We are pleased to invite you to submit your original research articles and review papers in the forthcoming special issue of Anglica Wratislaviensia devoted to the concept of companionship in its various social, technological, historical manifestations.

The April 2018 edition of TIME magazine published an article about the epidemic of loneliness in Britain. Loneliness, defined as “the feeling of lacking or losing companionship”, is presented as a legitimate health concern, requiring a concerted reaction on the part of the government, which is why a decision was made to appoint a Minister of Loneliness to deal with the issue. Companionship, however, remains a broad category, often overlapping with friendship, fellowship, partnership, comradeship, though differing from them in terms of emotional investment and social responsibilities while also extending well beyond the confines of human relationships.

As part of Rousseau’s social contract, companionship is integral to the functioning of society. The natural human tendency to form social bonds and companionship is the foundation of political societies, social contracts, and the collective good. The question arises, to what extent companionship is an externally regulated social bond or an innate category of being human. Jean-Paul Sartre stresses the importance of companionship in the formation of self-identity, referring in Being and Nothingness to the “Look” of the Other, which allows us to see ourselves as we are judged by others. By that token, affirming our sense of self requires companionship.

Literature and films are replete with ambiguous forms of companionship whether it be Stevens and Miss Kenton in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, Tyler Durden in Chuck Palachniuk’s Fight Club, or HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. A companion does not have to be human (Jack London’s Call of the Wild) nor does it even have to be animate (Wilson in Cast Away or England in Patrick Keiller’s Robinson in Space). What seems to be essential in such companionship is the recognition of an Other or, in Levinasian terms, an ethical responsibility to the Other.

The theme of this special issue is “Companionship in Literature and Cultural Studies”. We are particularly interested in articles focusing on the following areas:

• Companionship and gender
• Companionship and travel (places as companions)
• Companionship and disability (caregiving relationships)
• Companionship and comradeship (WWI poetry)
• Companionship in utopias and dystopias
• Companionship and addictions
• Companionship and the media (social media, virtual companionship)
• Companionship and posthumanism (nonhuman companions, AI)

Submission Guidelines:

1. Manuscripts should be around 6,000 words, including references, tables, and figures.
2. All submissions must comply with the Anglica Wratislaviensia Author Guidelines, available on our website https://wuwr.pl/awr/about/submissions
3. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 15, 2025
4. To submit a manuscript authors need to create an account on the journal website (wuwr.pl/awr), where they can submit the manuscript in electronic format using Open Journal Systems.
5. All submissions will undergo a double-blind peer review process.

Important dates:

• Submission deadline: Feb. 15, 2025
• Notification of acceptance/rejection: Late April
• Publication of the special issue: Autumn 2025

Should you have any questions or require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact the special issue editors at: Ewa Kębłowska-Ławniczak ewa.keblowska-lawniczak@uwr.edu.pl or Marcin Tereszewski marcin.tereszewski@uwr.edu.pl

We look forward to receiving your contributions to this special issue.