Transmodern War Contexts in English Literature

In many contemporary literary texts in English, there is sufficient evidence of a paradigm shift taking place since the 1980s that involves the assimilation and transcendence of Modernity and Postmodernity into what philosopher Rodriguez Magda and other authors—such as Enrique Dussel, Marc Luyckx Ghisi, Etienne Le Roy, Nicanor Perlas, and Ziauddin Sardar, among others—have called “Transmodernity.” Transmodernity would be characterized by a critique of the two earlier periods from the material, social, and cultural viewpoint. According to Rodriguez Magda, Transmodernity would constitute “in the first place, the description of a globalised, rhizomatic, technological society, developed from the first world, confronted with its others, while at the same time it penetrates and assumes them; and secondly, it constitutes the effort to transcend this hyperreal, relativistic enclosure” [1]. It would not be far-fetched to state that this changing and evolving social and cultural reality inevitably leads to a change in human perception. Some authors have noted that there are evident signs of the fact that human consciousness is currently evolving toward a new state, toward a “global relational consciousness [that] goes beyond the Western ideology and tries to connect the human race to a new shared story” [2].

In this line, it is the aim of this special issue of Societies, “Representations of Transmodern War Contexts in English Literature,” to analyze the concept of the transmodern within contemporary war and postwar literature, that is, in English literary texts that represent contemporary contexts or warlike and postwar scenarios, or that use them as discursive rhetorical frames.

At a time when geopolitical events and decisions have local, but also global, consequences, it seems especially relevant to focus on the bigger picture, taking into account the deep interconnectedness of the many elements in question: economic, political, social, and cultural aspects. In Rodriguez Magda’s view, Transmodernity “gives us a more insecure and precarious panorama; and instability must be managed strategically. Scientific innovation no longer guarantees the safety of its sustainability, and transmodern contemporaneity is a ‘risk society,’ from the difficult geopolitics between the East and the West regarding the threat of climate change” [1]. Irena Ateljevic further argues that there is in it “a call to move from the current geopolitics—and its assumption that the environment is a giant battleground where we all fight for our survival” [2].

For all this, it is especially interesting to analyze how contemporary literary texts represent and/or question different transmodern multinational conflicts and their global effects: from the conflict between the western world and Islam, the war with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (aka Daesh), and the rise of international terrorism, to international migration caused by present-day armed conflicts, the reconfigurations of identity related to reterritorialization, and the special vulnerability of certain groups of the population to international conflict, such as women, children, and other disadvantaged people.

Also, this special issue leaves space for imagining the possible prospect of human development, of probable coming warfare and the use of artificial intelligence, of potential or upcoming struggles, or even of the future peaceful resolution of armed conflicts, as much science fiction and speculative fiction has envisioned.

Hopefully, the articles included in this special issue will contribute to a rethinking of the concept of the transmodern, showing its many nuances, and will also illustrate the immense variety of approaches and representations of contemporary war and postwar literature.