CFP PopCRN Bridgerton Conference (9/30/2024; online 1/30/2025)

“Love Conquers All”: Exploring the Popular Culture Phenomenon of Bridgerton

deadline for submissions:
September 30, 2024

full name / name of organization:
PopCRN - the Popular Culture Research Network

contact email:
popcrn@une.edu.au

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/05/21/%E2%80%9Clove-conquers-all%E2%80%9D-exploring-the-popular-culture-phenomenon-of-bridgerton

PopCRN (the Popular Culture Network) will be holding a free virtual conference exploring all things Bridgerton to be held online on Thursday 30th January 2025.

From a popular book series to the Netflix phenomenon, Bridgerton has captured the public imagination, courted scandal and dazzled readers and audiences with a glittering reimagining of regency London.

We welcome papers from researchers across the academic spectrum and encourage papers from postgraduate researchers and early career researchers. We welcome individual papers, panels and round table submissions. Papers from this conference will have the opportunity to be in our sister journal The International Journal of Popular Culture Studies.

To whet your appetite, we have provided some topics below. We will also accept topics beyond this scope:

• “Dearest Gentle Reader” - Tensions between the written and filmed versions.
• “Diamond of the First Water” – Standing out in the marriage market.
• "It is not a man's appearance or title that will woo you. It is his mind and spirit that will court yours." – love and economic realities.
• "What's happening out there cannot be as important as what's happening down here." – Sex and sexuality in Bridgerton.
• "A diamond is precious precisely because it is rare." - Conspicuous consumption in the regency period.
• "You are the bane of my existence and the object of all my desires." Passionate declarations of love and desire in the romance novel.
• “My garden is in bloom” – the recurring motif of flowers in the Bridgerton series.
• “I thought you wanted food," she gasped. "I do," he murmured, tugging on the bodice of her dress. "But I want you more.” – The food and drink of the Bridgerton world.
• “She hated me.” “Impossible, you were perfect.” – Embracing disability and bodies of difference in Bridgerton.
• "Why must our only options be to squawk and settle or to never leave the nest? What if I want to fly?" – Feminism, Freedom and Family
• “I risk my life everyday for love. You have no idea what it is like to be in a room with someone you cannot live without and yet still feel as though you are oceans apart." – Queering Bridgerton
• And it is not far enough! Do you think that there is a corner of this Earth that you could travel to far away enough to free me from this torment? ­– Carriages, boats and balloons; travel in the Bridgerton universe
• “Sorrows. Sorrows. Prayers” – Negotiating grief and loss in a romance world.
• “You must promise me that when you step into the light you will be worthy of the attention you command.” – Glow-ups, transformations and make-overs in Bridgerton.
• "I must confess, I have felt more chemistry when being fitted at the modiste." – Fantastical fashions and the women who wear them.
• "Straight into the fire, a favorite pastime of mine." – Scandal and intrigue in the Regency world.
• "We are not all guaranteed a fairy-tale ending." – Romance and the realities of a patriarchal society
• "Edmund was the air that I breathed. And now there is no air." – Love and loss in the Bridgerton series.
• “I care not for his sanity. I care for his happiness. I care for his soul.” – Managing psychiatric illness in the Bridgerton World
• "I do not fear change. I embrace it." – Transforming the social politics of the Regency period in the television show.
• "I have loved. I have lost. I have earned the right to do whatever I please, whenever I please, and however I please to do it." – Dowagers, Queens and Widows; the older women of Bridgerton.
• “We were two separate societies divided by color until a king fell in love with one of us” – Reimagining race relations in the regency era.
• “You do realise what tune she was playing just now, don't you? Mozart's 'Funeral March' – The music of Bridgerton
• "Your eyes, are the most remarkable shade of blue. Yet, somehow, they shine even brighter when you are kind." - The poetry of romantic love.
• "Well, for what it is worth, sometimes a fire is slow to burn." – The genesis of romance stories in Bridgerton.

Please email abstracts (200 words) to popcrn@une.edu.au by 30th September 2024.

Please submit your abstract on a Word Document and save the paper as your name e.g. ErnestAcademic.docx.

Please include your name, affiliation, email address, title of paper, short biography, (100 words), Orcid ID (if available) and google scholar link (where available).

Registration is free – please email popcrn@une.edu.au to register.

Website: www.popcrn.org



Last updated August 4, 2024