CFP American Telefantasy Journal Issue

CALL FOR PAPERS: AMERICAN TELEFANTASY
Call for Papers Date: 2012-04-06
Date Submitted: 2012-03-01
Announcement ID: 192793


NETWORKING KNOWLEDGE CALL FOR PAPERS: AMERICAN TELEFANTASY 

Television schedules are currently rife with Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror programmes. Whereas the re-launched Doctor Who continues to lead the charge of contemporary British telefantasy (Merlin, Being Human, Misfits et al), US shows attract large audiences, extensive media coverage and - since Peter Dinklage’s Emmy win for Game of Thrones - mainstream awards.

Established programmes such as True Blood, Fringe and Sanctuary offer a continued presence on primetime schedules; while cable shows such as The Walking Dead and Falling Skies have had demonstrable ratings success. However, is the demise of previously dominant franchises such as Star Trek, Stargate and Battlestar Galactica representative of an uncertain future? Or will the genre continue to thrive thanks to high-profile newcomers with celebrity showrunners like JJ Abrams’ Alcatraz, Steven Spielberg’s Terra Nova and Kevin Williamson’s The Secret Circle?

The prevalence of contemporary anxieties centred upon (and within) television Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror appear to indicate an opportune time to consider how US telefantasy might be understood, examined and contextualised.
Papers of between 6,000 and 8,000 words are invited from postgraduate students and early career researchers across the humanities and social sciences for this special edition of Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA-PGN. Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:

Historical case studies
Franchises and/or Authorship
The role of technology in science fiction television
Representing (in)human subjectivities and/or identities
The aesthetics of Fantasy television
Constructions of utopia/dystopia
Genre and/or narrative theory
Marketing television Horror
Performance and/or Stardom
Issues of reception
Telefantasy and realism

Proposals of approx. 250 words should be directed to the issue’s guest editors Rhys Thomas at rothomas@gmail.com or Sophie Halliday at smhalliday@gmail.com by 6th April 2012. If accepted, completed articles need to be submitted by 1st June 2012. For any further information, please contact Rhys, Sophie or NK general editor Tom Phillips at knowledge.networking257@gmail.com.

Monstrous Memory CFP

Call for Submissions: Monsters and the Monstrous,Volume 2, Number 1, Special Issue on Monstrous Memory
Publication Date: 2012-03-31
Date Submitted: 2012-02-24
Announcement ID: 192621


Journal Announcement and Call for Submissions

Monsters and the Monstrous
Volume 2, Number 1, Special Issue on Monstrous Memory

The Editors welcome contributions to the journal in the form of articles, reviews, reports, art and/or visual pieces and other forms of submission on the following or related themes:

Monstrous Memory.

Sethe: "It's so hard for me to believe in . Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. . . . But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place-the picture of it-stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world".
Denver: "If it's still there, waiting, that must mean that nothing ever dies."
Sethe: "Nothing ever does." (Morrison, Beloved)

Monsters of memory, monstrous memories, monsters as memories.

Keywords: memory, remembrance, history, trauma, the past, undead, re-memory, undying, haunting, unheimlich, spectre's, monsters, ghosts.

The Call for Articles:
This special issue of Monsters and the Monstrous is looking for articles and reviews that are based around the idea of Monstrosity and Memory.
Memories of the past, whether individual, societal or national constantly invade our everyday lives. Sometimes as the remembrance of monstrous past events that can, and should, never die or be forgotten but also as disruptive and destructive presences that upset, intrude and invade our equilibrium and sense of self.

EXAMPLES:
Monstrous events and people that live on today:
-the holocaust and national geneocides, hiroshima etc.
-natural disasters, tsunami's, eartquakes and volcanic eruprions.
-monstrous figures from the past such as Rasputin, Jack the Ripper, Stalin.
-the national and cultural disparities in the conceptions of all of the above.

Monstrous entities from the past in fiction and film: - Manifestations of the national past and political extremism, The Grudge, Godzilla, Dead Snow, Frostbite
- Representation of monsters that lived before humans, Cthulu (Lovecraft), Jurassic Park, Starship Troopers, Priest.
-Ghosts and Spirits that Haunt the Present:
-Popular series such as Medium, The Ghost Whisperer, Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
-Discontented figures that want justice or revenge, Woman in Black, Death Watch, Ringu, Nightmare on Elm Street
- traumatic events that cannot be escaped, Silent Hill, Triangle, Inception

Whether Proustian flashbacks or actual embodiments , metaphorical, psychological, or phantasical the monsters of the past will not relinquish their hold on our times, lives and imaginations.

Submissions for this Issue are required by 31st March 2012 at the latest.
Contributions to the journal should be original and not under consideration for other publications at the same time as they are under consideration for this publication. Submissions are to be made electronically wherever possible using either Microsoft® Word or .rtf format.

Length Requirements:
Articles - 5,000 – 7,000 words.
Reflections, reports and responses - 1,000 – 3,000 words.
Book reviews - 500 – 4,000 words.
Other forms of contributions are welcome.

