CFP Performing the Fantastic

From the IAFA-L:


Call for Papers


“Performing the Fantastic” — special issue of the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

Jen Gunnels, Drama Critic/ New York Review of Science Fiction <jengunnels@gmail.com>

Isabella van Elferen, Musicologist/ Utrecht University <i.a.m.vanelferen@uu.nl>




The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts (JFA) is inviting contributions for a special issue on “Performing the Fantastic.”  Performance in this context encompasses any of the performing arts, broadly defined, such as theatre, music, dance, magic, and/or ritual.

Articles between 5,000–9,000 words might address, but are by no means limited to, the following:

• Critical analyses of fantastic influenced production designs of traditional forms of performance (theatre, dance, opera)

• Critical analyses of adaptations of fantastic narratives for the stage (from eighteenth-century Gothic melodrama to Wagnerian opera to musical fantasy)

• Performance analyses of staged productions (theatre, music, dance) utilizing fantastic subjects or motifs

• Fantastic use of performative conventions in non-staged (e.g., literary or interactive) narratives

• Utilization of the fantastic in musical subcultures and their aesthetics (including Goth, metal, neofolk)

• Fantastic influences on avant-garde and postmodern performance

• Fantastic performance as social and/or cultural commentary

• Evocations of the fantastic in magic, ritual, and liturgical performance


In accordance with the journal’s policy, all contributions will be peer-reviewed by JFA and subject to their acceptance. JFA uses MLA style as defined in the latest edition of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (New York: The Modern Language Association). For more details, please see the journal’s “Submission Guidelines” section online at http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/iafa/jfa/submission.html, or e-mail jfaeditor@gmail.com to request a copy of JFA’s style sheet.


Please e-mail your contributions and/or any queries to the guest editors Jen Gunnels jengunnels@gmail.com) and Isabella van Elferen (i.a.m.vanelferen@uu.nl) by 1 August 2012.