CFP New Perspectives on Creature Features (3/10/2025)

 

New Perspectives on Creature Features

deadline for submissions: 

March 10, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns

contact email: 

monstersfilms@yahoo.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/12/18/new-perspectives-on-creature-features. 

New Perspectives on Creature Features

 

Edited by

Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns (Universidad de Buenos Aires)

 

The editor is looking to put together an edited collection on creature features. The recent success of films such as Crawl (Alexander Aja, 2019) and the Monsterverse (Godzilla, King Kong, etc.), and the renewed interest in rebooting the classical monster pantheon (Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man) has shown that there is a growing interest in monsters’ films. Arguably, horror cinema began with creatures such as Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy and the Wolf Man and they have been popular since then. During the 1950s, the classical monsters were replaced by hideous alien creatures and the 1970s were witness of the “animal revenge” horror cycle. Creature features is today as popular as yesterday (maybe even more), yet “monster movies” are still considered as lowbrow efforts. Thus, this edited collection looks for close readings of films led by creatures and monsters in the 21st Century. Classical films will be welcome if analyzed through new, contemporary theories to show how their purpose/meaning has changed over time.

This collection will be global in scope, and creatures features Asia, Africa, and Latin America are very welcome.

 

Contributions could include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

 

-Classical monsters (vampires, werewolves, the Frankenstein monster, etc.)

- Animals in horror cinema

-Aliens

-Cryptids

-Trash cinema

-The creature as metaphor

-Creatures features and humor

-Global creatures’ features

-Kaiju

-Cute monsters

 

 

We are open to works that focus on other topics as well. Prospective authors are well to contact the editor with any questions, including potential topics not listed above. Please submit a 300-500-word abstract of your proposed chapter contribution as a Word Doc (not PDF) with a brief bio (in the same document), current position, affiliation, and complete contact information to editor Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns to monstersfilms@yahoo.com by 10 March 2025. Potential contributors must keep in mind that this book will be edited by Peter Lang for its “New Perspectives” series (edited by Simon Bacon), which asks for short chapters of around 3,500-4,000 words.

Final chapters are likely due in August 2025.

Please share this announcement with anyone you believe would be interested in contributing to this volume.

Note: Acceptance of a proposed abstract does not guarantee the acceptance of the full chapter

 

 

Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns (PhD in Arts, PhD Candidate in History) works as Professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (Argentina)-. He teaches courses on international horror film. He is director of the research group on horror cinema “Grite” and has authored a book about Spanish horror TV series Historias para no Dormir (Universidad de Cádiz, 2020) and has edited books on Frankenstein bicentennial (Universidad de Buenos Aires), one on director James Wan (McFarland, 2021), the Italian giallo film (University of Mississippi Press, 2022), horror comics (Routledge, 2022) and Hammer horror films (Routledge, 2024). Currently editing a book on Baltic horror. He is Director of “Terror: Estudios Críticos” (Universidad de Cádiz, Spain), the first-ever horror studies series in Spain.

 

https://posgrado.filo.uba.ar/pagnoni-fernando

categories

fan studies and fandom

film and television

interdisciplinary

journals and collections of essays

popular culture

Last updated January 2, 2025

CFP Kaiju and Pop Culture Anthology (expired)

Kaiju and Pop Culture Anthology

http://www.fantastic-arts.org/2016/cfp-kaiju-and-pop-culture-anthology/

deadline for submissions:

July 1, 2016

full name / name of organization:

Camille D. G. Mustachio

contact email:

kaijupopculture@gmail.com

Kaiju is a familiar trope in film and television that places giant monsters in direct conflict with fellow monsters and/or everyday citizens. While a larger-than-life creature that attacks Tokyo is likely the most familiar form of kaiju, additional iterations include apes, dragons, dinosaurs, and even robots.  Kaiju as a genre has evolved along with cinema; technical developments no longer require men stomping around in rubber costumes as CGI enables bigger and more frightening monsters to haunt our screens. With a timeless kitsch quality, kaiju is solidly placed within our collective pop culture psyche. We seek to create an anthology of original essays that explores technical, thematic, mythological, cultural, and historical aspects of various kaiju. This volume is under contract with McFarland Press with a 2017 anticipated release date.

