CFP Daughter of Fangdom Conference (12/15/14; UK 4/18/15)

Daughter of Fangdom
Location: United Kingdom
Call for Papers Date: 2014-12-15
Date Submitted: 2014-10-13
Announcement ID: 217102
https://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=217102

Daughter of Fangdom: A Conference on Women and the Television Vampire
18 April 2015
The University of Roehampton

Following the success of TV Fangdom: A Conference on Television Vampires in 2013, the organisers announce a follow-up one-day conference, Daughter of Fangdom: A Conference on Women and the Television Vampire. Though Dracula remains the iconic image, female vampires have been around at least as long, if not longer, than their male counterparts and now they play a pivotal role within the ever expanding world of the TV vampire, often undermining or challenging the male vampires that so often dominate these shows. Women have also long been involved in the creation and the representation of vampires both male and female. The fiction of female writers such as Charlaine Harris and L.J. Smith has served as core course material for the televisual conception and re-conception of the reluctant vampire, while TV writers and producers such as Marti Noxon (Buffy) and Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries and The Originals) have played a significant role in shaping the development of the genre for television.

Since vampires are not technically human, the terms male and female may apply, but representation of gender has the potential to be more fluid if vampires exist outside of human society. Given the ubiquity of the vampire in popular culture and particularly on TV, how is the female represented in vampire television? What roles do women have in bringing female vampires to the small screen? In what ways has the female vampire been remade for different eras of television, different TV genres, or different national contexts? Is the vampire on TV addressed specifically to female audiences and how do female viewers engage with TV vampires? What spaces exist on television for evading the gender binary and abandoning categories of male and female vampires altogether?


Proposals are invited on (but not limited to) the following topics:

• TV’s development of the female vampire
• Negotiation of gender and sexuality
• Evading binaries
• Female writers/ directors/ producers/ actors in vampire TV
• Adaptation and authorship
• Genre hybridity
• Female vampires in TV advertising
• New media, ancillary materials, extended and transmedia narratives
• Intersection with other media (novels, films, comics, video games, music)
• Audience and consumption (including fandom)
• The female and children’s vampire television
• Inter/national variants
• Translation and dubbing

We will be particularly interested in proposals on older TV shows, on those that have rarely been considered as vampire fictions, and on analysis of international vampire TV. The conference organisers welcome contributions from scholars within and outside universities, including research students, and perspectives are invited from different disciplines.

Please send proposals (250 words) for 20 minute papers plus a brief biography (100 words) to all three organisers by 15th December 2014.

s.abbott@roehampton.ac.uk

lorna.jowett@northampton.ac.uk

mike.starr@northampton.ac.uk



Conference Website: http://tvfangdom.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/daughter-of-fangdom-a-conference-on-women-and-the-television-vampire/


Lorna Jowett
University of Northampton
Email: lorna.jowett@northampton.ac.uk
Visit the website at http://tvfangdom.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/daughter-of-fangdom-a-conference-on-women-and-the-television-vampire/

CFP The Horror Classics (Spec. Issue of Journal of Dracula Studies) (1/1/15)

Special Edition 2015 Journal of Dracula Studies (Jan 1, 2015)
full name / name of organization:
Journal of Dracula Studies
contact email:
journalofdraculastudies@kutztown.edu
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/59087

In 2015 we will be publishing a special edition of the Journal of Dracula Studies to mark the 20th anniversary of our Chapter. The theme of this edition will be The Horror Classics.

We invite manuscripts of scholarly, reader-friendly, articles of 3000 words or less for The Horror Classics. We are looking for articles which explore the classic horror monsters of literature, film, comics from the
Golden Age of horror (Tales From the Crypt etc), and TV: The Mummy, Ghosts, The Witch, Mad Scientists, Swamp Monsters, Zombies, The Haunted House, The Werewolf, Aliens, Edward Gory etc. (For this special edition, we are not publishing material on the Vampire). Material is not limited to any historical era.

We require that articles be free of jargon and over-dependence on literary criticism.

