CFP Critically Reading "The Vampire Diaries" (8/14/20)

Sorry this is a bit late being posted. 

Updated: Call for Abstracts: Critically Reading "The Vampire Diaries"
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/10/27/updated-call-for-abstracts-critically-reading-the-vampire-diaries

deadline for submissions:
August 14, 2020


full name / name of organization:
Book Publication


contact email:
thevampirediariescollection@gmail.com




Vampires are a phenomenon that have captivated humans since ancient times, and continue to globally fascinate different target audiences. From vampires in early Chinese traditions to their depiction in early poems such as “The Vampire” by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, to Lord Byron’s “The Vampyre”, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, to vampires in more recent TV series and movies, this creature has not only evoked fear and horror but has also embodied both anxieties as well as desires of the culture and time in which it was created. Consequently, as vampire narratives today have started to go beyond the realms of horror, sometimes even turning the vampire into romantic heroes, they bring new insights to current issues across various fields.

This call for papers reaches out to scholars interested in working on interpretations of the CBS series The Vampire Diaries. This American supernatural teen drama features a diverse set of characters, both dead and undead, while touching on topics such as friendship, romance, adulthood, as well as depression, and aging. So far, no book length work has dealt with this complex series, and it is our aim to publish an in-depth analysis consisting of 10-11 chapters that offer critical and creative readings of this series.



We welcome contributions that investigate but are by no means limited to the following topics as they relate to The Vampire Diaries:

- Television studies

- Intertextuality/intermediality

- Importance of Social Media

- Gothic

- Gender

- Adolescence

- Aging

- Postmodern Approaches Anxieties/fears and desires

- Humor

- Transgression

- Mind Control

- History

- Fandom

- Canon—the relationships between the TV series, novels, and spin-offs (The Originals, Legacies, and Stefan’s Diaries novels).



Submissions already accepted for this volume have largely focused on gender and genre, so we would welcome submissions that broaden the focus of the collection. We are identifying the series, its antecedents and its spin-offs as examples of postmodernist storytelling, so this should be acknowledged in submissions.

What to send: 400-500 words abstracts (or complete papers, if available) and a brief author bio of 150 words should be submitted by August 14, 2020. If an abstract is accepted for the book, a full draft of the paper (6000-8000 words) will be required by October 31, 2020.

Proposed writing and publication schedule:

Writing schedule – Draft completed October 31, 2020

Revisions, editing – Completed November/December, 2020

Submission to publisher –January, 2021



Contact Info: Kimberley McMahon-Coleman, Nina Vanessa Weber & Iris-Aya Laemmerhirt Contact Email: thevampirediariescollection@gmail.com

Last updated July 15, 2020