The places of I: geography, history and anthropology of the subject

I doesn’t mean anything, it signals a presence: it is first and foremost to be conceived as a coordinate. The aim of egology is therefore to situate it, that is, to recontextualise its expression in time, space and utterance.

Because it requires recontextualisation, the study of the first person is fundamentally diachronic and historical. We intend to give pride of place to studies that place the I within its ideological and moral value system. Any contextualised study of forms of saying I, as part of this archaeology of the subject, can be included in the field of egological studies.

In the same way, the study of the link between I and the geographical context or the cultural areas is indispensable: the issue, which is not limited to the French areas, invites cross-cultural comparisons mobilising comparative and contrastive studies. Questions of formulation, combination and translation of the I will make it possible to question its apparent neutrality and universality, but may also reveal certain invariants. Egology needs to decentralize the study of western subjectivity and confront it with other cultural and linguistic areas. Decentralize the study also leads us to consider peripheral or marginal subjectivities, particularly through sociolinguistics.

The interactions and mobility of I: identity between the individual and the collective

Ego cannot exist alone. It implies a co-presence that constructs it in interaction: the subject needs to be considered in a networked way, i.e. linked to other subjectivities. I, always liable to become you, is a mobile form that invites us to question its place in the system of grammatical persons. Addresses in verbal interactions and the enallage of person are all opportunities to reconfigure the I in narration, with narratology, as in discourse, we can also identify many complex cases blurring and embedded utterance. The notion of polyphony makes it possible to rethink the links between the subject and others.

To say I is a social fact: the constitution of the discursive ethos is a process based on the relationship between the singular and the collective.

Conceiving I also means observing the construction of identities, which are always in tension between imitation and contestation. Describing the process of identity formation provides an opportunity to distinguish between majority and minority identities.

The uses of I: methods and categories of the subject

The use of the first person also raises methodological and epistemological questions about the place of the subject in scientific or critical discourse. Because objectivity in the social sciences seems a challenge, many postures and devices have sought to construct a transparent utterance.

Objectives of the publication

The aim of egology is to show that the fact of saying I is neither fixed, neutral nor pre-existent to discourse, but rather a cultural construction based on numerous linguistic, aesthetic, conceptual and textual mechanisms. The study of the I requires the contribution and cooperation of different disciplines.

This issue of the journal Itinéraires is open to any study that considers the act of saying I as a construction and that takes its place in one of the four areas of research.

Contributions from a variety of disciplines are expected:

• linguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, stylistics, rhetoric, utterance, pragmatics, syntax, contrastive and comparative linguistics, foreign languages, semiotics;
• French literature, literary history, genetics (from the Middle Ages to the 21st century);
• comparative literature, general literature, foreign literature, neolatin literature, translation (all cultural areas);
• visual arts, film studies, theatre, dance, photography, graphic and plastic arts ;
• philosophy of language, philosophy of the subject, metaphysics;
• human and social sciences, history, geography, sociology.

Submissions

Proposals for contributions, in the form of an abstract (approx. 400 words), accompanied by a bio-bibliographical note (500 characters including spaces, i.e. approx. 100 words), should be sent to the editors of the issue:

Vianney Dubuc (ENS de Lyon), vianney.dubuc@ens-lyon.fr and Nicolas Mazel (Lyon 2), nicolas.mazel@univ-lyon2.fr.

For more information on the selection and publication of texts, see https://journals.openedition.org/itineraires/2252.

For this issue, authors are invited to submit texts of between 25,000 and 40,000 characters (including spaces), in accordance with the journal's guidelines (https://journals.openedition.org/itineraires/2255).

The editorial languages accepted are French, English, Spanish and Italian.

Contributions may be accompanied by royalty-free images (see the “Illustrations” section of the author guidelines on the journal website).

Provisional timetable

• December 2024: launch of the call for contributions.
• February 15, 2025: deadline for receipt of submissions.
• June 15, 2025: deadline for receipt of articles.
• January 15, 2025: date for return of revised articles.
• Scheduled publication: 2026.