3rd T-LitCon: Discursive Terminals: Representations of the Apocalypse in Literature

Conference Details:

3rd T-LitCon: Discursive Terminals: Representations of the Apocalypse in Literature

Conference Description:

Conference Language: English
Conference Date: December 20–21, 2025 (Sat & Sun)
Venue: Online
Fees: None (free of charge)
Submission Link: https://forms.gle/59RbLQri6yxKeK7G9
Submission Deadline: December 1, 2025
Organizer: Department of English Language and Literature at ?stanbul Topkap? University – Türkiye

?stanbul Topkap? University, department of English Language and Literature invites researchers to submit abstract proposals for the upcoming online conference 3rd T-LitCon: Discursive Terminals: Representations of the Apocalypse in Literature. This conference aims to explore the expansive terrain of apocalyptic and postapocalyptic literature from its early mythological roots to its contemporary manifestations in global and regional contexts. We are particularly interested in papers that engage critically with the genre’s thematic diversity, cultural resonance, and socio-political potential.

Apocalyptic and postapocalyptic literature has long captured the human imagination, presenting scenarios where the world as we know it ends—or has already ended. From ancient Near-Eastern myths and epics (ca. 3000 BCE) to Mary Shelley’s The Last Man (1826) and John Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up (1972), this genre addresses existential concerns through the lens of catastrophe, collapse, and survival. Apocalyptic narratives focus on the unfolding of catastrophic events, often imbued with a keen sense of urgency and contrarian overtones, and offer direct phenologies of their cataclysms. Postapocalyptic works, by contrast, opt to dwell in the aftermath, exploring the human condition in a world transformed for the worse or the better. These works frequently pose profound questions about identity, community, ethics, and what it means to be human when the familiar structures of civilization have been erased and replaced.

In the 21st century, apocalyptic and postapocalyptic literature has taken on renewed urgency. In an age marked by climate change, global pandemics, political instability, technological upheaval, economic precarity, and new genocides in the making the genre functions not only as a mirror to anxieties resulting from contextual problems of our times but also as a site of possibilities for critical reimagination. These narratives challenge and revise dominant ideologies, critique human hubris, and interrogate the ethics of survival and resilience.

The genre transcends national boundaries and disciplinary limits, inviting dialogue between literature, philosophy, sociology, cultural studies, media studies, political science, and medical and environmental humanities. It is also a space for marginalized voices to highlight their plights and envision alternative futures and in so doing to reclaim agency in the face of unjust and imbalanced systems of exploitation and oppression. Whether cautionary or hopeful, apocalyptic and postapocalyptic stories compel us to reconsider our relationship to the planet, to one another, and to the future of our species.

We welcome all literary apocalyptic research that may include but is not limited to the following:
•Historical genealogies of the genre
•Comparative literary analyses across cultures
•Climate change, ecocriticism, and the Anthropocene
•Race, gender, and sexuality
•World-ending and world-renewing narratology
•Transhumanist implications of AI and technology
•Critical posthumanist analyses
•Systemic degeneration and regeneration
•Postcolonial and decolonial readings
•Disease/pandemic narratives and bio-politics
•The aesthetics of ruin, decay, and transformation
•Adaptations from or to literature

We look forward to gathering a vibrant and diverse community of researchers to discuss the profound implications of apocalyptic and postapocalyptic literature in a time when imagining the end and the next beginning has never felt more urgent—or more necessary.

Submission
We invite abstracts of 300-400 words for 20-minute online presentations. Please submit your abstracts using the link below by December 1, 2025:
Submission link: https://forms.gle/59RbLQri6yxKeK7G9

All submissions will be subject to double-blind peer review. Status notifications will be sent via email by December 8, 2025.
Certificates of Presentation along with the Conference Book of Abstracts will be sent via email (only to those who have presented) by January 4, 2026.

For any inquiries, please contact the conference director at [email protected]

Important Dates:

• Conference start date: December 20, 2025
• Conference end date: December 21, 2025
• Deadline for abstracts: December 01, 2025

Conference Information:

• Category: Social Sciences and Humanities
• Location: Turkey
• Website: https://forms.gle/59RbLQri6yxKeK7G9

Contact Information:

• Address: Online, Online, Turkey