CFP Edited Collection: Monstrous Moral Messengers: Supernatural Figures in Children’s Picture Books and Early Readings (6/10/15)

Been meaning to post this one:

CFP for Edited Collection - Monstrous Moral Messengers: Supernatural Figures in Children’s Picture Books and Early Readings
MAY 30 2015
http://www.theofantastique.com/2015/05/30/cfp-for-edited-collection-monstrous-moral-messengers-supernatural-figures-in-childrens-picture-books-and-early-readings/

CFP for Edited Collection: Monstrous Moral Messengers: Supernatural Figures in Children’s Picture Books and Early Readings

Picture books and early readers carry all the weight of parental authority, and are essential tools in the learning process for our children. With their bright pictures, they perform their function of holding the child’s attention quite well, and they are accessed freely and repeatedly. 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? Is there a difference, for the child, when the protagonist shown in the picture is a werewolf, fairy, or ghost? What message is offered to a viewing child when the image of the antagonist is a vampire, troll, or god? Does the very fact that the character is supernatural alter the reading? And is it meant to alter the meaning? At this point, there is no text addressing these questions; 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. I think it is perhaps more important to understand what messages are being offered our children through the same, albeit simplified, medium of pictorial texts which offer a sanctioned teaching medium for learning the semiotics which children are praised for interpreting. This book is meant to begin the exploration of what cultural norms and morals are being offered our children in images via this medium since picture books and early readers are not just sanctioned, but encouraged.

For this collection, papers from any discipline are welcome. Focus is, however, 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 is June 10, 2015. Notice of acceptance will follow by June 25, 2015 (and will include a listing of helpful readings). Complete 7000 – 8000 word essays are to be submitted by December 10, 2015 in MLA format with US spelling and punctuation.

CFP 2nd call for submissions: "The Paranormal and Popular Culture" (9/1/15)

2nd call for submissions: "The Paranormal and Popular Culture"
JUN 03 2015
http://www.theofantastique.com/2015/06/03/2nd-call-for-submissions-the-paranormal-and-popular-culture/

Previously, a call for submissions was issued for a proposed volume, but we need a few more good abstracts to complete the volume.

With this second call for submissions we are are looking for proposals for essays to be included in an edited volume entitled The Paranormal and Popular Culture. Academic writers and independent scholars are invited to submit proposals spanning the wide range of topics on pop culture and the paranormal, and their connection to religion, including reflections on the full panoply of extraordinary beings (e.g. vampires, zombies, demons, ghosts, mutants, cyborgs, cryptoids, etc.) and extraordinary phenomena (e.g. psychic abilities, channeling, spontaneous combustion, magic, necromancy, etc.), as well as theoretical and/or historical reflections on supernaturalism and the paranormal, Fortean approaches to religion in popular culture.

Those interested in being considered as contributors should send an abstract to the co-editors, Darryl Caterine (cateridv@lemoyne.edu) and John Morehead (johnwmorehead@msn.com) by September 1. Our timeline is as follows: write up a proposal in September and pitch it to various publishers. Assuming we receive a timely and positive response from one or more of them, the tentative deadline for the essays would be February 2017.

CFP: Complicated Masculinities in Popular Culture (6/28/15)

Of potential interest:

CFP: Complicated Masculinities in Popular Culture

http://pcaaca.org/2015/05/29/cfp-edited-collection-complicated-masculinities-28-jun-2015/

Recent scholarship supports the notion that contemporary American masculinity is complex and problematic. Many scholarly projects seem to reflect a “crisis” perspective and focus on the negative or limiting aspects of changing masculinities. In contrast, this edited collection will focus on the possibilities of multiple, fluid, complex, twenty-first-century masculinities.

Casting a wide net that considers all forms of popular media from film to video games, the collection will consider the ways that categories of race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, as well as the natural and supernatural, affect conceptualizations of male identities. All of these patterns of representation are shaped in response to our global political climate: threats of terrorism, the New Jim Crow, pandemic fears, violence and crime, and women’s increased financial and political empowerment. These elements all affect and complicate depictions of masculinities, but they also open up new possibilities in terms of the ways that they can be represented, constructed, and revised. The ever-evolving world of new media and technology offers new ways of conceptualizing masculinities. People now have more options available for constructing a variety of identities, and a variety of venues open for the performance of them.

Popular culture: contemporary representations of masculinity, preference will be given to critical discussions of twenty-first-century popular culture (2000-2015).

Theoretical Concepts

● Masculinities and Men’s Studies

● Feminisms

● Media Studies

● Gender Studies

● Intersectionality

● Female Masculinities

● Comparative masculinities

● New men/masculinities

● Evolution/Devolution of masculinity

Subjects

● Utopia/Dystopia

● Anti-heroes/Villains

● Post-Apocalyptic

● Monsters/vampires

● Politics/Politicians and the 24-Hour News Cycle

● Performers/Musicians

● Hip Hop Culture

● Professional Sports and Sexuality

● Domestic Violence in the Media

● Sexual Scandals

● Superheroes/Villains

Possible texts

● Anime

● Superhero films

● Television (ie: Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Mad Men,

Supernatural.

