CFP A Gathering of Horrors, Terrors, and Monstrosities (6/30/2025; PAMLA San Francisco 11/20-23/2025)

 

A Gathering of Horrors, Terrors, and Monstrosities

deadline for submissions: 

June 30, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association

contact email: 

roland_finger@cuesta.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/05/29/a-gathering-of-horrors-terrors-and-monstrosities

PAMLA: A Gathering of Horrors, Terrors, and Monstrosities Panel, 11/20/25-11/23/25, San Francisco

Dark times call for dark and demonic stories. Films, graphic novels, and fiction provide compelling ways to examine the horrors, terrors, and monstrosities in our world. Deep and dark works and our fixation on them provide apocalyptic, devastating, and shocking revelations about individuals, society, and nature. While works of horror tear audiences away from realistic norms and social acceptability, they confront us with extreme embodiment, emotion, and intellectual crisis. Chilling whispers and screams beg to be heard even if we are conditioned not to hear them. Norms of decency, sensitivity, and reason are in decline but simultaneously acquire added value. Monstrosity is not just a grisly spectacle but is a message demanding our attention. This panel investigates the meaning and importance of horror, terror, and monstrosity through the study of film, graphic fiction, and literature. What do these works demand from us?

Submit proposals: https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/19728

Conference dashboard: https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/User/DashBoard

PAMLA is the western regional affiliate of the Modern Language Association and is dedicated to the creation, advancement, and diffusion of knowledge of ancient and modern languages, literatures, media, cultures, and the arts. This year, the PAMLA is holding its annual 122nd Annual Conference in San Francisco from Nov. 20-23, 2025.

Last updated May 30, 2025

CFP Haunted by Hydrocarbons: Petrogothic and Petrohorror in the Contemporary Imagination (8/31/2025)

 

Edited Collection: Haunted by Hydrocarbons: Petrogothic and Petrohorror in the Contemporary Imagination

deadline for submissions: 

August 31, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Jennifer Schell (University of Alaska, Fairbanks)

contact email: 

jschell5@alaska.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/01/31/edited-collection-haunted-by-hydrocarbons-petrogothic-and-petrohorror-in-the.

Edited Collection: Haunted by Hydrocarbons: Petrogothic and Petrohorror in the Contemporary Imagination

 

Deadline for proposal submission: August 31, 2025

 

Editors: Madalynn L. Madigar (Cherokee Nation, University of Oregon), Jennifer Schell (University of Alaska, Fairbanks)

 

Contact Email: mmadigar@uoregon.edu, jschell5@alaska.edu

 

For this edited collection, we invite proposals for essays that focus on and engage with petrogothic and petrohorror, emerging fields that examine the textual artifacts of hydrocarbon cultures through the lens of gothic and horror studies.

 

Petrogothic and petrohorror scholarship serves to address the anxiety, terror, and disquiet surrounding “petromodernity,” a term coined by scholar Stephanie LeMenager to describe the role of oil in constructing the material and social culture of contemporary globalized society. While the extraction, production, and combustion of hydrocarbons—primarily coal, oil, and natural gas—has enabled a luxurious standard of living in the Global North, it has also caused widespread destruction on almost every scale. Our premise for this collection is that humanities scholars need to examine the ingrained presence of petrocultures in contemporary cultural artifacts—including those invoke anxiety, fear, revulsion, horror, and terror—in order to counter the continued use of polluting fossil fuels and understand the corrosive influences of contemporary energy regimes. We recognize that over the last several years, some scholars have criticized petrogothic and petrohorror texts for their so-called invocations of “gloom and doom.” However, in this collection, we wish to add nuance to this discussion. Rather than treating these texts as monolithic, we propose to examine their intricacies and complexities so as to learn more about what they have to say about contemporary oil cultures. In so doing, we seek to gain greater insight into the feelings, constructions, and structures of fear (as well as other connected affects) that pervade human interactions with hydrocarbons and manifest themselves in collective and individual petrogothic and petrohorrific expressions.

 

To better address the manifestations of petrohorror and petrogothic in the contemporary imagination, we invite proposals for essays that engage with literature, film, graphic novels, comics, theatre, music, art, or any other oily texts. We are particularly interested in proposals for essays that center marginalized perspectives and address environmental justice issues.

 

Chapters might examine (but are not limited to) any of the following themes as a means of approaching petrohorror and the petrogothic:

• Temporality
• Geology and Fossils
• Extinction
• Monstrosity
• Spectrality
• Apocalypse
• Petromaterialisms
• Infrastructure and Technology
• Vehicular Cultures
• Plastics and Petrochemicals
• Pollution and Toxicity
• Waste Streams
• Illness and Disease
• Climate Change
• Environmental Justice
• Indigenous Epistemologies
• Necropolitics
• Capitalism and Colonialism
• Global and Regional Concerns
• More-Than-Human Perspectives

 

Please send a 300-word abstract and a 100-word bio to editors Madalynn Madigar (mmadigar@uoregon.edu)and Jennifer Schell (jschell5@alaska.edu) by August 31, 2025. Full essays of 6,000 to 7,000 words will be tentatively due by June 30, 2026.

Last updated February 28, 2025

CFP Fungal Horror and Popular Culture (6/1/2025)

 

Fungal Horror and Popular Culture

deadline for submissions: 

June 1, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Berit Åström, Umeå University

contact email: 

berit.astrom@umu.se

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/04/10/fungal-horror-and-popular-culture.

As editors of the planned Palgrave Handbook on Fungal Horror in Popular Culture, which has 33 commissioned chapters, Dr Katarina Gregersdotter and Dr Berit Åström, Umeå University, Sweden seek approximately 10 additional original essays. 

We are primarily looking for chapters on fungal horror in non-Anglophone material, but also welcome studies of less mainstream Anglophone texts. 

Fungi are entangled in our lives, as food, as medicine or drugs, but also as parasites and agents of destruction, such as black mould, dry rot and cordyceps, the zombie fungus. This entanglement carries over into popular culture, where fungi are used to carry out different kinds of work, articulating deep seated fears and desires, functioning as a threat to, but perhaps also a saviour of, an embattled humanity on the brink of possible extinction.   

This edited volume will be the first full-length scholarly study of fungal horror in popular culture such as, but not limited to, literature, film, television, comics/graphic novels, computer games, art and memes. We invite contributors to approach the topic broadly, both in terms of material analysed and in the themes explored. 

 The chapters should be c. 7 000 words, including endnotes and bibliography.  