 Some potential topics may include:

• individual monsters including but not limited to Godzilla, Mothra, and Daimajin
• folklore
• regional kaiju
• parody
• fandom
• cosplay
• merchandise
• translation
• adaptation from page to screen
• American pop culture endurance
• nostalgia
• development of film, television, comics, and gaming

Send abstracts of 200 words to kaijupopculture@gmail.com no later than Friday, July 1, 2016. Final articles of 5,000-6,000 words are to be MLA formatted (8th edition) with American English styles and spellings. Refrain from using images from Toho films.

CfP: Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable Collection (4/30/15)

Courtesy the IAFA site:

NOTE EXPIRED DEADLINE

http://www.fantastic-arts.org/2015/cfp-monsters-of-film-fiction-and-fable-edited-collection/

CfP: Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable — Edited Collection
Posted on April 4, 2015 by Public Information Officer
Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable: The Cultural Links between the Human and Inhuman

This proposed collection will explore the cultural implications of and the societal fears and desires associated with the literal monsters of fiction, television, and movies. Long tied to ideas of the Other, the inhuman have represented societal fears for centuries. While this depiction of inhuman as Other still persists today, postmodern times also saw a radical shift in the portrayals and long-held associations. The postmodern monster is by no means soft and cuddly; nevertheless, its depiction has evolved. Veering from the traditional, “us vs. them” dynamic, many contemporary works illustrate what posthuman theorists refer to as the “them” in “us” correlation. These new monsters, often found in urban fantasy, eradicate the stark separation between human and inhuman as audiences search for the similarities between themselves and their much beloved monster characters. The shifted portrayal also means that these select, postmodern monsters no longer highlight cultural fears, but rather cultural hopes, dreams, desires, and even humanity’s own inhumanity. This does not mean that the pure monsters of horror are eradicated in contemporary renderings. Instead, they too have evolved over the course of the 20th and 21st century, highlighting everything from socioeconomic anxieties to issues related to humanity and human nature.

Given the many and varied implications of the inhuman in media and their long and diverse history, this volume will examine the cultural connotations of the monstrous, focusing specifically on the monsters of modernism and postmodernism.

In particular, we are looking to fill in certain gaps, and welcome articles related to the following monsters:

– Ghosts
– Leviathons/behemoths—anything from Mothra to Dragons
– Science Fiction related monsters such as artificial intelligence and cyborgs

The proposal for this collection is in progress, and will be submitted once selections are made.

Please email the following to Lisa Wenger Bro (lisa.bro@mga.edu) by Thursday, April 30:
– a 300-350 word abstract
– a brief biography
– the estimated length of the full article
– the number of illustrations, if any, you will use (note, it will be up to individual authors to secure rights to images)

Full articles will be due by June 30. All accepted articles will be peer-reviewed.

Reading List: Godzilla on My Mind

Final post for the night:

Godzilla turned 60 last year, yet this event seems to have been largely unacknowledged by the academic world, despite the appearance of a blockbuster film this past summer. His 50th birthday, however, was commemorated by William Tsutsui's Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters (2004). The book is both a history of the Godzilla franchise and its popularity as well as a personal account of Tsutsui's own fascination and love for the monster. It is an interesting and insightful book.

GODZILLA ON MY MIND: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters
William Tsutsui

St. Martin's Press
Palgrave Macmillan Trade
October 2004
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9781403964748
ISBN10: 1403964742
5.60 x 8.45 inches, 256 pages
Includes 24 black-and-white illustrations throughout
$ 18.00

This year, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance on the screen, the original, uncut version of Godzilla was released in American theaters to the delight of Sci-Fi and B-Movie fans everywhere. Ever since Godzilla (or, Gojira, as he is known in Japan) crawled out of his radioactive birthplace to cut a swath of destruction through Tokyo, he has claimed a place alongside King Kong and others in the movie monster pantheon. He is the third most recognizable Japanese celebrity in the United States, and his fan base continues to grow as children today prove his enduring appeal. Now, Bill Tsutsui, a life-long fan and historian, takes a light-hearted look at the big, green, radioactive lizard, revealing how he was born and how he became a megastar. With humorous anecdotes, Godzilla on My Mind explores his lasting cultural impact on the world. This book is sure to be welcomed by pop culture enthusiasts, fans, and historians alike.