● Reality TV (ie: Duck Dynasty, Turtle Man)

● Police Procedural Shows (CSI)

● Films (Bromances, Chick Flicks, Buddy Films)

● Advertising

● Music/Performers

● Video Games (Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, MMOs, Sports

games)

● Sports (Fantasy Sports, Scandals)

● Internet (Avatars, Online Dating, Social medias)

Other ideas? Please query the editors!

Dr. Merry G. Perry (mperry@wcupa.edu) and

Dr. Cherise A. Pollard (cpollard@wcupa.edu)

West Chester University

Dept. of English, Main Hall

700 High Street

West Chester, PA 19382

Please send the following documents to complicatedmasc@gmail.com by June 28, 2015.

1. A one-page abstract (about 500 words) of your proposed chapter

2. A complete curriculum vita

The editors will notify authors of their abstract’s acceptance status by July 16, 2015.

Several presses have expressed interest in this collection.

Full chapter submissions will be original scholarly work of approximately 6,000-8,000 words in length and be due by Oct. 1, 2015.

CFP Fan Phenomena: The Twilight Saga (6/15/15)

CFP: Fan Phenomena: The Twilight Saga
http://fanstudies.org/2015/05/19/cfp-fan-phenomena-the-twilight-saga/

The UK publisher Intellect is now seeking chapters for Fan Phenomena: The Twilight Saga, the next edition in its Fan Phenomena book series.

Fan Phenomena: The Twilight Saga will be an edited collection of essays about the forces that contributed to the global popularity and commercial success of the books, films and graphic novels of The Twilight Saga. Chapters will explore Twilight’s unique appeal to fans as well as its impact on people, literature, film, music, television and social issues. Suggested topics include but are not limited to the following areas:

Creative Legacy:
– The Twilight series reignited the popularity of vampire and werewolf lore worldwide, prompting numerous books, television shows and movies. Explore Twilight’s creative and commercial impact on these industries.
– Explore the role of music in both Twilight’s appeal and success, considering the groups and songs that inspired the author or were commissioned for the movies. What lasting impact did Twilight have on its musicians and the world of music?
– Was there something unique about Twilight or its fandom that enabled the massive success of its fan fiction (i.e. Fifty Shades of Grey) plus the follow-on Storytellers project? What is Twilight’s artistic legacy?

Social Impact:
– Why did Twilight’s appeal cross generations, unexpectedly embracing “Twilight Moms” as well as teens? What was the impact of this disparate fandom on Twilight’s commercial success and social acceptance? Was Twilight’s demographic diversity unique among fandoms?
– Several conservative family values, such as the soul, redemption, abstinence, marriage, family and preserving life, laced the Twilight series. How did the books’ messages influence the development of young readers’ moral principles and the popularity of the story?
– Explore Stephenie Meyer’s presentation of the strong female and its contribution to Twilight’s uniqueness, popularity, success and social impact.

Media and Marketing Explosion:
– Explore the factors that sparked Twilight’s explosive fame and pervasive media presence around the world.
– Explore Twilight fans’ stratification of Team Edward vs. Team Jacob. What was its impact on the fandom, the franchise’s success and commercial merchandising?
– Was the Kristin Stewart and Robert Pattinson off-screen romance a genuinely serendipitous coincidence or a carefully crafted pairing? What was its impact on the fandom, including the fans’ romantic dedication to the story during the movies’ releases and post-production dissolution of fan conventions?

The Fan Phenomena series explores the greatest popular culture stories of our time. The collection already includes 16 iconic titles, including Star Wars, Star Trek, Sherlock Holmes, Batman, Lord of the Rings, Dr. Who, James Bond, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and Supernatural. The Twilight Saga is a perfect addition to this collection. Since the release of the first Twilight novel in 2005, The Twilight Saga has generated billions of dollars in book and franchise sales1. Ten years later, the fandom’s loyal devotion to the story led to the launch of the Twilight Storytellers project, a contest in which spin-off films based on Twilight fan fiction will ultimately be judged by Twilight fans. The Twilight Saga’s enduring popularity is truly a unique and global phenomenon that demands attention, examination and celebration within the Fan Phenomena series.

This targeted anthology is intended to be an enlightening and fun addition to Twilight fans’ collections, as well as a resource for universities. As such, papers should be written for a broad audience of academics and fans. Final chapters will be 3000 – 3500 words. Questions, abstracts (maximum 400 words) and author biographies should be directed to Laurena Aker at LSAker@att.net by June 15, 2015. Final paper submissions will be due Oct. 1, 2015. Scheduled publication date is 4th quarter 2016.

