[Commlist] CfP: Special Issue on Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927): History, Intermediality, Legacy

Call for Papers: Ultracorpi

Special Issue: Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927): History, Intermediality, 
Legacy
Guest Editors: Stella Dagna, Massimo Locatelli and Silvia Zoppis

View the full call here>>
https://sites.dcuci.univr.it/ultracorpi/call-for-papers/

Ultracorpi, a six-monthly digital journal with a focus on all the genres 
and fields related to the Fantastic, invites scholars to submit paper 
proposals for a themed issue devoted to Metropolis (1927) by Fritz Lang, 
one of the foundational films of twentieth-century cinematic and 
audiovisual imagination. The film is set in the year 2026: this 
anniversary offers a privileged opportunity to reread the film within 
its historical context, while also reflecting on the pervasiveness and 
persistence of its expressive forms. Over the decades, Metropolis has 
been the object of extensive and stratified critical attention: from 
classical studies on German cinema of the 1920s and 1930s (Kracauer 
1954, Eisner 1952), to historical-industrial and production-oriented 
analyses (Hake 2002, Elsaesser 2012); from ideological and mythopoetic 
readings (Bertetto 1997, Kaes 2009) to philological research on the 
film’s versions and restorations (Patalas 1991 and 2001, Koerber 2012), 
and up to more recent contributions on intermediality, modern visual 
culture, and the persistence of the film as a bricolage masterpiece 
within popular and digital culture (Pitassio 2019).
Metropolis has been described as “the culminating work of Expressionist 
cinema and a kind of recapitulation of the achievements of German cinema 
of the 1920s” (Quaresima 2019). At the same time, thanks to its 
visionary ability to prefigure forms yet to come, the film has, since 
its onward, Lang’s film has served as a point of reference for media 
productions connected to the themes of the fantastic: from Frankenstein 
by James Whale (1931) to Blade Runner by Ridley Scott (1982); from the 
Star Wars saga (1977–present) to Rintarō’s Metropolis (2001), and up to 
Langian references in the series Babylon Berlin (2017–present). Its 
influence has shaped literary, visual, and videogame imaginaries, also 
thanks to the success of the “pop” version re-edited and colorized by 
Giorgio Moroder in 1984 and to the circulation of its images through 
found footage practices. Alongside the flourishing of creative 
reinventions, Metropolis has also represented a paradigmatic case for 
the development of philologically inspired film restoration practices, 
prompting enthusiasts and scholars alike to reflect on issues related to 
the material nature of films and on the importance of studying 
promotional and production materials.
Nearly a century after its creation, Lang’s masterpiece continues to 
raise critical and historical questions—owing to the complexity of its 
production and textual processes, the density of its cultural 
references, and the extraordinary persistence of its intuitions and 
motifs within contemporary visual and audiovisual culture. This issue 
aims to collect original, unpublished essays explicitly focused on the 
film, capable of contributing in a significant way to the scholarly 
debate surrounding this work. Contributions are particularly welcome in 
the following broad thematic areas (by way of example and without 
constituting a limitation):
1. Historical-Philological Studies and Film Analysis
• The genesis and production of Metropolis within the context of the 
Weimar Republic film industry
• The writing of Thea von Harbou and the relationship between film, 
screenplay, and novel
• Gottfried Huppertz’s original score and contemporary musical culture
• The innovative use of special effects: the film as an experimental 
laboratory for the integrated use of miniatures, optical effects, matte 
painting, and the “Schüfftan process”
• Set design, architecture, and the film’s relationship with visual and 
performing arts
• The history of restorations, film versions, and practices of textual 
reconstruction
• Historical critical reception and the film’s interpretive fortune over 
time
2. Intermediality and Cultural Context
• Metropolis’s references to and dialogues with contemporary cultural 
and artistic forms (literature, theatre, architecture, visual arts, 
music, technical and scientific culture)
• The film as a node within an intermedial network reflecting the 
social, political, and technological tensions of the 1920s
• Urban, mechanical, and bodily imaginaries within the context of 
twentieth-century modernity
3. Legacy, Reuse, and Contemporary Culture
• The influence of Metropolis on popular culture in the decades 
following its release (cinema, comics, television, music and music 
videos, fashion, design)
• The persistence and transformation of the film within science-fiction 
and dystopian imaginaries
• Metropolis in digital culture: videogames, interactive media, remix 
practices, transmediality, and new forms of reception
• Re-editions and found footage practices: the film as a source text for 
cultural and visual bricolage
Submitted essays should adopt a rigorous methodological approach and 
articulate a clear critical positioning, engaging with the existing 
international scholarly literature while proposing original interpretive 
perspectives. Contributions may be written in Italian or English.

***

Submission Guidelines
Authors are invited to submit an abstract (approximately 200 words), 
along with a brief bio and bibliography, by March 15, 2026, to 
(metropolis2026.ultracorpi /at/ gmail.com) and (redazione.ultracorpi /at/ gmail.com).
*
Selected abstracts will be invited to develop the full essay according 
to the journal’s editorial guidelines [link: 
https://sites.dcuci.univr.it/ultracorpi/ editorial-guidelines/].
*
Submissions, which should be between 5,000 and 7,000 words in length, 
are due by June 30, 2026.
*
All submissions will be subject to double-blind peer review. Please note 
that acceptance of an abstract does not guarantee publication. No 
payment from the authors will be required.
[http://static.unicatt.it/ext-portale/5xmille_firma_mail_2023.jpg] 
<https://www.unicatt.it/uc/5xmille>

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