Frontera

Books Published in This Series

The Frontera series is intended to promote the publication of books in the fields of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature. Co-published by the publishing services of the University of León and the University of Valladolid, the series aims to reach a level of quality worthy of the CEA-APQ Quality Seal for university book series.

As Foucault demonstrated in various works (Les mots et les choses, La pensée du dehors, L’ordre du discours), a frontier marks the point where the inside and the outside meet — a space that, due to its dynamism and instability, is difficult to pinpoint. Likewise, Derrida (L’écriture et la différence, La dissémination, L’Université sans condition) spoke of the permeability and porosity of any boundary. A frontier is therefore not so much a point of closure as the indication of a terra incognita still to be explored — a place where a void is created, the image of an untraveled extremity, a theoretical emptiness where life, struck by uncertainty, is held in suspension: in other words, potentially open to being imagined in full. These ideas help explain the difficulty of mapping any border territory, either physically or conceptually.

Movement and transformation versus paralysis and stasis: a frontier is an opportunity for contact and for the exploration of new areas — the spatial image of a chronotope that has made movement and hesitation some of its defining traits. In this context, a certain kind of thinking — informed by a radically critical attitude that views its work not as a placebo or a celebration but as a confrontation of diverse perspectives — finds its roots in a transboundary space in constant construction, a crossroads where paths from many origins meet and from which others depart toward unknown destinations.

The concept should not arrest the movement of the metaphor. Let us imagine the frontier not as a sign of exhaustion or depletion but as an indication that a new territory begins there. To pass, to transcend: this is the impulse behind the books in this series.

EDITORS OF THE SERIES

Alfredo Saldaña Sagredo (asaldana@unizar.es) and Javier García Rodríguez (garciarjavier@uniovi.es)

Alfredo Saldaña Sagredo is Full Professor of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature (University of Zaragoza), member of the Academic Board of the Master’s in Hispanic Letters at the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Argentina), visiting professor at various universities in Europe, the Americas, and North Africa, and co-director of Tropelías. Revista de teoría de la literatura y literatura comparada. He is the author, among others, of the following essays: Modernidad y posmodernidad: filosofía de la cultura y teoría estética (1997), El texto del mundo. Crítica de la imaginación literaria (2003), Un lugar en construcción. Crítica y cultura en la posmodernidad (2008), No todo es superficie. Poesía española y posmodernidad (2009), La huella en el margen. Literatura y pensamiento crítico (2013), and La práctica de la teoría. Elementos para una crítica de la cultura contemporánea (2018). He has also published several edited texts, numerous book chapters, and articles in academic journals. His most recent poetry collections are Humus (2008) and Malpaís (2015).

Javier García Rodríguez was formerly a professor at the University of Valladolid and is currently a university professor in Oviedo, a writer, literary critic, and cultural manager. He is the author of the poetry collections Los mapas falsos, Estaciones, and Qué ves en la noche, as well as the short story collections Barra americana and La mano izquierda es la que mata. A selection of his journalistic pieces was published in 2009 as Líneas de alta tensión: literatura crónica que viene a cuento. In children’s and young adult literature, he has published the illustrated album La tienda loca, the novel Un pingüino en Gulpiyuri, and Mi vida es un poema. His recent work in literary theory and criticism is reflected in Literatura con paradiña: hacia una crítica de la razón crítica and En realidad, ficciones. Textos e imágenes en la ficción contemporánea: narrar y cómo. He founded and directed the VERSÁTIL.ES Poetry Festival throughout its history and also directed the Poetry Forum at the University of Oviedo for several years. He is a member of the editorial board of the cultural magazine El Cuaderno. From 2014 to 2016 he served as Director of the Leonard Cohen Chair. He currently coordinates the Palabra series at the Centro Internacional Niemeyer in Avilés.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Alfredo Saldaña Sagredo (University of Zaragoza, Spain)

Javier García Rodríguez (University of Oviedo, Spain)

Tomás Albaladejo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain)

M.ª Ángeles Hermosilla (University of Córdoba, Spain)

Germán Labrador (Princeton University, USA)

Alfonso Martín Jiménez (University of Valladolid, Spain)

Annalisa Mirizio (University of Barcelona, Spain)

Sara Molpeceres Arnáiz (University of Valladolid, Spain)

Antonio Pérez Lasheras (University of Zaragoza, Spain)

José David Pujante Sánchez (University of Valladolid, Spain)

Meri Torras (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain)

José Manuel Trabado Cabado (University of León, Spain)

Katarzyna Gutkowska (Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach, Poland)

GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS

Authors should submit their manuscripts to the Publications Department of the University of León (Edificio de Servicios, Campus de Vegazana s/n, E24071 León, Spain; publicaciones@unileon.es). Manuscripts will be evaluated anonymously by reviewers external to the Universities of León and Valladolid, following a double-blind peer-review process.

PUBLISHED VOLUMES

  1. Nacho Escuín, Aquellos maravillosos años. La huella de los 90 en la cooltura contemporánea (2021)
  2. Daniel Arana, Es necesario hablar. Cinco tratados literarios filosóficos (2022)
  3. Sergio Navarro, Comunidad inasible, la. La poesía española de la transición en la crisis del humanismo (2023)
  4. Antonio Sánchez Domínguez and Ángel Moreno Fernando, Todo es real. Modernidad y postmodernidad en la narrativa demiúrgica (2023)
  5. Héctor Caño Díaz, Black Power: respeto y derechos civiles en Estados Unidos (2024)
  6. Sara Méndez Lozano, Una encrucijada posthumana: Orientaciones desde una teoría crítica ecofeminista (2025)