Submission Information:
Send submissions via e-mail using the following Subject Line:

‘Journal: Contribution Type (article/review/...): Author Surname’ and marked "Monstrous Memory."

Submissions E-Mail Address:
monstersjournal@inter-disciplinary.net

Submissions will be acknowledged within 48 hours of receipt.

Contributions are also invited for future issues of the journal which will include: "Twilight and Teaching the Monstrous", "Monstrous Spaces."
We also invite submission to our special features on Non-English Language Book Reviews, and Monstrous Pedagogy. Please mark entries for these topics with their respective headings.

Visit the website at http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/journals/monsters-and-the-monstrous/

Monsters Collection CFP

CFP: Birthing the Monster of Tomorrow: Unnatural Reproductions (Edited Collection)
Call for Papers Date: 2012-04-10
Date Submitted: 2012-03-01
Announcement ID: 192814

This proposed edited collection addresses the persistent paradoxical repulsion and fascination with monsters and the monstrous, their genesis, and their reproductive potential across different time periods and cultural contexts. With the “birth” of the monster comes a particular anxiety about its self-replication, generally through perceived “unnatural” means. While the incarnation of the monster manifests through different vehicles across time periods, it is clear that, regardless of its form, anxiety is rooted in concerns over its fecundity—its ability to infect, to absorb, to replicate. This interdisciplinary book project aim to incorporate essays from scholars across multiple disciplines. The “birth” of tomorrow’s monster reveals the inherent threat to temporality and progeny; reproduction of the “monstrous,” as well as monstrous reproductions, threaten to eclipse the future, cast uncertainty on the present, and re-imagine the past.

We encourage scholarly contributions from multidisciplinary perspectives. We will entertain submissions in literature, medical/political/social history, film, television, graphic novels and manga. Topics may include but are not limited to:

Historical medical discourses about “monstrous” reproduction
Medieval monsters and the monstrosity of birth
Religious discourse of monstrous reproduction
Eugenics, social biology and inter-racial generation
Birth defects, deformity and “freaks”
Monstrous mothers, monstrous children
Monstrous regeneration
Rebirth and metamorphosis: Vampires, zombies, werewolves and mutants
Genetic engineering and “nightmare” reproductions
Science fiction and inter-species reproduction and colonization
Tabloid hoaxes and monster births
Birth in the dystopic narrative
Queering reproduction

Please send abstract proposals (350-500 word) with working title and brief biography listing any publications by email to Dr. Andrea Wood (awood@winona.edu) and Dr. Brandy Schillace (bschillace@winona.edu) by April 10th, 2012. Contributors will be asked to submit full papers for inclusion by July 16th, 2012.

McFarland Updates

McFarland recently unveiled a new design to its website at http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/, and I came across the following that might be of interest:

Teen Media: Hollywood and the Youth Market in the Digital Age by Valerie Wee

More to follow.

MAPACA SF/Fantasy Area CFP

CFP 2012 MAPACA Conference SF/Fantasy
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Call for Papers Date: 2012-11-01
Date Submitted: 2012-03-08
Announcement ID: 193015

Call for Papers MAPACA 2012
FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION AREA
PITTSBURGH, PA
The Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (MAPACA) invites academics, graduate and undergraduate students, independent scholars, and artists to submit papers for the annual conference, to be held in Pittsburgh, PA., November 1-3, 2012. Those interested in presenting at the conference are invited to submit a proposal or panel by June 15, 2012. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words long. Include a brief bio with your proposal. Single papers, as well as 3- or 4-person panels and roundtables, are encouraged. For further information, updates on areas and area chairs, please visit MAPACA's web site at www.mapaca.net.

Science Fiction and Fantasy
Science Fiction and Fantasy welcomes papers/presentations in any critical, theoretical, or (inter)disciplinary approach to any topic related to SF/F: art; literature; radio; film; television; video, role-playing, and multi-player online games. Though not an exhaustive list, potential presenters may wish to consider the following:

• Vampire Romance
• Gender and Sexuality
• Race and Otherness
• Class and Hierarchies
• Utopia/Dystopia
• Language and Rhetoric
• Genre-Space Opera, Cyberpunk, Dark Fantasy, etc.
• Fans and Fandom/Community Building 
• Textual Analysis
• Sociological or Psychological Readings
• Archival Research/History
• Technology-Textual and Literal
• Online Identity Construction
• Mythology and Quest Narratives
• Creatures and Aliens
• Science and Magic
• Reading Other "Worlds"
• SPECIAL PANEL: GAME OF THRONES/SONG OF ICE & FIRE
• SPECIAL PANEL: THE HUNGER GAMES
• SPECIAL PANEL: THE FAIRY TALE PHENOMENON

Please e-mail a copy of your abstract and bio to the area chairs:
Marilyn Stern sternm@wit.edu
Leigha McReynolds lhm@gwmail.gwu.edu