Send your abstract, of no more than 300 words, together with a brief biography to Berit Åström berit.astrom@umu.se and Katarina Gregersdotter katarina.gregersdotter@umu.se by 1 June, 2025. Notification of acceptance will be given no later than June 27, 2025.  

Deadline for submission of completed manuscripts is 15 January, 2026.

Last updated April 10, 2025

CFP Dinosaurs in Film, Literature, and the Arts Collection (9/25/2024)

Dinosaurs in Film, Literature, and the Arts

deadline for submissions:
September 25, 2024

full name / name of organization:
Rachel Carazo

contact email:
rachel.carazo@snhu.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/05/01/dinosaurs-in-film-literature-and-the-arts

This collection seeks essays on dinosaurs in film, literature, and the arts. The Jurassic Park franchise solidified the presence of dinosaurs in the pop cultural imagination, but there have been other media and dinosaur portrayals that have captured the public's imagination. Topics can include, but are not limited to:

-Studies of specific films

-Studies of specific novels

-Studies of special effects renderings of dinosaurs

-Artwork with dinosaurs

Chapters will be due in April 2025. Chapters should be approximately 5,000 to 7,000 words, with Chicago-style endnotes and a bibliography page.

Abstracts and a brief bio should be submitted by September 25, 2024, to Rachel Carazo: rachel.carazo@snhu.edu



Last updated August 1, 2024

CFP Gothic Studies Area (6/30/2023; MAPACA Philadelphia 11/9-11/2023)

MAPACA: Gothic Studies

deadline for submissions:
June 30, 2023

full name / name of organization:
Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association: Gothic Studies Area

contact email:
wsmcmasters@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/05/10/mapaca-gothic-studies



Gothic Studies CFP for MAPACA 2023: The Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association is accepting proposals until June 30 for their 2023 conference, Nov 9 - 11, in Philadelphia, PA. General guidelines can be found at mapaca.net and below. Please consider submitting to the Gothic Studies area: https://mapaca.net/areas/gothic-studies



The Gothic Studies area invites proposals which engage with the genre and culture of the Gothic as it is represented in film, television, literature, art, and society. We are especially interested in ways that the Gothic aesthetic defines itself against other predominate modes, or genres, of storytelling or culture. We also invite proposals concerned with subgenres of the Gothic across media, like the American Gothic, southern Gothic, feminine Gothic, the “weird tale,” and the ecoGothic as represented film, television, literature, music, fashion, art, and culture.

For more information and for the general CFP, visit mapaca.net



Last updated May 11, 2023

CFP Literary Monsters (6/15/2023; SAMLA Atlanta 11/9-11/2023)

Literary Monsters

deadline for submissions:
June 15, 2023

full name / name of organization:
SAMLA / South Atlantic Modern Language Association

contact email:
tracie.provost@mga.edu

soure: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/04/18/literary-monsters

SAMLA’s 95th annual conference, (In)Security: The Future of Literature and Language Studies, will be held at the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead Hotel & Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia this year from November 9-11. Those accepted must be members of SAMLA to present. You can find more information at: https://samla.memberclicks.net/



Literary Monsters Panel

In today's culture, it's almost impossible to avoid "monsters." Straight from mythology and legend, these fantastic creatures traipse across our television screens and the pages of our books. Over centuries and across cultures, the inhuman have represented numerous cultural fears and, in more recent times, desires. They are Other. They are Us. This panel will explore the literal monsters--whether they be mythological, extraterrestrial, or man-made--that populate fiction and film, delving into the cultural, psychological and/or theoretical implications.



Please submit a 250-300 word abstract, a brief bio, and any A/V needs by June 15, 2023 to Tracie Provost, Middle Georgia State University, at tracie.provost@mga.edu.



Last updated April 27, 2023

CFP Casas Tomadas: Monsters and Metaphors on the Periphery of Latin American Literature (7/30/2023)

Call for Book Chapters: "Casas Tomadas: Monsters and Metaphors on the Periphery of Latin American Literature"

deadline for submissions:
July 30, 2023

full name / name of organization:
Carlos A. Gonzalez

contact email:
cgonzalez@g.harvard.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/04/24/call-for-book-chapters-casas-tomadas-monsters-and-metaphors-on-the-periphery-of-latin

Vernon Press invites book chapters for an edited volume on the subject of "Casas Tomadas: Monsters and Metaphors on the Periphery of Latin American Literature."

Editor: Carlos A. González (Harvard University)

Monsters have always played an important role in the literature of Latin America, and have managed to persist in the national imaginations from which hispano- and lusophone writers draw their own source material. Dictators, strongmen, and organized crime roam the peripheries of language and history side by side with monsters, specters, and creatures horrible to behold.
This edited volume will draw together scholarship exploring the ways in which monsters, of the imagination and of history, persist in the literature, politics, language, and culture of Latin America, drawing from a wide array of sources and disciplines. It will also explore the role of literature in ensuring, processing, and reimagining the ongoing survival of the monstrous, with perhaps surprising results. It aims to explore the several manifestations of monsters and monstrosity in literature, arts, film and other Latin American media, by investigating the ever-changing forms they assume from early modernity to the present.
We welcome submissions that examine the ways in which monsters and monstrosity have been, and continue to be, depicted across temporal and geographical lines.

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Monsters and monstrosity in myth and folk-lore
• The literary and artistic representation of monsters through time
• The subversion of the monster trope in contemporary art and literature
• The representation of monstrous Others
• The intersection of race, class, sexuality, and gender in the representation of monsters and monstrosity
• The ethics of monsters or monstrous others

We encourage submissions from scholars of all backgrounds and levels of experience. Particularly welcome are interdisciplinary and transcultural contributions which highlight the subversive power of monsters, as well as challenging the category of monstrosity as a whole.

Please submit a 250-word abstract and a brief biography to Carlos A. González, cgonzalez@g.harvard.edu, by July 30th, 2023.

Full papers should be no longer than 8.000 words and will be due by Nov 30th, 2023. All submissions will be peer-reviewed.

We look forward to receiving your submissions and engaging in a rich and thought-provoking exchange on the topic of monstrosity and monsters in Latin American culture, literature, and the arts.