Send submissions (electronic only) to Curt Herr (journalofdraculastudies@kutztown.edu). Please put “Special Edition: Horror Classics” in the subject line.

Deadline: Jan. 1, 2015

By web submission at 10/24/2014 - 16:10

CFP Zombie Culture Area (SWPCA/ACA) (11/1/14; 2/11-14/15)

I hope these papers get collected somewhere:

Zombie Culture-CFP-Southwest Popular Culture Association 2015
Location: New Mexico, United States
Conference Date: 2015-02-11
Date Submitted: 2014-10-12
Announcement ID: 217079
https://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=217079

Call for Papers/Presentations: Zombie Culture

Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association 2015

http://southwestpca.org/

http://conference2015.southwestpca.org

Make plans to join the Southwest PCA/ACA for our 36th annual conference, February 11-14th
2015, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Center in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico

Hyatt Regency Albuquerque

330 Tijeras NW

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 87102

Tel: +1 505 842 1234 or 888-421-1442


The area chair for Zombie Culture seeks papers and presentations on any aspect of the zombie in popular culture and history. It seems as though the world has gone “zombie crazy.” There are zombie walks, games on college campuses like “Humans Vs. Zombies,” zombie children’s books, zombie poetry, fiction, video games, zombie ammunition and guns, and zombie running contests. Almost anything can be “zombified” and society and fans all over the world are literally “eating it up.” The zombie has come to represent the chaotic world we live in, and courses continue to pop up on college and university campuses all over the world. This is due in large part to the success of films like Night of the Living Dead, Zombie Flesh Eaters (Zombi 2), Dawn  of the Dead, 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, and most recently Warm Bodies, World War Z, and the television program The Walking Dead.

Any aspect of Zombie Culture will be given consideration. What is distinctively American (if anything) in the zombie in film, literature, and popular culture  in general? How does the zombie influence American Culture in a way that resonates in our transmedia world?

Some topics to consider:

Directors: George Romero, Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi, Todd Sheets, Danny Boyle, Sam Rami, Peter Jackson, Amando de Ossorio…

Specific zombie films: White Zombie, King of the Zombies, Dawn of the Dead, Tombs of the Blind Dead, Dead Alive, Evil Dead, Zombies on Broadway, World War Z…..

Specific books/zombie literature: Zombie Bake Off, World War Z, Book of All Flesh, Case of Charles Dexter Ward…

Zombie writers’ fiction and non-fiction: Stephen Graham Jones, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Kirkman, Steve Niles, Max Brooks, Matt Mogk, Jovanka Vuckovic, Stephen King…..

The Walking Dead

Zombie comics (any aspect: history, cultural impact, storytelling…)

Zombies since 9/11

Zombie children’s books

Zombie running

Fast vs. slow zombies

Zombie gore

Teaching the zombie (zombie pedagogy)

Zombie cos-play

Zombie brains-food

Zombie video games

Zombie ants

Can a real zombie outbreak happen?

The voodoo zombie-the historical roots of the zombie

The Euro-zombie

Nazi–zombies

Viking zombies

Marvel zombies

What exactly is a zombie?

Humans vs. zombies

Zombies across the world (Ro-langs…)

Zombies’ roots in cinema

Are mummies/Frankenstein’s monster zombies?

What does the rise in the zombie’s popularity tell us about society?


These are just a few of the topics that could be discussed.


Please submit your paper title and 100- to 300-word abstract by November 1, 2014, through our database, which can be accessed at:

http://conference2015.southwestpca.org

Please note there are monetary awards for the best graduate student papers in a variety of categories.

See http://southwestpca.org/conference/graduate-student-awards

The organization also has a new open access peer reviewed journal that encourages you to submit your work.

See: Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy: http://journaldialogue.org/


Area Chair: Rob Weiner

Humanities Librarian, Texas Tech University Library

rweiner5@sbcglobal.net

http://southwestpca.org/


Rob Weiner
Texas Tech University Library
Box 40002
Lubbock Texas
79409
Email: rweiner5@sbcglobal.net

CFP The Place of the Preternatural (12/15/14)

Some calls for papers before calling it a night:

Thanks to the mearcstapa list for the head's up on this one.