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/FanPhenomenaTwilight
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/fanphenomenathetwilightsaga/home

Cute Zombies 2015

It has started already. Like the other holidays, Halloween comes sooner and sooner each year, and Hallmark is one of the first to market its monstrous wares, including a kid zombie ornament for your Halloween tree (I guess). It is fairly ghastly, and I'm sure it will be a sell-out.

Happy Halloween! Zombie Ornament
Keepsake Ornament
3rd in the series
$14.95
Available July 11, 2015

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Take a peek into the creepy graveyard scene within this gourd ornament to see what lurks at night. Treat yourself or a friend to the third ornament in the Happy Halloween series! Learn more about Keepsake Ornaments.

Christmas tree ornament.

Each ornament in this series features a spooky Halloween scene.

On ornament:
RIP
2015

Tree-shaped series symbol around number 3.

Dated 2015.

Artist crafted.

Pre-packaged for easy gift giving, preservation and storage.

2.3" W x 3" H x 1.6" D

Reading The Golem and the Jinni

After a hiatus of many months, I finally finished Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni: A Novel (2013). The book has an interesting premise in that a female golem and a male jinni find each other in New York City in 1899 and become friends. The two main characters are likable and (especially Chava, the golem) easy to relate to, but the story seems to be going nowhere in the middle of the book until the reader learns (in the end) how everything is intricately connected.

Chava, a masterless golem, is not a very typical representation of her class. She seems very human despite her obviously unnatural size, appearance, and physical strength and speed and reminded me very much of the plight of a modern-day Frankenstein's Creature trying to fit into a world that could easy hate and fear her.

Reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Just finished reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2010) this week. Author Seth Grahame-Smith offers an interesting premise about vampires in America and Lincoln's decades-long quest to eradicate them. The narrative jumps around a bit, but the book is an easy read. The ending (set in the 1960s) offers promise for a sequel (now available). The publisher's website includes a trailer for the original book and a mock documentary supporting its claims. 

For vampire fans, while we really get into Lincoln's head, we don't get much detail into the history of the undead (besides the suggestion of an emigration from Europe following the activities of Countess Bathory) and nothing about their natures (i.e. are the demonic?) besides that some are good (abolitionist/prohuman vampires) and some are bad (those allied with the South/Confederate States). There is also little information about how they die; they don't appear to decay, and there is at least one reference of hunters having to bury the body. 

CFP Monstrous Hungers and Desires Special Conference Stream within The Monsters and the Monstrous Project (6/5/15; UK 7/15-17/15)

One more post from H-Announce

https://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=221829

Monstrous Hungers and Desires Special Conference Stream within The Monsters and the Monstrous Project
Location: United Kingdom
Conference Date: 2015-06-05 (in 20 days)
Date Submitted: 2015-04-09
Announcement ID: 221829
Monstrous Hungers and Desires
Special Conference Stream within The Monsters and the Monstrous Project


Wednesday 15th July – Friday 17th July 2015
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Presentations:
Humans can be consumed by desires; the need to possess and control, to hunger for more or to be different, to obtain or accumulate something or plainly satisfy an urge. Hungers and desires come from the “id” of the psyche; they are natural human urges. And yet, when allowed free reign they can be destructive both to ourselves and those around us. They can be playful or diabolical. They can pave a road to success or lead into the abyss of human existence. Many desires can also lead to addiction. Sometimes they cannot be explained; they just exist as relentless longings that demand to be gratified, up to the point of self-destruction or worse. Yet satisfaction after giving in to a craving may only be temporary before a hunger returns, stronger than ever, leaving behind withdrawal or painful memories. At the same time, suppressing a desire can be equally destructive and result in nightmares, identity crises, aggression or violence.

The hunger for riches and power causes the greatest mayhem and the greatest number of victims. The allure to give in to desires, secret wishes, “the dark side of the force,” has created more than one Dorian Gray in the past, and fiction as well as historical records are full of characters that have fought and lost these battles over their darkest longings. Consequently, there are people and institutions who will always believe that mankind is not supposed to give in to its urges, that these need to be controlled. “Gluttony,” for example, is one of the Seven Sins in Christianity, and a number of societies strictly regulate sexual relations.

Some desires create unmistakable monsters: the hunger for human flesh and blood of cannibals, vampires, werewolves and zombies for instance. But the lust to inflict pain, hunt and kill can also make beasts out of less “fantastic” beings, as we see in passionate murderers and torturers. To seek satisfaction in sex, fame or beauty has been associated with the monstrous too; for example, the wish for beauty can find an outlet in anorexia or painful body rituals. Sexual desires used to have their dark and gothic corners, but have increasingly become mainstream culture, not only since the publication of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” When desires are deemed pathological, unhealthy or disgusting by society, it regularly turns the “inflicted” into outsiders, even defines them as twisted or monstrous. The lust for fame can lure people into infernal actions and unspeakable deeds, often just to garner prominence in a YouTube video, but sometimes with the intention to wreak true havoc or to create a memorable albeit bloody legacy. Audiences, on the other hand, are relentless too when it comes to their own hunger for drama and sensationalism. Finally, one basic human driving force, love, is constantly leaving behind its own casualties in its wake.