Last updated April 27, 2023

CFP Monstrosity in the Witcherverse (8/15/2022; NEPCA Monsters Area - online conference 10/20-22/2022)

“The worst monsters are the ones we create”: Monstrosity in the Witcherverse

Session Organized by Kris Larsen, Central Connecticut State University

Sponsored by the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association

2022 Annual Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association

Virtual Event to be held Thursday, 20 October, to Saturday, 22 October 2022

Proposals are due 15 August 2022


Andrzej Sapkowski’s internationally popular Witcher series of novels and short stories uses a medievalist setting to highlight the multiple monstrosities of modern life, including violence against the environment, racism and genocide, and abuses of technology. As the tagline of the hit Netflix spinoff warns, “The worst monsters are the ones we create.” We seek papers that investigate the creative twists on the definitions of monster and monstrous in any aspects of the Witcherverse, including the source material, Netflix adaptations (both live-action and animated), Polish live-action adaptation, and computer games, as well as ‘monstrous fan’ behavior (including race-centric attacks on the Netflix showrunner for casting choices). Papers that are solely focused on the Witcherverse as well as those that analyze Sapkowski’s sub-creation in comparison to other Secondary Worlds are welcomed.



Address inquires on this call to Kris Larsen (larsen@ccsu.edu) with the subject line NEPCA Witcher. However, please submit your proposal directly into NEPCA’s conference system at https://bit.ly/CFPNEPCA22. You will need to have prepared the following: Yout Email, The type of proposal (single paper or full panel), Your Name, Your Proposed Subject Area (select “Monsters and the Monstrous” please), An Abstract (no more than 250 words), Academic Affiliation (if applicable), Scholarly Role, and Short Bio (up to 200 words), and Timing preferences for the session. The system will send you a receipt of your submission and alert the area chair of its readiness for review.

If accepted, presenters must join NEPCA for the year and pay the conference fee. This year the costs are $54.67 USD for Conference Registration & Membership Dues. Payment is expected in advance of 1 October 2022. Do connect with the area chair (at Popular.Preternaturaliana@gmail.com) or NEPCA directly via Lance Eaton, the Executive Secretary, (at northeastpopculture@gmail.com), if you are experiencing financial challenges that might impact your ability to present.


NEPCA prides itself on holding conferences that emphasize sharing ideas in a non-competitive and supportive environment. NEPCA conferences offer intimate and nurturing sessions in which new ideas and works-in-progress can be aired, as well as completed projects.

We welcome proposals from scholars of all levels, including full-time faculty, graduate students, independent scholars, junior faculty, part-time faculty, and senior scholars. We are also open to undergraduate presentations, provided a faculty member is also included as a point of reference (please include the faculty member’s name, institution, and email in the bio section when submitting).


For further details on NEPCA, please visit its site at https://nepca.blog/. The dedicated page for the conference is https://nepca.blog/conference/.

The Monsters & the Monstrous Area maintains its own site for news and resources. Please check us out at https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/.


This call for papers can be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/MonstrosityinWitcherverse.

CFP Haunted Hibernia: Conjuring the Contemporary Irish Gothic (5/1/2022; Ireland 10/28-29/2022)

Haunted Hibernia: Conjuring the Contemporary Irish Gothic

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/02/20/haunted-hibernia-conjuring-the-contemporary-irish-gothic

deadline for submissions:
May 1, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Carlow College

contact email:
hauntedhibernia@gmail.com

Date of conference: 28th-29th October 2022.

In the period following the collapse of the Celtic Tiger in 2008, Irish society and culture began to take on a distinctly Gothic hue. In popular discourse, the landscapes of recessionary Ireland were figured as uncanny, gothicized spaces, haunted by ‘ghost estates’ and ‘zombie banks’, and preyed upon by vampiric ‘vulture funds’. At the same time, deeply disturbing aspects of Ireland’s history were further exposed in a plethora of government commissions documenting the shocking scale and extent of the abuses committed by the church and state, including: the 2009 Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (the ‘Ryan Report’), the 2013 Magdalen Commission Report (the ‘Quirke Report’), and (the more problematic) 2021 Report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation. These profoundly disturbing revelations regarding the country’s past have resonated, in a deeply troubling manner, with more recent societal crises, such as the ongoing issue of homelessness and child poverty, the inhumane treatment of individuals in direct provision, the fight for reproductive autonomy, and the rise of domestic violence in the wake of the ongoing Covid pandemic. Given the psychologically discomfiting and socially unsettling effect of these overlapping contexts and anxieties, it is unsurprising that the Gothic has proved an especially apposite prism for the artistic representation of Ireland’s post-Celtic-Tiger dispensation.

This conference seeks to explore the myriad ways that the Gothic has been deployed to interrogate the social, economic, and political transformations that have occurred in Ireland since the end of the Celtic Tiger, and to exhume the associated historical trauma engendered by these changes. It will also examine how the contemporary scene has generated and precipitated new variations and hybridizations of Gothic literature and media. We welcome papers that engage with the Gothic in a wide variety of forms and media, including fiction, poetry, drama, film, tv, visual art, music, digital media and storytelling, and the broader field of popular culture.



The conference will also host plenary speaker, Dr. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, Senior Lecturer and founding member of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University.



Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• The Gothic and gender/sexuality: The Gothic as a lens through which we engage with the politicised female body and ownership/possession of the female body in 21st century Ireland.
• The use of the Gothic as a mode of progressive social and political protest.
• The Gothic as a vehicle to signify and disclose economic/financial crisis in Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland.
• Gothic tropes and motifs (the monstrous, the spectral, the uncanny, the haunted house) in contemporary Irish artistic culture.
• Contemporary artistic engagement with an older Irish Gothic tradition
• The aesthetic evolution/re-invention of the Gothic in contemporary Irish art and literature
• Eco Gothic and Eco horror in and Irish context
• The Gothic in Contemporary Irish Children’s Literature
• The Covid pandemic and the Gothic.
• Narratives of Gothic imprisonment/entrapment in contemporary Ireland, both literal and structural.
• The Gothic as a response to Ireland’s ongoing mental health crisis.
• Representations of home and homelessness in contemporary Irish Gothic.
• Constructions of domesticity and the domestic space in contemporary Irish Gothic.
• Specters of imperialism in contemporary Ireland.

Proposals (300 words) and a brief biography should be sent to hauntedhibernia@gmail.com by 1st May 2022.



Last updated February 21, 2022

CFP Special Issue on "Monsters" or "monstrosity" in artworks intended for children (4/30/2022)

This appears to be for a Special Issue of Language, Culture, Environment.