CALL FOR PAPERS: ISSUE 5:1: THE PLACE OF THE PRETERNATURAL
http://preternature.org/index.php/PN/announcement/view/15

Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, invites submissions Issue 5:1: The Place of the Preternatural

For Issue 5:1 we welcome a variety of topics that represent original research on any topic relating to the appearance of the preternatural or closely related topics (magic, esotericism, demonology, the occult), from
any academic discipline and theoretical approach. We are especially interested on essays that touch on the appearance of magic, prophecy, demonology, monstrophy, the occult, and related topics that stand in the
liminal space between the natural world and the preternatural.

Contributions should usually be 8,000 - 12,000 words, including all documentation and critical apparatus. If accepted for publication, manuscripts will be required to adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (style 1, employing endnotes).



Preternature also welcomes original editions or translations of texts related to the topic that have not otherwise been made available in recent editions or in English.

Complete papers must be submitted through Preternature's Content Management System at http://preternature.org by December 15, 2014.

Queries about submissions, queries concerning books to be reviewed, or requests to review individual titles may be made to the Editors:

Kirsten C. Uszkalo
Kirsten@uszkalo.com

CFP Animal Horror/Animal Gothic Film Collection (expired)

Ran across this last month. Sorry to have missed posting it sooner:

Animal Horror/Gothic Horror Film (Book Project)
Event: 01/01/2015
Abstract: 01/30/2014
Categories: American, 20th & 21st Century, British, 20th & 21st Century, Comparative, Gender & Sexuality, Interdisciplinary, Cultural Studies, Film, TV, & Media, Popular Culture
Location: Publication
Organization: Umeå University, Sweden, Linnaeus University, Sweden
http://www.cfplist.com/CFP.aspx?CID=2113

Animal Horror/Animal Gothic Film

We invite proposals for the first book-length collection that explores the confrontation between the human and the animal in horror, gothic and survival film. From Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) via The Edge (1997) to Piranha 3D (2010), animal horror has charted the transformation of the domestic to the monstrous and uncanny, told stories of invasion and counter-invasion, collapsed and erected sexual and racial borders and explored the increasingly fraught relationship between human culture, human society and nature/Nature.

We are interested in contributions that explore animal horror films in the light of the ethics of the war on terror, ecological collapse, and biopolitics with an emphasis on sex, gender, race and post-/neo-/decolonial issues. In particular, we are interested in papers that address the following concerns:

• How can the understanding of animal horror be channelled through the perspectives of gender, feminist and queer studies? What forms of sexuality does the genre explore, encourage or disrupt?

• How does animal horror engage questions of terror and torture, especially in the “state of exception” that has followed in the wake of 9/11 and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan?

• How does animal horror negotiate questions of race and ethnicity? How is race inscribed into animal horror films through portrayals of bodies, blood and the relation between human and animal worlds?

• How does animal horror explore, encourage or disturb discourses on ecology and environmental pollution? How can animal horror be understood in the light of the Anthropocene?

• Animal horror is often characterized by elements of comedy and humour. How does this complicate and subvert the conservative or progressive discourses that saturate the genre?

• How are animal horror films financed, how has the genre developed over time, and what is its relation to the entertainment industry and to the increasingly ubiquitous Military entertainment complex?

For purposes of limitation, this collection will deal only with actual (and possibly genetically enhanced) animals, but not with monsters, supernatural or mythological creatures. In other words, gigantic anacondas, sharks or crocodiles are fine, but werewolves, unicorns, Godzilla or space aliens fall outside the scope of the collection.

