CFP Monstrous Messengers Extended Deadline (8/17/2015)

UPDATE: Extended Deadline: Monstrous Messengers 17 Aug. 2015
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63143
full name / name of organization:
Leslie Ormandy
contact email:
monstrousmessengers@gmail.com

For this collection, three more papers from any discipline are welcome; however, advantaged are those focusing on a gendered or religious moral message. And I am looking for ONE paper which is willing to argue that the monsters represented are simply that, monsters, and that utilizing them as a tool toward acceptance of diversity is not a good thing. The latter is, I understand, a controversial view. This book wishes to explore all views and not promote one view by excluding another.

Picture books and early readers carry all the weight of parental authority, and are essential tools in the learning process for our children. They offer children not only hours of sanctioned entertainment and carefully chosen words and concepts, they also introduce our youngest children to specific cultural norms and belief systems. What role then does the supernatural character play for children learning to “read” and interpret the values in the interplay of images, words, and authority? At this point, there is no text addressing this question; although there is an increasing amount of scholarship regarding how the various supernatural characters (and monstrous children) reflect various adult issues when they appear within film and television. This edited collection is meant to begin the exploration of what cultural norms and morals are being offered our children in images and words in the medium of picture books and early readers since they are not just sanctioned, but encouraged.

Focus is exclusively on supernatural figures in children’s picture books and early readers. (The only exclusions are aliens, and magical entities such as talking trees, talking owls, etc.) Issues which might be explored by contributors include (but are not limited to):

• The primary purpose of the supernatural character[s] within a specific text, or series, and what it/they are teaching children
• The use of a supernatural character as harmless entertainment (is there really a picture book which doesn’t offer a moral of some sort?)
• The use of a ghost, vampire, werewolf, or other supernatural, as a stand-in for diversity. Do they work as a stand in? Why or why not? (Why not just depict the human “other?”)
• The way in which a specific moral is being offered through the use of a supernatural character
• The way the supernatural character will potentially impact the child’s view of their world
• Comparative discussion regarding how the morals in early monster tales (such as Grimm’s) are now being revised to offer a differing moral – and how/why the changes reflect new norms
Questions to get you thinking:
• Why are so many supernatural characters green?
• Are some supernatural characters depicted as “bad” while others are “good?”
• Does the color scheme used impact the child’s reading of the characters?
• In what way does adult encouragement regarding “reading” the text impact the child’s reading of the supernatural character[s]?
• Is there a different reading/interpretation of the text offered the child when the supernatural being is the protagonist or the antagonist?

Please submit a 300 word abstract and a brief scholarly bio to Leslie Ormandy at monstrousmessengers@gmail.com . The closing date for submissions for this final selection is August 15. Notice of acceptance will follow by no later than August 25 (and will include a listing of helpful readings). Complete rough drafts of 7000 – 8000 word essays are to be submitted by December 15, 2015 in MLA format with US spelling and punctuation for notes.


By web submission at 07/24/2015 - 20:45