"Monsters" or "monstrosity" in artworks intended for children

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/03/02/monsters-or-monstrosity-in-artworks-intended-for-children

deadline for submissions:
April 30, 2022

full name / name of organization:
KIMEP University

contact email:
lcekimep@gmail.com



The journal is seeking submissions of between 6000 and 8000 words on the topic of "monsters" or "monstrosity" in artworks intended for children. The works can be from literature, but also from film, internet, or other media, in any national tradition or historical period. Submissions may include inquiries into how the monstrous or the figure of the monster functions metaphorically, or otherwise serves to interpret or mediate the adult world to children. The deadline for submissions is 30th April 2022.



Last updated March 8, 2022

CFP Southern Gothic Area at PCAS/ACAS 2022 (6/1/2022; New Orleans 10/13-15/2022)

CFP: Southern Gothic Area at PCAS/ACAS 2022

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/03/03/cfp-southern-gothic-area-at-pcasacas-2022

deadline for submissions:
June 1, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Popular Culture/ American Culture Association in the South

contact email:
SouthernGothicPCAS@gmail.com

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: THE SOUTHERN GOTHIC AT PCAS/ ACAS 2022

Submission deadline: June 1, 2022; Notification of acceptance by July 1, 2022



Despite the difficulty in defining what exactly the Southern Gothic is, it nevertheless is one of the most prominent ways the South is represented in media and culture. From Flannery O’Connor to The Originals, Truman Capote to True Detective, and William Faulkner to The Walking Dead, whether categorized as a form, a style, or a genre, the Southern Gothic is bound up with regional cultural anxieties regarding shifting discourses of race, class, gender, sexuality, and geographic identity itself. From its most stereotypical depictions to more nuanced, complex interpretations, the Southern Gothic shapes the wider perception of regional identities in ways that invite our contemporary scholarly engagement.

To this end, the Southern Gothic area of the Popular Culture / American Culture Association in the South (PCAS/ ACAS) invites proposals for individual presentations, roundtable discussions, or full panels of 3-4 papers at the 2022 PCAS/ ACAS Annual Conference, to be held October 13 - 15, 2022 in New Orleans, LA.

Topics might include (but are in no way limited to):

• the Southern Gothic in film, TV, and literature
• adaptation(s) of Southern Gothic literature
• the Southern Gothic in new media (games, podcasts, graphic novels, etc.)
• the emergence of “Southern noir” as a subgenre
• race, class, gender, and/ or sexuality in the Southern Gothic
• Southern true crime as a cultural phenomenon
• documentary and the Southern Gothic
• Global elements of/ approaches to the Southern Gothic
• Southern Gothic tourism
• monsters in the Southern Gothic: vampires, zombies, ghosts, etc.
• mental health narratives in the Southern Gothic
• specificity—or generality—in Southern Gothic geographies
• the Southern Gothic in popular music
• pedagogical approaches to/ uses of the Southern Gothic
• the spectre of history in the Southern Gothic
• sites of intersection between the Southern Gothic and other genres/ modes

PCAS/ ACAS is dedicated to working toward equity, diversity, and inclusion both within our organization and in academia at large. As such, we encourage submissions by underrepresented and marginalized scholars based upon race, gender, sexuality, and employment status (e.g., graduate students and non-tenure track or unaffiliated/independent scholars).



To propose a presentation (of 20 minutes or less) or a roundtable discussion for the Southern Gothic Area, please send the following to Area Chair Stephanie Graves at SouthernGothicPCAS@gmail.com by June 1:
Name of presenter(s), institutional affiliation (if any), & email address for each presenter
Type of submission (individual paper, roundtable, or full panel)
Presentation abstract (250 words or fewer)
Indication if you need access to A/V (not all rooms have A/V available)

Submission deadline is June 1, 2022; notifications of acceptance will be sent by July 1, 2022.



NOTE: In order to be considered for the Southern Gothic Area, please follow the instructions above rather than submitting through the PCAS/ ACAS website.

Everyone is invited to submit one academic paper and can, in addition, participate in a round-table discussion or creative session. Only those proposals intended for the Southern Gothic area should be submitted as outlined above; the PCAS/ ACAS website has an online submission form for the General Call.




Last updated March 8, 2022

CFP Literary Monsters (3/31/2022; SAMLA Jacksonville 11/11-13/2022)

Literary Monsters

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/03/15/literary-monsters

deadline for submissions:
March 31, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Speculative Fiction Association

contact email:
tracie.provost@mga.edu



In today's culture, it's almost impossible to avoid "monsters." Straight from mythology and legend, these fantastic creatures traipse across our television screens and the pages of our books. Over centuries and across cultures, the inhuman have represented numerous cultural fears and, in more recent times, desires. They are Other. They are Us. This panel will explore monsters--whether they be mythological, extraterrestrial, or man-made--that populate fiction and film, delving into the cultural, psychological and/or theoretical implications.



Please submit a 250-300 word abstract, a brief bio, and any A/V needs by May 31, 2022 to Tracie Provost, Middle Georgia State University, at tracie.provost@mga.edu.

SAMLA’s 94th annual conference, Change, will be held at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel in Jacksonville, FL this year from November 11-13. Those accepted must be members of SAMLA to present.



Last updated March 15, 2022

CFP Vampire Studies (2022 PCA/ACA National Conference)

Note: PCA has recently shifted the conference to online AND extended the submission deadlines.

Vampire Studies (2022 PCA/ACA National Conference)

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/08/30/vampire-studies-2022-pcaaca-national-conference

deadline for submissions: November 15, 2021

full name / name of organization: Popular Culture Association

contact email: pcavampires@gmail.com

The Vampire Studies Area of the PCA welcomes papers, presentations, panels, and roundtable discussions that cover all aspects of the vampire as it appears throughout global culture. This year's conference will be held April 13-16 in Seattle, WA.

This year the Vampire Community celebrates the centenary of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.  We welcome papers, panel presentations, or creative pieces about this classic genre defining film.  As well as this broad theme we also welcome papers, presentations, and panels that cover any of the following:

•       The Non-Western Vampire (i.e. Black, Asian, Latino/a/x, African)
•       The Horror Vampire Byronic vs Hedonistic, or Horror vs Romantic
•       Vampires at the end of the world and beyond
•       The vampire on legacy television shows (i.e. Dark Shadows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Moonlight, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals)
•       The vampire on recent television shows (i.e. What We Do In the Shadows, From Dusk Till Dawn, Castlevania)
•       Legacy Cinematic vampires (i.e., Nosferatu, Interview with the Vampire, Near Dark, Twilight etc.)
•       Recent Cinematic Vampires (i.e., Bit, Crucible of the Vampire: Therapy for the Vampire etc.)
•       Vampire Cultures and Contexts (i.e., vampire RPGs or other gaming universes, fan studies, graphic novels)
•       Vampires and the Marginalized (i.e., race, gender, sexualities, national origin)
•       Genres such as Gothic Horror, Urban Fantasy, Romance, Steampunk, Young Adult, Erotica, Comedy
•       Historic and contemporary vampiric locations and geographies (i.e. cemeteries, castles, cities)
•       Vampire Studies (i.e., the vampire in the classroom, vampire scholarship)

And anything and everything in between!

