narratology: scenarios, characters, settings
- Intertextuality, narrative, and play
- Digital narratives and cultural inclusion
Deadlines and Timeline:
- Deadline for abstract submission (500 words): 23/03/2026
- Please send abstracts to: paola.scrolavezza@unibo.it and elena.lamberti@unibo.it, and clearly indicate: "DIVE-IN Proposal 1/2026" in the e-mail object.
- Notifications of acceptance/not acceptance shall be sent within 30/03/2026
- Deadline for the submission of the entire article is: 31/05/2026
Languages: Italian, English
Further info: rivistadivein[at]unibo.it