The Journal of Popular Culture February 2012

Out now The Journal of Popular Culture 45.1 (Feb. 2012). The number is currently available for free access from publisher Wiley-Blackwell. Contents as follows:

Editorial

“The Horror of it All” by Gary Hoppenstand

Brigman Award Winner

“Urban Retro-Futuristic Masculinities in China Mieville's Perdido Street Station” by Aishwarya Ganapathiraju

“The New American Hero: Dexter, Serial Killer for the Masses” by Ashley M. Donnelly

“Erma Bombeck: The Phoenix Suburban Underbelly” by David William Foster

“Domesticating Wild Sheep: Sociolinguistic Functions and Style in Translations of Haruki Murkami’s Fiction” by Kay S. Hamada

“The Crime of Punishment: The Tortured Logic of Mickey Spillane’s Kiss Me, Deadly” by Thomas Heise

“Politically Incorrect, Visually Incorrect: Bitchy Butch’s Unapologetic Discrepancies in Lesbian Identity and Comic Art” by Yetta Howard

“‘Stealing the Air’: The Poet-Citizens of Youth Spoken-Word” by Rebecca Ingalls

“Black Women and Men in Hip Hop Music: Misogyny, Violence and the Negotiation of (White-Owned) Space” by Amanda Moras and Guillermo Rebollo-Gil

“Hackers as Tricksters of the Digital Age” by Svetlana Nikitina

“The Politics of Taking: La Llorona in the Cultural Mainstream” by Domino Perez

“The Semiotics of Performance and Success in Madonna” by José I. Prieto-Arranz

“‘Coven of the Articulate’: Orality and Community in Anne Rice’s Vampire Fiction” by Sara Wasson

“Becky Bloomwood at the V&A: Culture, Materialism, and the Chick Lit Novel” by Cheryl A. Wilson

Book Reviews

Mayer-Schönberger, Viktor. Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.  Reviewed by Nicholas Proferes.

Renga, Ed.Dana. Mafia Movies: A Reader. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011.

Reviewed by Reza Barmaki.

Parrill, William B. The Films of Johnny Depp.  Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009.

Reviewed by Robert G. Weiner.

Bissell, Tom. Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter.  New York: Vintage Books, 2010.

Reviewed by Kimberly L. Kulovitz.

Morrison, Grant. Supergods.  New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2011. Reviewed by Anthony Burns.

Demystifying Disney from Continuum

Demystifying Disney: A History of Disney Feature Animation
by Chris Pallant

Imprint: Continuum
Pub. date: 28 Jul 2011
ISBN: 9781441174215

184 Pages

Hardcover: $110.00

Description

Demystifying Disney: A History of Disney Feature Animation provides a comprehensive and thoroughly up-to-date examination of the Disney studio’s evolution through its animated films. In addition to challenging certain misconceptions concerning the studio’s development, the study also brings scholarly definition to hitherto neglected aspects of contemporary Disney.

Through a combination of economic, cultural, historical, textual, and technological approaches, this book provides a discriminating analysis of Disney authorship, and the authorial claims of others working within the studio; conceptual and theoretical engagement with the constructions of ‘Classic’ Disney, the Disney Renaissance, and Neo-Disney; Disney’s relationship with other studios; how certain Disney animations problematise a homogeneous reading of the studio’s output; and how the studio’s animation has changed as a consequence of new digital technologies. For all those interested in gaining a better understanding of one of cinema’s most popular and innovative studios, this will be an invaluable addition to the existing literature.


Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Section One—Re-examining Disney
Chapter One: Disney Authorship
Chapter Two: A History of Innovation?
Section Two—Early and Middle Disney Feature Animation
Chapter Three: Disney-Formalism
Chapter Four: Destino
Chapter Five: Disney in Transition
Section Three—Contemporary Disney Feature Animation
Chapter Six: The Disney Renaissance
Chapter Seven: Neo-Disney
Chapter Eight: Digital Disney
Conclusion—Happily Ever After?
Works Cited
Filmography
Index

Author(s)

Chris Pallant, Dr. Chris Pallant is a Lecturer in Film and Digital Media at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.

Extrapolation Fall 2011

Received late last month:

Extrapolation 52.3 (Fall 2011)

Old and New Slavery, Old and New Racisms: Strategies of Science Fiction in Octavia Butler's Parables Series
Hee-Jung Serenity Joo

Hogarth;s Choice: Empiricism and Gnosticism in His Master's Voice
Greg Conley

A Western Wake: Difference and Doubt in Christopher Nolan's Inception
Michael J. Blouin

Critical Utopia as Critical History: Apocalypse and Enlightenment in Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt
Gib Prettyman

Reviews

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Catching up again: This past summer's Rise of Planet of the Apes is now available to rent or own. The film is a believable prequel to the franchise with an engaging cast of characters, both human and ape. A number of extras are available on the Blu-ray and a limited selection of these appear on the DVD release.