For this special stream within the 13th Global Meeting of The Monsters and the Monstrous Project invites presentations from academics, professionals and practitioners with specific insights, experience, practices or skills concerning the understanding of these kinds of monstrosities.

Examples of the above can be seen in, but are not exclusive to, the following categories:

1) Pathologies and Addictions:
– Addictive personalities, drug and alcohol abuse; sex, food and other addictions
– self-mutilation, pain addiction
– eating disorders
– monstrous acts out of withdrawal, suppressed desire, frustration, rejection, failure, impotence
– suicide pacts, “extended suicides”
– paedophilia, serial killings, kleptomania

2) Power and the People:
– abuse of power; monstrous leadership visions and models of society
– manic desire for knowledge, cruel and dehumanizing experiments in the name of science
– charismatic leaders, ideologies, capitalism, consumerism, globalisation
– greed; violent and aggressive hunts for wealth, e.g. blood diamonds, ivory trade
– traditions, institutions, religions, governments, laws, sanctions, punishments

3) Sexuality, Love/Obsession:
- pornography, deviant sexual practices, dominance, submission, popular pornographic novels such as “Fifty Shades of Grey”
– stalking, rape, revenge porn
– fetishism, objectophilia, bestiality, necrophilia
– love madness, couple suicides, unfulfilled love, crimes of passion

4) Beauty, Fame and Subcultures:
– body enhancements, augmentation and rituals
– identity crises, claiming individuality in the public eye
– show business, celebrities, beauty and talent competitions
– dangerous and bizarre publicity stunts and extreme fan behaviour
– hunger for attention and community, sects
– alternative lifestyles, religions, cults

5) Literal and Metaphorical Manifestations:
– vampires, revenants, zombies and hungry ghosts
– werewolves, shapeshifters, dragons, and transformations
– angels, demons, spirit possessions and poltergeists
– cannibals, cannibalism and cultural hierarchies
– witches, wizards, fairies, goblins and halflings
– the above in literature, film, gaming, role play and transmedia entities

The Steering Group welcomes the submission of proposals for short workshops, practitioner-based activities, performances, and pre-formed panels. We particularly welcome short film screenings; photographic essays; installations; interactive talks and alternative presentation styles that encourage engagement.

What to Send:
Proposals will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word proposals should be submitted by Friday 5th June, 2015. Proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; proposals may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Monsters13 Proposal Submission

All abstracts will be at least double blind peer reviewed. Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:
Rob Fisher: m13@inter-disciplinary.net
Petra Rehling: petrarehling@gmx.de

The aim of the conference is to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.All proposals accepted for and presented at the conference must be in English and will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook.  Selected proposals may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications from the conference will require editors, to be chosen from interested delegates from the conference.

Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation.

For further details of the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/monsters-and-the-monstrous/call-for-papers/

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

Dr. Rob Fisher
Priory House
149B Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1993 882087
Email: m13@inter-disciplinary.net
Visit the website at http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/monsters-and-the-monstrous/call-for-papers

CFP Fairy Tale Monsters / Monstrous Fairy Tales (Spec Issue of Monsters and the Monstrous Journal) (6/26/15)

From H-Announce:

https://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=220419

The Monsters and the Monstrous Journal Current Call for Submissions
Location: United Kingdom
Call for Papers Date: 2015-06-26
Date Submitted: 2015-02-14
Announcement ID: 220419
The Monsters and the Monstrous Journal Current Call for Submissions:

Volume 5, Number 1 (Summer 2015), Fairy Tale Monsters / Monstrous Fairy Tales

This special issue of the Monsters and the Monstrous Journal proposes to discuss the ideas of fairy tale monsters and monstrous fairy tales and explore how fairy tale monsters are defined, (re)created and (re)visioned.

Contemporary popular culture has seen the fairy tale genre expand to include elements of paranormal romance by mixing with more traditional supernatural monsters (eg. vampires, werewolves, etc.), become re-energized with teenaged iterations of classic characters (Monster High, Ever After High), and perseverate as a space of both invention and intervention.

Indeed, 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which has often been categorised as a fairy tale; Carroll himself specifically identified Through the Looking-Glass as “a fairy-tale” in the poem he wrote as an epigraph for that book.