To have your proposal/abstract considered, please submit your proposal/abstract of approximately 250 words at the Popular Culture Association Website. We also welcome complete panel proposals of 3-4 people.

We do not currently accept papers from fledgling/undergraduate scholars, but you can submit your proposal to the special Undergraduate Area.

If you have questions, contact us at pcavampires@gmail.com.  Also, follow us on Twitter @pca_vampires or join our Facebook groups PCA Vampire Studies and Vampire Scholars.

2022 Conference Dates and Deadlines

01Aug-21           2022 Conference Information Available on website

01-Sept-21         Submissions Open

01-Oct-21           Early Bird Registration Begins

15-Nov-21          Deadline for Paper Proposals and Grant Applications

 

Last updated September 1, 2021

CFP Dracones in Mundo: Dragons in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture: A Series of Edited Volumes (7/25/2021)

My thanks to Kristine Larsen for the heads up on this:

Dracones in Mundo: Dragons in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture: A Series of Edited Volumes UPDATE/EXTENDED DEADLINE

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/01/03/dracones-in-mundo-dragons-in-literature-film-and-pop-culture-a-series-of-edited

deadline for submissions: July 25, 2021

full name / name of organization: St. Thomas University

contact email: rachel.carazo@snhu.edu



Dracones in Mundo: Dragons in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture: A Series of Edited Volumes UPDATE/EXTENDED DEADLINE

deadline for submissions:
July 25, 2021

full name / name of organization:
St. Thomas University

contact email:
rachel.carazo@snhu.edu

I received a great response to the last call for papers regarding the volumes on dragons. As a result, I have been better able to refine and divide results.

Below are the new details for the updated call for papers:
As the popularity of mythical creatures in films and literature grows, there is one creature that remains prominent: the dragon. Dragons have become most visible recently in the cinematic versions of The Hobbit and in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones Series). However, there are other films, such as Dragonslayer (1981), Reign of Fire (2002), Dragonheart (1996), and the How to Train Your Dragon series (2010-2019), and numerous adult and children’s literature series that feature dragons.

This call for papers will result in several themed volumes under each of these main headings:

---

FULL VOLUME(S)

1) Wings, Wonders, and Warriors: Dragons in Children’s Literature and Graphic Novels



--

SEMI-FULL VOLUMES (Needing 5-8 essays)

The following two volumes need a few more essays to be considered full:

2) Dragons in Mythology

*Working Title: Flights of the Imagination: Dragons in Mythology and Folklore

3) Dragons in Film and Television

*Working title: Heroes and Villains on 'Silver' Wings: Representations of Dragons in Film and Television

---

OPEN VOLUMES (Needing between 8-10 essays)

4) Dragons in Fiction* [due to the plethora of romance fiction with dragons/shapeshifters, I would be interested also in a separate study or at least a section of the volume about these romantic works]
5) Dragon Games and Online Culture [video games/card games etc]
6) Dragons, Posthumanism, and Animality [since the idea of the posthuman seeks to question the dominating humanistic and anthropocentric perspective upon the nonhuman world, these essays are meant to use this framework to highlight innovations or non-anthropocentric observations on dragons in literature, film, and pop culture]. Topics may include shapeshifters, corporality, affectivity, and the relationship(s) between humans and dragons.
7) The Landscapes of Dragons [these essays seek to investigate ways in which dragons are specifically tied to landscapes, images of the idyll, or images of devastation]
8) Dragons and Ecocriticism [these essays seek ways in which works with dragons remark on the environment in political and critical ways, or how dragon-related narrative can enhance valuable reflections in dialogue with current debates on ecology]
9) Dragon Riders: [even though there is a volume on general fiction, there is a specific genre built around dragon riders as well, so I encourage essays on these topics to show specific intersections between works and relationships within specific works on aspects of riding dragons]
10) Dragons in Fairy Tales/Dragons and Fairy Tale Tropes: [this volume seeks to find aspects of fairy tales or entire tales that relate to dragons/dragon lore in innovative ways/ the editor already has an essay (based on a fairy tale) related to Wings of Fire in process, but all other topics are currently open]
11) Dragons and Pop Culture: Music, Coats of Arms, Dragon Symbols, and Miscellany [this volume seeks to cover media and topics that do not easily fit into the other categories]
12) Dragons in Internet Memes: essays on memes from single films or other themes.

The scope of the present call is still broad. All topics regarding the themes and impact of dragons in film, literature, games, and online culture will be considered. Possible topics include (non-comprehensive list):

• Dragons as non-human animals
• Dragons and the environment
• Dragon symbolism
• The intersections of childhood, gender, race, and ethnicity with dragons
• Changes in the representations of dragons over time
• Visual aspects and attributes of dragons
• Representations of good and evil in connection with dragons

Deadline for proposals: July 25, 2021

Deadline for first drafts: September 25, 2021* [this deadline may be extended for volumes outside of the first depending on how many abstracts are received and which volumes are completed first]

How to submit your proposal
I will have a co-editor for three volumes: *Posthumanism, *Landscapes, and *Ecocriticism with Stefano Rozzoni (PhD Candidate, University of Bergamo), so proposals regarding those topics should be emailed to both rachel.carazo@snhu.edu and stefano.rozzoni@unibg.it
Please send all other abstracts, a short biographical note, and the name of the volume that the paper is for to Rachel L. Carazo at rachel.carazo@snhu.edu



rachel.carazo@snhu.edu

Rachel Carazo



Last updated April 7, 2021
This CFP has been viewed 200 times.

