Paul Verhoeven @85
An in-person academic conference hosted by The Centre for Film, Television and Screen Studies, Bangor University, UK
7 and 8 September 2023
Paul Verhoeven (b. 1938) has left an indelible mark on popular culture. His films marry a European arthouse sensibility with the US blockbuster but in a wickedly satirical way. But this does not mean his films are not open to criticism.
His American dystopic trilogy – RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990) and Starship Troopers (1997) – provided dark visions of futuristic metropoles that continues to resonate to this day, touching on capitalism, robotics, biopolitics, posthumanism, urban planning, artificial intelligence, transhumanism and climate change, while female-led dramas, such as Basic Instinct (1992), Showgirls (1995), Black Book (2006), Elle (2016) and Benedetta (2021), remain controversial for their overt eroticism, sexual violence and representation of lesbianism.
To critically explore the origins and legacies of Verhoeven’s body of work, this conference proposes to bring together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to explore Paul Verhoeven’s output, debate its legacy and consider its position within visual culture including specialists from fields as diverse as literary and cinematographic studies; the history of art, design, fashion and architecture; musicology; philosophy; political sciences; computer science and robotics; urban and ecological studies; and feminist, queer and sexuality studies.
We welcome contributions from any perspective such as (but not limited to) the following:
We are applying for funding to facilitate postgraduate and unwaged participation.
Please complete the following link by Friday, 16 June 2023.
For further information, please contact the organisers Nathan Abrams and Elizabeth Miller (PaulVerhoevenConference@gmail.com).
An in-person academic conference hosted by The Centre for Film, Television and Screen Studies, Bangor University, UK
7 and 8 September 2023
Paul Verhoeven (b. 1938) has left an indelible mark on popular culture. His films marry a European arthouse sensibility with the US blockbuster but in a wickedly satirical way. But this does not mean his films are not open to criticism.
His American dystopic trilogy – RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990) and Starship Troopers (1997) – provided dark visions of futuristic metropoles that continues to resonate to this day, touching on capitalism, robotics, biopolitics, posthumanism, urban planning, artificial intelligence, transhumanism and climate change, while female-led dramas, such as Basic Instinct (1992), Showgirls (1995), Black Book (2006), Elle (2016) and Benedetta (2021), remain controversial for their overt eroticism, sexual violence and representation of lesbianism.
To critically explore the origins and legacies of Verhoeven’s body of work, this conference proposes to bring together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to explore Paul Verhoeven’s output, debate its legacy and consider its position within visual culture including specialists from fields as diverse as literary and cinematographic studies; the history of art, design, fashion and architecture; musicology; philosophy; political sciences; computer science and robotics; urban and ecological studies; and feminist, queer and sexuality studies.
We welcome contributions from any perspective such as (but not limited to) the following:
- Paul Verhoeven as auteur: origins, influences, production, aesthetics, publicity, reception, afterlife, sequels and director’s cuts
- Paul Verhoeven and biopolitics, posthumanism, urban planning and climate change
- Paul Verhoeven and capitalism, neoliberalism, post-industrialism and the rise of multinational corporations
- Paul Verhoeven and gender
- Paul Verhoeven and memory
- Paul Verhoeven and psychoanalysis
- Paul Verhoeven and race, ethnicity and Otherness
- Paul Verhoeven and reception: audiences, fandom and ‘cult’
- Paul Verhoeven and robotics, artificial intelligence, cybernetic organisms, the transhuman and the post-human
- Paul Verhoeven and science fiction
- Paul Verhoeven and sexuality
- Paul Verhoeven and stardom
- Paul Verhoeven and tech noir, retrofuturism, future noir, and cyberpunk.
We are applying for funding to facilitate postgraduate and unwaged participation.
Please complete the following link by Friday, 16 June 2023.
For further information, please contact the organisers Nathan Abrams and Elizabeth Miller (PaulVerhoevenConference@gmail.com).
No comments:
Post a Comment