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Fictionality in representations of Japan and Europe from a cross-cultural perspectiveMUTUAL IMAGES 4th International WorkshopAarhus University, Denmark, 13-14th May 2016CALL FOR PAPERSFor the fourth Mutual Images workshop, we seek to explore the dynamic relations between Japan and Europe through the notion of fictionality. These past decades, the growth of cultural exchanges has created new opportunities of fictionalization between European and Japanese. Far from being restrained to its definition as a genre, Fictionality has become a key element in our contemporary society. Whether it is in entertainment media (novel, manga, video games, movies and other forms of current entertainment), Art (photography, painting), or even our perception of the other, the self, and reality, fictionality is present in our everyday life. The 20th century challenged our ability to imagine, evoke our/others’ imagination and receive it, and the 21st century is not slowing down this process. Fictionality in the form of the intentional use of invented stories and scenarios is ubiquitous in these cultures. It is employed in politics, business, medicine, sports, and throughout the disciplines of the academy. The power of fictionality, as a communicational strategy, has considerably grown with the postmodern age and globalisation.In the different sessions of this workshop, we will interrogate the different aspects of contemporary fictionality, focusing on the mutual images of and between Europe and Japan. We invite papers on the fictionality in representations of Europe in Japan or by Japanese artists, media, etc., as well as vice versa. We are especially interested in the ways in which invented stories and scenarios shape our beliefs about the actual world to a surprising degree. Fictionality is powerful and contributes to negotiating values, mediating the past and many other things. We particularly invite papers that consider the influence of such processes in our societies and mentalities, within a wide range of cultural, social or economic aspects; e.g. from artistic media, such as literary productions, to mutual images in video games. Even though the focus of this workshop is on contemporary culture, we accept papers with a diachronic perspective and also papers based on one or more theoretical frameworks.We encourage submissions characterized by interdisciplinary approaches, and based on frameworks coming from all disciplines of humanities and social sciences. This workshop is open to PhD students and academics at any stage of their career.&#160;DEADLINE300 word abstracts should be submitted by 20 March, 2016.Acceptance notifications of the abstract proposals will be sent by 31 March, 2016.Presentations will be 20-minute long, followed by 15 minutes of Q&#38;A and discussion.Abstracts are to be submitted to the following address:  mutualimages@gmail.comWRITING RECOMMENDATIONS Abstracts should be in Word format with the following information and in this order:title of abstract, b) body of abstract, c) up to 10 key words, d) author(s), e) affiliation, f) e-mail address.Please use plain text (Calibri 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline).E-mails should be entitled: MUTUAL IMAGES 2016 Abstract Submission.All abstracts will be anonymously reviewed by a jury of specialists.We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal. We suggest, then, to resend it.All papers presented will be subsequently published in the Peer-Reviewed Journal Mutual Images, in Fall 2016 (http://mutualimages-journal.org).&#160;&#160;This edition of the Mutual Images workshop is organized in collaboration with the Center for Fictionality Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark.&#160;&#160;For further details of the workshop, please visit: http://mutualimages.orgFor any further information, you can contact us at: mutualimages@gmail.com--&#160;An International Research Association14 chemin de Montauban69005 Lyon FRANCE&#160;http://mutualimages.org&#160;Twitter: @Mutual-images&#160;Follow us on academia.edu: Mutual Images AssociationImage via http://cadependdesjours.com/2014/03/02/japon-jv-manga/&#160;