Call for Papers

Call for Papers

Call for Papers

Bachelard Studies

Etudes Bachelardiennes

Studi Bachelardiani

01/2026

Gaston Bachelard and Asian Aesthetics

 Directed by

Kuan – Min HUANG (huangkm@sinica.edu.tw) and Makoto SEKIMURA (makotosekimura@gmail.com)

 

The increasingly active comparative research between East and West is contributing to the clarification and sharing of commonalities and correspondences between these two aesthetic experiences of the world. As a matter of fact, the works of Gaston Bachelard, which are widely known in Asia, offer a source of inspiration for the reflections of philosophers and artists. The two sides - epistemological and poetic - of Bachelard's philosophy, however, give rise to a non-symmetrical reception. Although the epistemological figure of Bachelard is known in Asia through the group of French philosophers such as Althusser, Foucault, Serres, and others, his poetics has not been introduced as a part of the French Theory.

Far from being a philosophical and scientific invention at odds with common sense, the material imagination is easily found in every culture and tradition. The poetics of the body, the elements, and the cosmos have notoriously aroused unexpected interest in the Chinese world, an interest that has also been acknowledged by Western interpreters. On the one hand, the four pre-scientific elements (earth, water, fire, and air), part of a model to account for natural phenomena, were inherited from the ancient Greeks and Orientals. The Chinese classified five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth), explaining the origin, and meaning of the world and providing a link between the microcosm and the macrocosm. On the other hand, Bachelard's attention to the moment in the theory of time, as opposed to Bergson's duration, finds echoes in Asian or Buddhist sensibilities focused on precariousness. Such correspondences are naively rooted in the work of poets, artists, and musicians. Despite the differences between civilizations, however, we must admit that the poetic images that drive and modify the human imagination "speak" a similar aesthetic language. The proximity of the Asian tradition to Bachelard's poetics can be seen in various aspects of aesthetic sensibility. It is therefore possible to evoke a specific theme around Bachelard's aesthetics in Asia.

The main interest is to assess the impact of Bachelard's poetics in the process of receiving his works, either through translation or direct reading. Furthermore, it is important to understand how Bachelard is integrated into the transmission of Western philosophy, French literature, and modern aesthetic criticism. In receiving Bachelard's poetics, each language (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, etc.) tries to find its own way of appropriating his linguistic taste. In doing so, it creates a new way of aesthetic and artistic synthesis.

Through reference to Bachelard's thought, it will be possible to explore in greater depth the similarities and correspondences between the West and Asia in regard to the concepts of space and time, bodily sensibility, the elements of nature, the archetypes and myths of nature, imagination and memory, and so on. Bachelard's texts will also be compared to Asian traditions such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Zen.

Contributions may address the following topics:

  • Bachelard's reception and influence in the intellectual circles of Asian poets, artists, architects, musicians, and philosophers.
  • The relevance of Bachelardian poetics to poetic, artistic, and philosophical studies in Asia.
  • The divergence and critique of Bachelardian aesthetics in reception.
  • The explicit or implicit reception of Bachelard by philosophers and artists in relation to the poetics of nature in Asia.
  • Bachelard's relationship to other thinkers of nature and art in every civilization.
  • A comparison of Bachelard's poetics with Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. perspectives.
  • Artists’ interpretations of Bachelard based on art (calligraphy, landscape, poetry) and cultural traditions.

Submission Standards for English-language Texts:

- Texts will be submitted to the following online address:

https://www.mimesisjournals.com/ojs/index.php/bachelardstudies/about/submissions

- Texts received will be submitted for a double-blind peer review.

- The Author may propose an article of a maximum of 7,000 words in English for the sections on The Letter or Spirit, accompanied by an Abstract (150 words) and followed by five keywords in English.

- The Author may also propose a review of a maximum of 1,400 words in French.

- Manuscripts submitted anonymously must be uploaded no later than the 31th of October 2025 in .doc format directly from the site, with a separate document containing the author’s contact details (CV and affiliation).

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission’s compliance with the editorial norms: http://mimesisinternational.com/editorial-norms.pdf

Click here to download the call for papers.