CFP Weird Sciences and the Sciences of the Weird (Spec Issue of Pulse 6/30/20)

Apologies for the delay in posting this:

WEIRD SCIENCES AND THE SCIENCES OF THE WEIRD
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2020/03/10/weird-sciences-and-the-sciences-of-the-weird

deadline for submissions:
June 30, 2020


full name / name of organization:
PULSE - THE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND CULTURE


contact email:
mbregovi@gmail.com


Recent scientific discoveries in climatology, animal cognition and microbiology have radically altered our conceptions of ourselves and the environment we live in, both on micro and macroscales. Zooming in on the human microbiome and out to the planetary ecosystem, or even further into infinite cosmic spaces, the sciences are revealing strange dynamics of human-nonhuman interconnectedness, doing away with the established anthropocentrism and the idea of human exceptionalism. Current theoretical discussions revolving around the human-environment relation have shifted their interests from discourse to matter, shedding new light on strange bodily assemblages composed of anaerobic bacteria which live in symbiotic relationships with the human body (Jane Bennett, Stacy Alaimo), other types of cognition and intelligent life apart from our own (Steven Shaviro) and, especially, the mechanisms by which human action, no matter how abstract or invisible, contributes to the global ecological transformations (Donna Haraway, Timothy Morton). The ultimate effect of these conceptual transformations is a certain sense of estrangement that is often, but not necessarily, tied to feelings of unease, horror and/or fascination. This specific affect is commonly referred to as the weird because it operates through disrupting our ordinary perception and experience, creating confusion and a sense of disorientation.

Strange modes of human-nonhuman interactions are steadily pervading contemporary theoretical thought which analyzes the weird as a specific form of affect, effect and aesthetics signaled by a sense of wrongness (Mark Fisher). In conjunction with an increasing awareness of these estranged environments, a growing tendency towards the aesthetics of the weird is visible in popular culture and contemporary art production. As a continuation of H.P. Lovecraft’s weird tradition, “the weird” is now bringing together some of the most exciting contemporary writers and filmmakers: China Miéville, Elvia Wilk, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Jeff VanderMeer, Athina Rachel Tsangari and Yorgos Lanthimos, to name just the most significant ones. Similar tendencies are also evident in TV shows such as True Detective (inspired by Thomas Ligotti’s nihilistic weird fiction), Stranger Things and the Twin Peaks revival (echoing Lovecraftian cosmic horror). The aesthetics of weird is also embraced by musicians such as Björk, Gazelle Twin, FKA Twigs and inscribed in particular new media art practices, especially bioart.

In this issue of Pulse, we aim to investigate the aesthetics, politics and ethics of the weird from various theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, particularly those within the framework of environmental humanities: ecocriticism, geocriticism, animal studies, critical plant studies, posthumanism, new materialism, actor-network theory, queer theory, xenofeminism etc. How do the sciences estrange our conceptions of the world and how is this articulated in artistic practices? Starting from the confluence of art and science, our aim is to map diverse territories of the weird in literature, film, music, television, video games, visual arts, comic books, dance, theatre and other media.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

— theory of the weird: posthumanism, speculative realism, object oriented ontology, new materialism

— cognitive and affective aspects of the weird

— the weird, supernatural and unheimlich

— New Weird and the Other

— speculative fiction, science fiction, horror and weird fiction

— intersections of the weird and grotesque, fantasy, magical realism, etc.

— Anthropocene, deep time and the weird

— animal and plant life and the weird

— multispecies ecologies, human-nonhuman entanglements

— anomalies, mutations and hybrids

— inorganic matter in arts and literature

— eerie landscapes and extinction

— weird bodies: trans-corporeality, queer, transhumanism


References:

Mark Fisher, The Weird and the Eerie, 2016, Repeater Books, London.

Julius Greve and Florian Zappe (eds.), Spaces and Fictions of the Weird and the Fantastic: Ecologies, Geographies, Oddities, 2019, Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Donna Haraway, 2016, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Duke Univ. Press

Steven Shaviro, Discognition, 2016, Repeater Books, London.



SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 30 June 2020

We welcome the submission of FULL ARTICLES (5000-6000 words) on these and related themes. We also publish BOOK REVIEWS(800-1000 words); please get in touch if there is a book you would like to review.

All articles should be prepared for blind review including the removal of authorship from the document file information. Submissions should include a cover sheet in a separately attached document containing: the paper title and short abstract (ca. 250 words) author’s name, affiliation, word count (including footnotes & references), and contact information. Article and cover sheet should be submitted in a .doc, .docx, or .odt (or similar open-source) file format. PDF submissions are also accepted but previously stated file formats are preferred where possible. References should be formatted according to Chicago style (Footnotes and Bibliography).

All articles and related material should be submitted to: submissions.pulse@gmail.com

For any inquires please feel free to contact us at pulse.scistudies@gmail.com. Please do not submit articles to this email address. For general information and to access previous issues of Pulse you can visit:

​Central and Eastern Europe Online Library: https://www.ceeol.com/search/journal-detail?id=2187

​Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pulse.scistudies

​


Last updated March 13, 2020

This CFP has been viewed 723 times.

CFP Horror(s) of Childhood and Adolescence (Spec Issue of Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura) (1/31/2020)

CFP: Horror(s) of Childhood and Adolescence
In CFP On September 29, 2019
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2019/cfp-horrors-of-childhood-and-adolescence/

Please find pasted below the call for papers for the next issue of Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura [Childhood: Literature and Culture], a biannual journal published at the University of Warsaw, Poland. The theme of the issue is Horror(s) of childhood and adolescence, and the deadline is January, 31, 2020.

The first issue of the journal is here: https://www.journals.polon.uw.edu.pl/index.php/dlk/issue/view/18.
All papers are peer-reviewed and, if accepted, published in open access without any article processing fees.

Call for papers 1/2020

To read more about the journal, including our submission procedure, please visit our platform: http://www.journals.polon.uw.edu.pl/index.php/dlk (to change the language to English, please click the ‘globe’ button of the page). You can also find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dlkuw/.

Yours faithfully,

Maciej Skowera

Vice-director of the journal  Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura [Childhood: Literature and Culture



Horror(s) of childhood and adolescence

On the one hand, within literary and film studies, the notion of horror is used as a genological category. On the other hand, as an aesthetic category, it is referred to various cultural texts: literary works, films, and TV series as well as theatrical performances and video games. Anita Has-Tokarz, in a monograph Horror w literaturze współczesnej i filmie [Horror in Contemporary Literature and Film] (2010), even considers it to denote “an effect [of dread] exerted on the recipient by a [cultural] text” (p. 51; our own translation). We would like to devote the third issue of “Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura” to the relations of childhood and adolescence with horror – understood in all these ways – which are visible in three fields of consideration.