Possible Topics:

• Redefining, revisioning fairy tale monsters: mashups, redeeming the “monster,” and retellings (Once Upon a Time, Maleficent, Sleepy Hollow; Neil Gaiman, Angela Carter, etc.) 
• (Re)interpretations of fairy tales through the political, socio-cultural, (dis)abilities and sexual canon (eg. Liminality, deviance, inhumanity, witches, etc.) 
• Monstrous fairy tales: violence, cannibalism, rape 
• Disneyfication of the fairy tale: Who is the real villain? 
• New vs. Old fairy tale heroes/heroines 
• New vs. Old fairy tale villains, monsters 
• East vs. West fairy tales (eg. Grimm and the use of non-western storylines; manga) 
• Urban legends and the fairy tale (eg. La Llorona, the boogeyman, the Wolf as pedophile, etc.) 
• Young adult fiction rewriting the fairy tale and its monsters (eg. Jackson Pearce, Lily Archer, Maggie Stiefvater, Francesca Lia Block etc.) 
• Fractured fairy tales,  parodies and mash-ups: monsters revisited (eg. Marissa Meyer, Cornelia Funke, Danielle Page, etc.) 
• Fairy tales, popular romance and erotica: sexual deviance, non-heteromative revisions; challenging the status quo (eg. Anne Rice, Alison Tyler, Eloisa James, etc.) 
• Fairy tales and Hollywood (eg. Tim Burton, Matthew Bright, etc.) 
• Visual fairy tales: opera, ballet, musicals (eg. Wicked) 
• Monstrous teenage legacies: “Monster High” and “Ever After High” 
• The metaliterary use of fairy tales and/or pedagogical uses of fairy tale monsters 

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 26th June 2015 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.

For more information please follow this link:
http://monstersjournal.net/submissions/

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.

Style Sheets
All submissions should be formatted in accordance with the journal style sheets. A word template for this may be found here: Download Journal Template File (Word Document).

Proof/Checking
If accepted for publication, you will be provided with one opportunity to see a proof inspection copy of your submission. Only typographical or factual errors may be changed during proof checking stage. Revisions or addition to the text will not be possible.

Copy
All contributors will receive one complimentary PDF copy of the edition in which their submission appears. Camera-ready .pdf of prints will also be made available.

Dr. Rob Fisher
Priory House
149B Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
United Kingdom

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

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.

Reading List: TV Horror

Also of definite interest to Monster Studies is the very recent work TV Horror: Investigating the Darker Side of the Small Screen (2013) by Lorna Jewett and Stacy Abbott. The two authors are both experts in monstrous media, and their team-up is a must read for anyone interested in monsters on the small screen and offers a great primer on how television has made use of monsters and other motifs of horror. It is a great book, but it frequently left me wanting more. Aside from the opening chapter, their survey is thematic rather than chronological, and I often wanted to know the bigger picture connecting everything together. Similarly, their discussion is usually limited to a small number of texts, and one wonders how other similar works might fit into their schema. These thoughts aside, the book is well-worth a read and will no doubt open many avenues for further research. 

TV Horror: Investigating the Darker Side of the Small Screen

Lorna Jowett (author), Stacey Abbott (author)

Imprint: I.B.Tauris

Publisher: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd

Series: Investigating Cult TV Series

Hardback £62.00

ISBN: 9781848856172

Publication Date: 18 Dec 2012

Number of Pages: 256

Height: 216

Width: 134

Paperback £14.99

ISBN: 9781848856189

Publication Date: 18 Dec 2012

Number of Pages: 256

Height: 216

Width: 134

Horror is a universally popular, pervasive TV genre, with shows like True Blood, Being Human, The Walking Dead and American Horror Story making a bloody splash across our television screens. This complete, utterly accessible, sometimes scary new book is the definitive work on TV horror. It shows how this most adaptable of genres has continued to be a part of the broadcast landscape, unsettling audiences and pushing the boundaries of acceptability. The authors demonstrate how TV Horror continues to provoke and terrify audiences by bringing the monstrous and the supernatural into the home, whether through adaptations of Stephen King and classic horror novels, or by reworking the gothic and surrealism in Twin Peaks and Carnivale. They uncover horror in mainstream television from procedural dramas to children's television and, through close analysis of landmark TV auteurs including Rod Serling, Nigel Kneale, Dan Curtis and Stephen Moffat, together with case studies of such shows as Dark Shadows, Dexter, Pushing Daisies, Torchwood, and Supernatural, they explore its evolution on television.

This book is a must-have for those studying TV Genre as well as for anyone with a taste for the gruesome and the macabre.

Contents:

Introduction: Horror Begins at Home

Chapter 1 | The TV in TV Horror: Production and Broadcast Contexts 

Chapter 2 |Mainstreaming Horror 

Chapter 3 | Shaping Horror: From Single Play to Serial Drama 

Chapter 4 | Adaptation: Translating Horror Tales 

Chapter 5 | The Horror Auteur 

Chapter 6 | Revising the Gothic 

Chapter 7 | The Excess of TV Horror 

Chapter 8 | Horror, Art and Disruption 

Chapter 9 | TV as Horror 

Chapter 10 | The Monster in Our Living Room: From Barnabas Collins to Dexter Morgan

Conclusion: The Road So Far

Authors:

Lorna Jowett is a reader in Television Studies at the University of Northampton, UK, where she teaches some of her favourite things, including horror, science fiction, and television, sometimes all at once. Her monograph, Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan, was published in 2005 and recent publications cover Angel, Supernatural, Pushing Daisies and representation in cult television.

