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.