About the Journal

Zanzalá – The Brazilian Journal for Genre Studies (ISSN 2236-8191) is the first Brazilian academic journal, peer-reviewed, dedicated to the study and research of genre fiction in multiple formats: literature, film, television, theater, music, games, etc. Zanzalá is affiliated to the research group (CNPq) GENECINE (Studies on Film and Audiovisual Genres), based at the Institute of Arts, University of Campinas. This journal is published once a year by the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), where this whole project had its start. Texts are accepted in 3 categories: Dossier, Guest Authors, Articles, Short Papers, Review, Interview, and Video-Essay, in 5 languages​​: Portuguese, English, Spanish, French and Italian. The title of the journal honors a seminal novel in the history of Brazilian science fiction literature: Zanzalá and the Kingdom of Heaven (1949), by Afonso Schmidt. In Schmidt’s novel, Zanzalá is the name of the utopian city set in a valley at the foot of Serra do Mar – the same location of the city of Cubatão, where the author was born in 1890. Schmidt’s novel was first published in chapters on the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, on February 27, 1928. In 1949, the full-length novel was released in a single volume published by Clube do Livro. Zanzalá also means “flower of God”, the name given to the flower “Hallelujah” that flourishes in the heart of Serra do Mar.