The editors are Johan Höglund, Katarina Gregersdotter and Nicklas Hållén. Johan Höglund (Linnaeus
University) is author of The American Imperial Gothic: Popular Culture, Empire, Violence (forthcoming Ashgate, 2014), and co-editor of Transnational and Postcolonial Vampires: Dark Blood (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Nicklas Hållén (Linnaeus University and University of York) and Katarina Gregersdotter (Umeå University) are co-editors of the anthology Femininities and Masculinities in Action: Theory and Practice in a Moving Field (ID Press, 2012). Gregersdotter is also co-editor of Rape in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy and Beyond. Contemporary Scandinavian and Anglophone Crime Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)

Please send abstracts of no more than 400 words to Johan Höglund (johan.hoglund@lnu.se), Nicklas

Hållén (nicklas.hallen@lnu.se), and Katarina Gregersdotter (katarina.gregersdotter@engelska.umu.se)

before the deadline Jan 30, 2014. Full articles will be due mid to late 2014.



Contact Email: katarina.gregersdotter@engelska.umu.se

CFP In the Blood (Themed Issue of Monsters and the Monstrous Journal) (11/28/14)

CFP: Monsters and the Monstrous Journal Themed Issue: "In The Blood": Volume 4, Number 2 (Winter 2014/15)
Publication Date: 2014-11-28
Date Submitted: 2014-09-06
Announcement ID: 216156
https://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=216156

Monsters and the Monstrous Journal: Volume 4, Number 2 (Winter 2014/15), Themed Issue: In The Blood

Call for Submissions:
This themed issue on the Monsters and Monstrosity Journal focuses on the connections between monsters, monstrosity and blood. In terms of the nature and physicality of blood itself, as a carrier of disease and contagion but also a conduit of genetic, ideological and memorial encoding.

Possible themes or points of departure:
Hot blood, in cold blood, blue blood, blood passion, bad blood, blood monsters, life blood,  blood lines, blood relations, bloodshed, wire in the blood, pure blood, full blooded, blood disease, blood drinkers, blood suckers, true blood, false blood, blood art, blood addictions, menstrual blood, blood divination and written in blood, to name but a few.

This call for articles, artworks, poetry and prose considers  all forms of the monsters of miscegenation, contamination, tradition, generations, revenge and rejuvenation. All and any ways that the very stuff of life becomes, and can be configured as, monstrous, threatening, deviant, mischievous and malignant.

We are also looking for film and book reviews on any theme related to the idea of Monsters and the Monstrous. All materials reviewed should have been published or released within two years of the journal issue they are submitted to. Any queries, please contact the editor at the email below.

Submissions for this Issue are required by Friday 28th November 2014 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. All images, artworks and photographs need to have the appropriate copyright permissions before being sent in.

We also invite submission to our special features on Non-English Language Book Reviews. Please mark entries for these topics with their respective headings.

All accepted articles, artworks and prose pieces will receive a free electronic version of the journal.

Length Requirements:
~ poetry, prose, short stories can be any length but not exceed 7,000 words.
~ articles should be between 4,000 – 7,000 words long
~ reflections, reports and responses should be 1,500 – 3,000 words long
~ book and film reviews should be between 500 and 1,500 words long

Submission Information:
All submissions should include a short biography (100-150 words) that will be included with the to be included submission if accepted. Please send submissions via e-mail using the following Subject Line:

‘Journal: Contribution Type (article/review/…): Author Surname’

Submissions E-Mail Address: monstersjournal@inter-disciplinary.net
Submissions will be acknowledged within 48 hours of receipt.

For further details of the journal, please visit:
http://monstersjournal.net/submissions/

Priory House
149B Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1993 882087
Fax: +44 (0)870 4601132
Email: monstersjournal@inter-disciplinary.net
Visit the website at http://monstersjournal.net/submissions/

Minnie Mouse Witch?

Continuing from the previous post, here are the details on Hallmark's witchy Minnie Mouse.

As with Count Mickey, Minnie the Witch is depicted in 2 plush versions (in addition to her role, with Mickey, on the water globe). "Halloween Minnie Mouse" is up first. She is part of the itty bittys line (selling in stores, only, for $6.95) and is described as " the sweetest treat this Halloween". Clearly, we're not supposed to be afraid of this mouse.