Firstly: the child in horror fiction. Culture, especially popular culture, eagerly casts children in the roles of disturbingly mysterious, mediumistic, frightening, demonic beings, or even torturers – but also in the roles of victims, specially protected individuals, objects of interest of variously presented evil, as well as heroes and heroines who are the only ones that can fight this evil. From the classic examples, it is enough to recall the teenage girl, Regan, from The Exorcist directed by William Friedkin, the young antichrist from The Omen franchise, and children’s characters from Stephen King’s prose – e.g. The Shining, Children of the Corn, Pet Semetary, or It – and from many famous screen adaptations of his works. Such figures – demonic children, but also children as saviours – have appeared in many popular films in recent years, such as John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, Jennifer Kent’s Babadook, or Ari Aster’s Hereditary; in TV series, to mention the American Horror Story anthology by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, Stranger Things by the Duffer brothers, The Haunting of Hill House by Mike Flanagan (loosely based on the novel by Shirley Jackson); in video games, e.g. The Last of Us by the Mighty Dog studio and American McGee’s Alice series; and, finally, in literature, like Josh Malerman’s already filmed novel, Bird Box. It is also worth to mention the approaches other than the Anglo-Saxon ones: the dreadful child presented by the classics of Japanese horror cinema in which it is an embodiment of tragedy and mystery, and where childhood is stigmatised by unimaginable suffering from which the protagonists cannot free themselves (e.g. The Ring and Dark Water by Hideo Nakata, or Ju-On: The Grudge by Takashi Shimizu); Spanish, Portuguese, Mexican, and South American representations, connected to folklore, traditional beliefs, and fairy tales, such as Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth or J. A. Bayona’s The Orphanage; the cruel children from German and Austrian works, e.g. Goodnight Mommy by Veronica Franz and Severin Fiala. We would like to look at the ways in which children’s characters are used both in the classics of the genre and in the latest cultural production.

Secondly: children’s and young adult horror fiction. In the last dozen or so years, we have been experiencing a renaissance of horror literature for young people. The literary roots of such works date back to the tradition of the 19th century and, inter alia, to the so-called pedagogy of fear, while in the 20th century, classical examples are the works by John Bellairs, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Today, many authors display both the ludic and reflective dimensions of horror, such as Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket), Ian Ogilvy, Chris Priestley, or Neil Gaiman and, in Poland, Marcin Szczygielski and Grzegorz Gortat. The issue of horror in cultural texts for children and young adults has become the subject of research of many scholars, both in Poland, especially Katarzyna Slany, and abroad, including Jessica R. McCort, Michael Howarth as well as Anna Jackson, Karen Coats and Roderick McGillis, Monica Flegel, Christopher Parkes, Chloé Germaine Buckley, K. Shryock Hood, Laura Hubner. To continue the considerations they have undertaken, we would like to invite authors to examine the strategies of creating horror fiction for young recipients – not only literary works, but also those from other media, such as films, TV series, video games, comic books.

Thirdly and lastly: childhood and adolescence as a horror. In this problem area, the concept of horror will be understood the most broadly. Such plots and motifs appear in works addressed both to adults (including biographical and autobiographical pieces) and children and young adults. The dominance of the Arcadian tone in cultural texts for young people is a thing of the past; for several decades, there has been a clear tendency to raise drastic subjects, tabooed before, such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, addictions, suicides, etc. 13 Reasons Why, a famous TV series created by Brian Yorkey (adapted from the novel by Jay Asher), Euphoria by Sam Levinson, Stephen Chbosky’s novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower and its screen adaptation directed by the writer, The Lovely Bones by Jodi Picoult and Peter Jackson’s film based on this work, Dom nie z tej ziemi [The House Out of This World] by Małgorzata Strękowska-Zaremba, The Book Everything by Guus Kuijer, or transgressive picturebooks (like those by Gro Dahle and Svein Nyhus) – are just a few of the many examples. Another issue is the horror of childhood and adolescence in dystopias and post-apocalyptic narratives, those for adult audiences (The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and a TV series inspired by this prose, The Road by Cormac McCarthy and a film based on it) and those for young adults (Suzanne Collins’s trilogy The Hunger Games, Veronica Roths’s Divergent series, and screen adaptations of these works, or Meto by Yves Grevet) and children (Woolvs in the Sitee by Margaret Wild and Anne Spudvilas). Social problems with a destructive impact on childhood and adolescence, reflected or extrapolated in many cultural texts, are therefore another issue we encourage potential authors to explore.

We invite you to consider various aspects of the relations of childhood and adolescence with horror in diverse cultural texts for different audiences. We are interested in cross-sectional articles and case studies about works created in the 19th, 20th, and 21st century. The three problem areas we identified – the child in horror fiction, horror for children and young adults, and childhood and adolescence as a horror – do not cover such a complex issue fully; therefore, the editorial team is open to other proposals, going beyond the proposed topics.

We also invite you to send texts unconnected with the issue’s subject matter to our Varia and Reviews sections.

Article submission deadline: 31.01.2020

CFP Stephen King Area (10/1/2018; PCA/ACA Washington DC 4/17-20/2019)

CFP: Stephen King Area (2019 PCA National Conference), Washington D.C.
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2018/cfp-stephen-king-area-2019-pca-national-conference-washington-d-c/
July 24, 2018

Stephen King Area (2019 PCA National Conference)

deadline for submissions:
October 1, 2018

full name / name of organization:
Patrick McAleer/Popular Culture Association

contact email: stephenkingpca@gmail.com



Stephen King Area

2019 PCA/ACA Annual National Conference

Washington D.C.: Wednesday, April 17th-Saturday, April 20th

The co-chairs of the Stephen King Area—Philip Simpson of Eastern Florida State College and Patrick McAleer of Inver Hills Community College—are soliciting papers, presentations, panels and roundtable discussions which cover any aspect of Stephen King’s fiction and film for the Annual National Joint Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference to be held in Washington D.C. from April 17th-April 20th 2019. Papers, presentations, and panels can cover King’s experimentation with medium (e-books, graphic novels, TV series), his more recent fictions, including his Dark Tower series, and anything in between. Indeed, feel free to view past programs of the PCA/ACA conference at www.pcaaca.org to see what has been covered during recent conferences.

