Ex-position Feature Topic Call for Papers
The Sea and the World
Guest Editor: Claudio Sansone (National Central University)
Publication Date: December 2027 (Issue No. 58)
Submission Deadline: March 1, 2027
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For centuries, the symbiosis between the sea and land has been a central theme in Western cultures and thoughts: while land provides resources, manpower, and technology to the sea, the sea opens channels for trade and communication. As civilizations grew, the conceptual boundary between sea and land was consistently redefined and reimagined. Maritime trading routes centered around the Mediterranean began to flourish from the 5th century onward, fostering economic, cultural, and religious exchanges and cosmopolitan unities across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. In the 13th century, when the Venetian merchant Marco Polo ventured East, he not only revealed broader markets in Asia (for silk, spices, porcelain, etc.), but also prompted a surge of cultural interests in the East, real or imagined. At the same time, the Hanseatic League emerged along the Baltic shores starting in the late 12th century, linking coastal ports and cities in the name of commerce. Not only did the organization contribute to the success of commercial exchanges across Europe (such as raw materials, necessities, and luxury goods), but it also brought political stability.
Beyond the realm of commerce, the relationship between sea and land has been thematized in diverse literary works. In the Aeneid, for instance, Roman poet Virgil describes Aeneas’ westward travels to Italy after the fall of Troy, tracing the transition between old and new empires (translatio imperii). Even some of the oldest works of English literature, including The Seafarer, projected theological questions onto uncertain seascapes, conceptual no-man’s lands where thinkers and artists could explore questions of religion and poetics side by side. In the 15th century, English mystic writer Margery Kempe faced perilous seas while accompanying her daughter-in-law back to Danzig (now Gdańsk). While Kempe described the experience as soul crushing, she managed to retrieve inner strength and faith in the midst of it. Shakespeare himself, building on a by then established tradition, frequently used the motifs of shipwreck and piracy to explore the porosity between comedy and tragedy, as seen in The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, and even Hamlet.
This special issue builds on the Nineteenth International Conference of the Taiwan Association of Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies, which will be held at National Central University on November 6-7, 2026, yet our call for contributions is not limited to conference participants. We welcome submissions from scholars working in classical, medieval, and renaissance studies under the topic of The Sea and the World. Suggested subtopics include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Maritime histories, literatures, and cultures
- Trading routes and the archeology of trade
- mappa mundi and cartography
- Piracy and shipwrecks
- Human geography and islands studies
- Ecocriticism
- Emotion studies
- Empire and colonialism
- Subjectivity and alterity
- State borders and boundaries
- Sea voyage and immigration
- The hero’s journey and its adaptations
- Island studies