Stacey Abbott is a reader in Film and Television Studies at the University of Roehampton and is the author of Celluloid Vampires (2007) and the editor of The Cult TV Book (I.B.Tauris, 2010). Recent publications cover many of her favourite television programmes, including Angel, Alias, Supernatural, Dexter, True Blood and Torchwood. She is the general editor for the Investigating Cult TV Series at I.B.Tauris.

Reading List: Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley

Three posts for the new year on suggested reading for Monster Studies. The first up is The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley (2003) edited by Esther Schor. The collection offers a complete look at Shelley's writings, and I learned a lot about her in reading the various essays.

The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley
Part of Cambridge Companions to Literature
EDITOR: Esther Schor
DATE PUBLISHED: January 2004
PaperbackISBN: 9780521007702

Well-known scholars review Mary Shelley's work in several contexts (literary history, aesthetic and literary culture, the legacies of her parents) and also analyze her most famous work-- Frankenstein. The contributors also examine Shelley as a biographer, cultural critic, and travel writer. The text is supplemented by a chronology, guide to further reading and select filmography.

Contents:

Chronology
Preface

Part I. 'The Author of Frankenstein':
1. Making a 'monster': an introduction to Frankenstein Anne K. Mellor
2. Frankenstein, Matilda, and the legacies of Godwin and Wollstonecraft Pamela Clemit
3. Frankenstein, feminism, and literary theory Diane Long Hoeveler
4. Frankenstein on Film Esther Schor
5. Frankenstein's futurity: from replicants to robotics Jay Clayton

Part II. Fictions and Myths:
6. Valperga Stuart Curran
7. The last man Kari E. Lokke
8. Historical novelist Deidre Lynch
9. Falkner and other fictions Kate Ferguson Ellis
10. Stories for the Keepsake Charlotte Sussman
11. Proserpine and Midas Judith Pascoe

Part III. Professional Personae:
12. Mary Shelley, editor Susan J. Wolfson
13. Letters: the public/private self Betty T. Bennett
14. Mary Shelley as biographer Greg Kucich
15. Mary Shelley's travel writing Jeanne Moskal
16. Mary Shelley as cultural critic Timothy Morton

Further reading
Selected filmography.

Madame Frankenstein Preview

Image Comics has posted the first 7 pages of the recent comic book series Madame Frankenstein online. Details at http://imagecomics.tumblr.com/post/106534692041/jazz-age-glamour-and-gothic-horror-in-madame. The series presents the resurrection of a 1920s-era woman as a monster and will be available in a collected edition come March 2015.

CFP Poe Studies Association Panels at the ALA (1/15/15; ALA Boston 5/21-24/15)

Poe Studies Association Panels at the ALA

CFP: “Rethinking Poe’s Sublime: Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 175 years later”; A Poe Studies Association panel at the 26th Annual American Literature Conference in Boston, MA (May 2015)

Poe abandoned his proposed Tales of the Folio Club sometime after 1835, but still wanted to issue a collected edition of his prose fiction. Dropping the literary club motif, he combined the original tales with additional items from the Southern Literary Messenger. This new collection of 25 stories became Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840). What choices informed Poe’s decisions about what to include? To what extent does the term “grotesque”—especially as it relates to Poe’s notions of the sublime—function as a defining characteristic of the two volumes’ contents? Papers are invited on specific tales as well as on Poe’s discussions of the sublime and/or the grotesque in his reviews, miscellaneous writings, and poetic treatises. Other related topics are welcome as well.

To submit a proposal, send a title and an abstract of no more than 350 words to: William Engel (wengel@sewanee.edu); in the subject line, put “PSA panel 2015.” The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2015 (panelists will be notified shortly thereafter).


CFP: “Teaching Poe and Popular Culture,” a Poe Studies Association panel at the 26th Annual American Literature Conference in Boston, MA (May 21-24, 2015)

Few American writers have enjoyed the posthumous popularity of Poe, whose works inspire adaptations in various genres such as film and graphic novel while lunchboxes and bobblehead figures commemorate the man himself. Such popularity is a boon for teachers of Poe, who can use movies, comic books, and online videos to help students make sense of a nineteenth-century writer whose stories and poems might seem, at first glance, peculiar and puzzling. Contemporary creative reinterpretations of Poe’s writings also provide insight into how we remove Poe from his antebellum milieu and refashion him to suit our tastes. Studying Poe’s nineteenth-century career, students can discern how popular trends shaped his work, for the example of Poe reveals many ways that writers respond to and shape mass culture. The Poe Studies Association solicits proposals for this pedagogical panel. Possible topics include Poe and contemporary Gothicism; The Raven and Poe biography; Poe’s influence on filmmakers such as Corman and Burton; Poe as rock-and-roll icon; popular images of Poe’s body; nineteenth-century sensation fiction and Poe; Poe and death in antebellum popular culture; Stephen Foster, Poe, and the popular lyric in the nineteenth-century. Other related topics are, of course, welcome.