To have your proposal/abstract considered for presentation, please submit your proposal/abstract of approximately 250 words through the PCA/ACA Database—http://ncp.pcaaca.org/ — by October 1st, 2018. Here you will submit your paper proposal/abstract and also provide your name, institutional affiliation, and contact information. Responses/decisions regarding your proposals will be provided within two weeks of your submission to ensure timely replies. Of course, should you have any questions specific to the Stephen King Area, please send an e-mail to stephenkingpca@gmail.com and we will be happy to assist you.

Complete panel proposals of 3-4 people are also welcomed, as are proposals for roundtable discussions with two or more featured speakers and a moderator. For more information, visit the PCA/ACA at www.pcaaca.org.

CFP American Ecogothic (9/30/2018; NeMLA 2019)

American Ecogothic, NeMLA
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/29/american-ecogothic-nemla

deadline for submissions: September 30, 2018

full name / name of organization: Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

contact email: caitlin.duffy@stonybrook.edu


Leslie Fiedler describes American fiction as “bewilderingly and embarrassingly, a gothic fiction… a literature of darkness and the grotesque in a land of light and affirmation” (Love and Death in the American Novel, 29). However, for settlers within the early colonies and citizens of the young republic, the wilderness of the supposed New World not only represented material promise, but also unknown danger. This panel proposes a move away from the more common “land of light and affirmation” reading of American nature towards an ecogothic approach. Despite recent attention paid to the intersections between gothic and ecocritical studies, there continues to be an unfortunate dearth in scholarship focusing on the specifically American ecogothic. This scarcity is surprising given the important role played by nature in the formation of the American gothic mode. Three major critical works focused on the American ecogothic include Tom J. Hillard’s and Kevin Corstorphine’s essays within Ecogothic (2013) and Ecogothic in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (2017), edited by Dawn Keetley and Matthew Wynn Sivils. In the introduction to their volume, Keetley and Sivils note that, given its unwavering fixation with the wilderness, “American gothic literature has always been ecogothic” (6).

This panel invites papers that interrogate gothic depictions of landscapes and wilderness in American fiction (including, but not limited to, literature, film, television, and video games) from any time period. In particular, we seek papers that work towards a definition of the American ecogothic as a national mode or style. Papers that utilize the ecogothic lens to support, challenge, or problematize current conceptions of the American gothic are especially welcome. We also encourage papers that explore the American ecogothic temporally by tracing transformations or continuations of its fictional appearance across time.

All proposals must be submitted through the NeMLA portal by September 30th and should be no more than 300 words.

The 50th annual NeMLA conference will take place on March 21-24, 2019 in Washington, DC. For more information: http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla.html

Please email any questions you may have to caitlin.duffy@stonybrook.edu.

CFP Tropical Gothic (Spec Issue of eTropic) (12/30/2018)

'Tropical Gothic'
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/07/02/tropical-gothic

deadline for submissions:
December 30, 2018

full name / name of organization:
eTropic journal

contact email:
etropic@jcu.edu.au


CALL FOR PAPERS special issue ‘Tropical Gothic’


Submission Deadline: 30 December 2018



‘TROPICAL GOTHIC’

‘The Gothic’ is undergoing a resurgence in academic and popular cultures. Propelled by fears produced by globalization, the neoliberal order, networked technologies, post-truth and environmental uncertainty – tropes of ‘the gothic’ resonate. The gothic allows us to delve into the unknown. It calls up unspoken truths and secret desires.

Across the tropics, the gothic manifests in specific ways according to spaces and places, and in relation to cultures and their encounters, crossings and interminglings.

Gothic studies that provide particularly interesting arenas of analysis include: culture, ritual, mythology, film, architecture, literature, fashion, art, landscapes, places, nature, spaces, histories and spectral cities. ‘Tropical Gothic’ may include subgenres such as: imperial gothic, orientalism in gothic literature, colonial and postcolonial gothic. In contemporary society neoliberal connections with the tropics and gothic may be investigated. In popular culture, tropical aspects of gothic film, cybergoth, gothic-steampunk, gothic sci-fi, goth graphic novels, and gothic music may be explored.

The eTropic journal is indexed in Scopus, Ulrich's and DOAJ. Publication is in 2019.

Instructions for authors: https://journals.jcu.edu.au/etropic.

Equiries, please contact: etropic@jcu.edu.au.

CFP Edited Collection on Young Adult Gothic Fiction (7/16/2018)

Edited Collection on Young Adult Gothic Fiction
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/05/22/edited-collection-on-young-adult-gothic-fiction

deadline for submissions: July 16, 2018

full name / name of organization: Dr Michelle Smith and Dr Kristine Moruzi

contact email: Michelle.Smith@monash.edu



Call for Papers: Edited Collection on Young Adult Gothic Fiction

The twenty-first century has seen a marked increase in the Gothic themes of liminality, monstrosity, transgression, romance, and sexuality in fiction for young adults. While Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series (2005-2008) is the most well-known example of Gothic young adult fiction, it is part of a growing corpus of hundreds of novels published in the genre since the turn of the millennium. During this period, the Gothic itself has simultaneously undergone a transformation. The Gothic monster is increasingly presented sympathetically, especially through narration and focalisation from the “monster’s” perspective. In YA Gothic, the crossing of boundaries that is typical of the Gothic is often motivated by a heterosexual romance plot in which the human or monstrous female protagonist desires a boy who is not her “type”. In addition, as the Gothic works to define what it means to be human, particularly in relation to gender, race, and identity, contemporary shifts and flashpoints in identity politics are also being negotiated under the metaphoric cloak of monstrosity.

Yet the Gothic also operates within young adult fiction to enable discussions about fears and anxieties in relation to a variety of contemporary concerns, including environmentalism, human rights, and alienation. Catherine Spooner suggests that the Gothic takes the form of a series of revivals. In the proposed collection we seek to explain what the current Gothic revival in YA fiction signifies and call for papers engaging with any aspect of Gothic fiction published for young adults since 2000.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The Gothic and the posthuman
• The paranormal romance
• The monstrous feminine
• The adolescent body
• The evolution of canonical monsters including the vampire, the werewolf, the witch
• Postfeminism and the Gothic
• The Gothic and race
• Gothic spaces
• Gothic historical fiction

The editors are currently preparing a proposal for a university press Gothic series, in which the publisher has already expressed preliminary interest.

Please submit abstracts of up to 300 words and a biographical note of up to 150 words to both Dr Kristine Moruzi (kristine.moruzi@deakin.edu.au) and Dr Michelle Smith (michelle.smith@monash.edu) by 16 July 2018.

Full papers of 6000 words will be due by 1 December 2018.