Dr Simona Bartolotta

Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow - Project: “Speculative Fiction and Anthropocentrism”

Contact Information Department of English / Institut für Anglistik Otto-Behagel-Straße 10B 35394 Gießen Room: 337 Email: Simona.Bartolotta

Research Interests

• Modern and contemporary literature
• Speculative and science fiction
• Literary aesthetics
• Narratology and narrative theory
• Ecocriticism
• Nonhuman studies
• Literature and Science
• Literature and Philosophy

Education

Fellowships

Publications


Peer-reviewed journal articles

Bartolotta, S. (Forthcoming). “The Aesthetics of Literal-Minded Speculation: Notes on Science Fiction by Way of Modernism.” Style.

Bartolotta, S. (2025). “The Impossible No: Disciplinary Boundaries and the Problem of Science in Literary and Science Fiction Studies.” Neohelicon 52, 739–761. DOI: 10.1007/s11059-025-00816-6.

Bartolotta, S. (2025). “Unsustainable Suspense: Jeff VanderMeer’s Hummingbird Salamander as Eco-Anti-Thriller.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment, isaf059. DOI: 10.1093/isle/isaf059.

Bartolotta, S. (2024). “Thought Experiments, Literary Narrative, and SF: The Example of Isaac Asimov’s Robot Cycle.” Poetics Today 45(4), 529–561. DOI: 10.1215/03335372-11381572.

Bartolotta, S. (2024). “On the Hybridity of the Classic Occult Detective Story.” ELH 91(2), 467-499. DOI: 10.1353/elh.2024.a929156.

Bartolotta, S. (2023). “Apophenic Inventions: Chance and the Dismantling of Anthropocentrism in Stanisław Lem’s Fiction.” Science Fiction Studies 50(3), 368-395. DOI: 10.1353/sfs.2023.a910326.

Bartolotta, S. (2022). “Beyond Suvin: Rethinking Cognitive Estrangement.” Between 12(23), 49-68. DOI: 10.13125/2039-6597/4925.

Book chapters (selection)

Bartolotta, S. (Forthcoming). “Of Ancestors and Descendants: AI as Evolutionary Heir from Robert Moore Williams to Kim Bo-young.” In Beyond the Turing Test: What Science Fiction Can Teach Us about Artificial Intelligence, ed. Ulf Dalvad Berthelsen, Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, and Morten Tannert. Routledge.

Bartolotta, S. (Forthcoming). “The Illogic of Fiction: Speculative Reflections on Abduction, Naturalization, and Signification in Narrative.” In Logic, Modern Literature and Artificial Intelligence, ed. Rachel Falconer and Sangam MacDuff. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Reviews

Bartolotta, S. (Forthcoming). Review of Solidarities with the Non/Human, or, Posthumanism in Literature: Collected Essays on Critical Posthumanism by Stefan Herbrechter. Storyworlds.

Bartolotta, S. (2025). “The Humanities’ Bête Noire Are the Humanities (To Say Nothing of the Enlightenment).” Review of The Cambridge Introduction to Literary Posthumanism by Joseph Tabbi. Science Fiction Studies 52 (3), 603-608. DOI: 10.1525/sfs.2025.52.3.603.

Reference entries (selection)

Bartolotta, S. (academic advisor; Forthcoming). “Stanisław Lem, 1921-2006.” In Contemporary Literary Criticism. Farmington Hills: Gale.

Conferences/Talks

Invited Talks:

April 2026. “Anthropofugal Fictions.” Cultural Narratologies Seminar. Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture, Justus Liebig University of Gießen, Germany.

October 2025. “Regimes of Interpretation: Fictionality in the Art of Fiction.” Seminar on Fictionality of the Method and Matter Research Network. University of Helsinki, Finland.

Conference Papers (selection):

June 2026. “Mathematics and Anthropocentrism in Ted Chiang and Greg Egan.” Conference of the Commission on Science and Literature, Ghent University, Belgium.

June 2026. “Is There an Artwork in This School Physics Lab? Science Fiction, Affordative Estrangement, and Literature.” 41st Annual International Narrative Conference (ISSN), Aarhus University, Denmark.

January 2026. “The Life of the Mind, the Stuff of the World: Greg Egan’s Recalcitrant Novels of Science.” MLA Annual Convention, Toronto, Canada.

July 2025. “‘In Terms of Worldly Things’: The Viewpoint of Science Fiction.” International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA) Congress, Dongguk University, Republic of Korea.

April 2025. “‘Is There a Hummingbird, Is There a You?’: Incompatibility and Contamination in Jeff VanderMeer’s Eco-Anti-Thriller.” 40th Annual International Narrative Conference (ISSN), Florida International University, Miami USA.

November 2024. “Who Fears the Semantic Void? Junji Itō and the Horror of Alienated Human Shapes.” ICLA Research Committee on Comics Studies and Graphic Narrative Conference “Framing the Unreal: Exploring Graphic/Visual Science Fiction and Fantasy,” Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy.

May 2024. “The Heresy of Disenchantment: Disciplinary and Generic Boundaries in Speculative Fiction Studies.” Annual Conference of the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA), University of Tartu, Estonia.

August 2023. “Split Brains and Quantum Measurements: Parables of Disrupted Selves in Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly and Greg Egan’s Quarantine.” Joint Annual Conference of the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) and the German Association for Research in the Fantastic (GfF), TU Dresden, Germany.

March 2023. “Disposable Bodies and Extended Cognition in Synners and Altered Carbon.” NeMLA 54th Annual Convention, Niagara Falls, USA.

October 2022. “Dismantling Anthropocentrism Through Narrative Form: Chance as a Principle of Plot (De)Structuring in Stanisław Lem's Fiction.” Virtual Conference of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA).

Teaching experience (selection)

Affiliations

Awards/Grants (selection)

Professional Memberships

Modern Language Association (MLA)

Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA)

International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA)

Italian Association for the Study of Comparative Theory and History of Literature (Compalit)