To submit a proposal, send a title and an abstract of no more than 350 words to Travis Montgomery at tdmontgomery2@fhsu.edu. The subject line should read “PSA panel 2015.” The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2015.

CFP Evil Kids in Children’s Literature (1/15/15; ALA Boston 5/21-24/15)

CALL FOR PAPERS
Children’s Literature Society
American Literature Association
26th Annual Conference
May 21-24, 2015
The Westin Copley Place
10 Huntington Avenue
Boston MA 02116-5798

Nobody Understands Me. Evil Kids in Children’s Literature

Do researchers understand evil kid characters? In children’s literature, the evil kid school
of thought changes with history. Authors write the Puritan notion of the sinful kid school,
the Lockean ignorant but educable kid, and the Romantic idealized innocent virtuous
redeeming somewhat helpless kid. Modern, Postmodern, and New Sincerity “evil” kids
range from bullies to baby vampires to misunderstood villains like Gregory Maguire’s
character Elphaba from his book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the
West (1995).

This panel examines evil children in literature. Are we seeing an increase in such
representations in contemporary children’s literature? Are independent rational thinkers
with agency represented as evil? Do evil children have more freedom to color outside of
the lines? Are actions evil, not people? Has the idea of evil changed in children’s
literature?

Please include academic rank and affiliation and AV requests
Please send abstracts or proposals (around 250 words) by Thursday, January 15, 2015 to
Dorothy Clark (Dorothy.g.clark@csun.edu), Linda Salem (Linda.salem@yahoo.com)

CFP Gods and Monsters: Historicizing Ritual, Public Memory, and the Religious Imagination conference (2/13/15; San Francisco 4/18/15)

Of potential interest:

Gods and Monsters: Historicizing Ritual, Public Memory, and the Religious Imagination
Location: California, United States
Conference Date: 2015-04-25
Date Submitted: 2014-10-30
Announcement ID: 217559
https://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=217559

Gods and Monsters:  Historicizing Ritual, Public Memory, and the Religious Imagination
Saturday April 25, 2015 at San Francisco State University

In his seminal essay The Great Cat Massacre, Robert Darnton gave a sage bit of advice to academics who study culture : “When you realize that you are not getting something—a joke, a proverb, a ceremony—that is particularly meaningful to the natives, you can see where to grasp a foreign system of meaning in order to unravel it.”

The monster is a construct and a projection, always interpreting the moment in which it is created. So too we see constructions of self in cultural phenomena as diverse as comic book heroes, ghost stories, fertility rituals, hagiography-even the villainization of the “other” informs the moment in which it enter public consciousness.

It is in this spirit that the 2015 History Students Association Conference at San Francisco State University is seeking papers that explore the intersection between humanity and its constructs.

How does ritual inform mentality? What can the supernatural tell us about historic truth and memory? How can we interpret stories so as to better understand the storyteller? How does politicization shape religious experience? How does the demonization of the other inform cultural fear? What do the fantastic elements interwoven with oral histories help us to discover about cultural norms?

Cross disciplinary submissions from film studies, literature, religious and ethnic studies, art history, and anthropology are encouraged.

Submission Guidelines: Please submit abstracts of 300 words or less to hsa@mail.sfsu.edu. Please include the title of the submitted paper, your name, affiliated institution, field of study, and contact information. The deadline for submissions is February 13, 2015. If selected, final papers will be due to your panel chair no later than March 20, 2015. Conference will be held Saturday April 18, 2015 at San Francisco State University.

Recent works that resonate with the spirit of the conference include :

Louise White’s monograph published in 2000, Speaking with Vampires: Rumor and History in Colonial Africa serves as a cogent example of how tales of the fantastic can be examined and interpreted to allow us to better understand the mentalities of discursive or liminal groups.

Stefan Goeble’s brilliant book on medievalism published in 2007, The Great War and Medieval Memory: War, Remembrance and Medievalism in Britain and Germany, 1914-1940, looks at how elements of medieval chivalric culture were interpreted in war memorials, interpreting iconography to uncover how communal memory functions in the search for historical continuity in the face of such horrific events.

Kelly Boylan
President, History Students Association,
San Francisco State University,
hsa@mail.sfsu.edu.
Email: hsa@mail.sfsu.edu.
Visit the website at http://history.sfsu.edu/content/hsa-2015-conference

CFP The Supernatural Revamped collection (2/1/15)

Sorry to have forgotten about this:

CFP: The Supernatural Revamped (collection of essays)
Posted on October 28, 2014 by Public Information Officer
CFP: The Supernatural Revamped (collection of essays)
http://www.fantastic-arts.org/2014/cfp-the-supernatural-revamped-collection-of-essays/

The Supernatural Revamped: From Timeworn Legends to 21st Century Chic
Editors: Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan, Nova Southeastern University

Project Overview
Editors Brodman and Doan are seeking original essays for their third of a series of books on legends and images of the supernatural in film, literature and lore from early to modern times and from peoples and cultures around the world. Their first two volumes, The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013) and Images of the Modern Vampire: The Hip and the Atavistic (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013), finalist for a prestigious Bram Stoker book award, dealt exclusively with the vampire legend. This volume is more inclusive, with emphasis placed on the evolution of a broad spectrum of timeworn images of the supernatural into their more modern—even chic—forms.