Next, is the "Minnie Mouse the Witch" plush. She sells for $19.95 (though is now sold out online). As with her male counterpart, the artificiality of her costume is the highlight of her product description: "Everyone's favorite glamour mouse is all dressed up for Halloween as a beguiling and lovable witch. Minnie will cast a spell of fun over your holiday and help you get in the spirit of fun."

Given the descriptions that accompany these products, it is no surprise that the "Mickey and Minnie Mouse Water Globe" is so tame. Obviously for Disney, brand identity trumps Halloween.

Playing Dress-Up with Hallmark for Halloween 2014

I've been working intermittently on my NEPCA paper on the re-castings of Frankenstein, and I'm trying to categorize some of the appropriations I see. One common type is when familiar characterize (like Garfield and crew, the Smurfs, the Peanuts gang, the Archie gang, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) take upon the appearance of one of the characters of the Frankenstein story (usually inspired by Universal's versions rather than Shelley's original) for humorous or whimsical  purposes. I'm calling this "playing dress-up" and thought I'd share some of the other monster-related examples I've come across this season.

Vampires continue to be popular, and Hallmark has a number of examples of fan-favorite characters in Bela Lugosi-inspired costumes.

The cheapest this season is a Winnie the Pooh card for $3.75 with a vampire Piglet wearing fangs and a cape.

There are also a series of items featuring a vampiric Mickey Mouse. The cutest is part of Hallmarks's itty bittys line sold (in stores only) for $6.95. The product page details that this "Count Mickey" just " 'vants' to be yours this Halloween," in a play on Lugosi's famous accent. He is presented as the most "real", but his deformed appearance lessens the impact of Mickey's transformation and the cuteness of its humor greatly reduces his scariness.

A larger version (at 7" W x 9.25" H x 7" D) of this undead incarnation of Mickey is labelled "Count Mickey Mouse". He sells for $19.95 and is now sold out online. In an attempt to further separate appearance from potential action, his description focuses on the artificiality of his costume, explaining, "Fresh from Transylvania, this elegant vampire is none other than our friend Mickey! But never fear—this plush pushover won't really bite."

Vampire Mickey reappears as part of the Mickey and Minnie Mouse Water Globe collectible, which includes Minnie dressed as a witch (more of this to follow). The water globe (retailing at $39.95) is also now sold out online; like the plush Count Mickey Mouse, it, too, highlights the fake-ness of Mickey and Minnie's monstrous appearances, rather than the potentially more sinister connotations of two creatures of the night gazing at two small, innocent chipmunks.

Notice that this Mickey has been de-fanged, a detail that de-emphasizes any possibility of horror (or even delight) here. The description is likewise brightened, noting "This decoration will add a fun and festive touch to your mantel or party table. Dressed for trick-or-treating, Mickey and Minnie peer into a jack-o'-lantern water globe at a fall scene where two furry friends are frolicking" (and not, we should note, being spied upon as a potential meal).

My final example here presents vampiric versions of Charles Schulz's Snoopy and Woodstock. Titled "Hangin' With Count Snoopy," the item is part of the ongoing Peanuts series of Keepsake Ornaments and sells for $24.95 (though it is now, also, sold out online). The product and its description offers a better blend of horror and play than the larger Mickeys. First, the description reads, "Snoopy's doghouse is all decked out for the season of screams. Press the button on the ornament to hear spooky Halloween music play. Trick or treat—if you dare!" The item presents Snoopy (dressed partly as a vampire and partly as a witch) with arms outstretched and a group of vampiric Woodstocks (bird wings replaced with bat wings) in attendance apparently guarding their vampiric overlord.

Playing the accompanying music clip creates a chilling effect. The sample begins with a excerpt from Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, a theme closely associated with Halloween ever since its use in the opening credits for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) (thanks Wikipedia!). Interspersed with the music track is the sound of Snoopy's voice, but it is anything but familiar. Instead, Snoopy seems to relish his new role as the undead and utters a series of menacing laughs better pronounced by megalomaniacal monsters (like Victor Frankenstein or Count Dracula) than lovable old Snoopy. Here is a triumph of Halloween over brand identity.