Each chapter in the collection will focus on one of the following categories of supernaturals:
1. Revenants (vampires, ghosts, zombies, etc.)
2. Demons and Angels
3. Shape Shifters
4. Earthbound Supernaturals (trolls, dwarves, yetis, chupacabras, etc.)
5. Fairy Folk (elves, fairies, leprechauns, etc.)

Abstract Due Dates
Preference will be given to abstracts received before February 1, 2015. Late submissions will be accepted until April 1, 2015. Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words.
Final manuscripts of 3,000-4,000 words should be submitted in Chicago Style.
Contact us and send abstracts to: brodman@nova.edu or doan@nova.edu

CFP Screening Animals and the Inhuman (1/11/15; UK 6/26-28/15)

Of possible interest (courtesy of H-Film):

From: Screen Editorial (Glasgow) <screen@arts.gla.ac.uk>

The theme of the forthcoming Screen Studies Conference, organised by the journal Screen and programmed by Screen editor Karen Lury, will be “Screening Animals and the Inhuman”.

Chiming with the increasing interest in the representation and agency of animals and non-human others in film, television and other audio-visual texts, we invite papers that address questions, representations and the performativity of the animal and of the ‘inhuman’ on and with screen based media.  Presentations and papers on wider aspects of film and television will also be considered. Panel submissions will be considered but not prioritised.

Confirmed keynote speakers are Michael Lawrence (University of Sussex), Susan McHugh (University of New England) and Anat Pick (Queen Mary, University of London).

This year we would also like to invite poster presentations. Selected posters will be displayed in the central reception area of the conference, with a scheduled session for delegates to discuss content and ideas with presenters. The editors will also award a small prize for the best poster of the conference, to be announced at the final plenary session. Delegates may submit proposals for a paper and a poster but the editors will select only one mode of presentation per delegate.

The deadline for submissions is midnight (GMT), Sunday, 11 January 2015.  Notifications of the outcome will be sent before end February.

To submit your proposal, please visit the link for further instructions: http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/screen/conference2015/


Screen
Gilmorehill Centre
University of Glasgow
Glasgow
G12 8QQ
www.screen.arts.gla.ac.uk
+44 (0)141 330 5035
screen@arts.gla.ac.uk
Screen available online at http://screen.oxfordjournals.org



From the Conference Website (http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/screen/conference2015/):

Call for papers: "Screening Animals and the Inhuman"
25th Annual Screen Studies Conference
26-28 June 2015, University of Glasgow, Scotland

The theme of the forthcoming Screen Studies Conference, organised by the journal Screen and programmed by Screen editor Karen Lury, is “Screening Animals and the Inhuman”.
Chiming with the increasing interest in the representation and agency of animals and non-human others in film, television and other audio-visual texts, we invite papers that address questions, representations and the performativity of the animal and of the ‘inhuman’ on and with screen based media.  Presentations and papers on wider aspects of film and television will also be considered. Panel submissions will be considered but not prioritised.
The keynote speakers are Michael Lawrence (University of Sussex), Susan McHugh (University of New England) and Anat Pick (Queen Mary, University of London).
This year we would also like to invite poster presentations. Selected posters will be displayed in the central reception area of the conference, with a scheduled session for delegates to discuss content and ideas with presenters. The editors will also award a small prize for the best poster of the conference, to be announced at the final plenary session. Delegates may submit proposals for a paper and a poster but the editors will select only one mode of presentation per delegate.
The deadline for submissions is midnight (GMT), Sunday, 11 January 2015.  Notifications of the outcome will be sent before end February.
Please download the appropriate template (see links at right), to submit your proposal.  Please note that abstracts exceeding the 200-word limit will be returned for editing and resubmission.
Registration
Registration for the conference will open in March/April; an alert and booking link will be sent to all speakers and members of Screen's mailing list. Publishers on the mailing list will receive a similar alert enabling them to book stands and inserts.
Both speakers and non-speakers pay the same fee: £176 (full)/£95 (student). This fee includes lunches and refreshments on Saturday and Sunday and a wine reception on Friday evening. The conference dinner, and accommodation in student halls of residence can be booked during registration for an additional fee.

Dracula Session Information

Details regarding the Area's upcoming Dracula-themed panel have been posted to the NEPCA Fantastic site and can be accessed at http://nepcafantastic.blogspot.com/2014/11/dracula-panel-details.html.