Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2017
Full name/name of organization: Northeast Modern Language Association, April 12-15, 2018, Pittsburgh, PA
Contact email: montgomerya@brcc.edu

“‘Go then. There are other worlds than these’” (King, Gunslinger, 266). These are the final words of one of Jake Chambers’s lifetimes in Stephen King’s 1982 novel The Gunslinger, Volume I in his Dark Tower series. Throughout the subsequent seven volumes—and other novels—King has continued to develop this “other worlds” concept, also described as “many levels . . . [of] the Tower of all existence” (King, Insomnia, 576). Recently, the metaphor may apply as well to adaptations of King’s work as to the multi-verse of the novels and stories themselves.

King’s fiction has been adapted for film and television for decades, with results from B-horror films to Oscar winners. In recent years, King adaptations have expanded into graphic novels and long-form streaming service television series. An interesting turn, exemplified by the releasing-in-2017 IT and The Dark Tower films and The Mist TV series (as well as by 2000s television series Haven and The Dead Zone), has involved adaptations that actively change or add to narratives—new locations, characters, and events; marked time shifts; cross-racial casting—doing something substantively different from standard novel-to-film changes.

This session invites papers examining a particular King work or series—not limited to those listed—and its adaptation into another medium or media. Papers may consider specific interpretive questions—what are the implications of moving IT forward 30 years, or of treating the Dark Tower film as a series sequel?—or more theoretical and structural ones—what happens to canonicity and authoritativeness when one work has a novel, multiple film adaptations, and several graphic novels? These and other questions specific to multi-media King adaptations are encouraged. Literature, film, popular culture, and media studies scholars and all critical approaches are welcome.

Please contact Abigail Montgomery (montgomerya@brcc.edu) with any questions.

Submission deadline is September 30; notifications will be made by October 15.

Submissions must be made electronically at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/17080.

Deadline for submissions: August 15, 2017
Full name/name of organization: David Palmer, President, The Arthur Miller Society
Contact email: dpalmer@maritime.edu

The Arthur Miller Society
Call for Proposals

A Palgrave Macmillan Anthology on Arthur Miller for the 21st Century

The Arthur Miller Society (http://arthurmillersociety.net/) has a preliminary commitment from Palgrave Macmillan to publish a 90,000-word anthology (roughly 15 articles of roughly 6000 words each) on Arthur Miller as part of their series American Literature Readings in the 21st Century, which is edited by Linda Wagner-Martin at the University of North Carolina. The series “publishes works by contemporary critics that help shape critical opinion regarding literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the United States.” Here is a link to the series’ description on the Palgrave website: http://www.palgrave.com/de/series/14765. Final commitment to the project from Palgrave will depend on peer review and approval of our proposal for the actual articles to be included in the anthology.

As a first step in launching this project, we are seeking proposals for 6000-word anthology articles. Each article proposal should be 100-200 words long and be accompanied by the contributor’s brief academic biography of no more than 100 words; both documents should be suitable for inclusion in the compilation of article proposals that will constitute the proposal for the anthology as a whole. Article proposals and biographies should be emailed to David Palmer, the current president of The Arthur Miller Society (dpalmer@maritime.edu), by August 15, 2017.

The final proposal for the entire anthology then will be compiled and submitted to the editors at Palgrave by September 15, 2017, for their peer review process.

In planning how to fit this project into your own work-flow, use the following dates as a rough preliminary guide: first drafts of articles completed by June 15, 2018; revised articles in response to editor’s comments completed by September 15, 2018.

In general, we are looking for articles on why Arthur Miller’s works and ideas remain relevant today and why they continue to resonate so well with contemporary audiences around the world.

We are seeking proposals on the following topics and any others you believe might be suitable for this volume:

• Analyses of individual Miller plays or sets of plays
• Discussions of Miller’s essays and interviews about theatre
• Discussions of Miller as a public intellectual and political activist
• Analyses of Miller’s plays in relation to those of other dramatists, both those who influenced Miller and those he may have influenced
• Analyses of Miller as a short-story writer and novelist
• Personal reminiscences of Miller that shed light on his relevance to contemporary drama and social issues
• Miller as a moral commentator on American values and culture
• Discussions of the ways Miller’s personal biography provides a background for his dramas and other works
• Miller’s work and contemporary themes in American theatre, such as the role of women in Miller’s plays and stories, visions of the American dream, Miller and theatre of the absurd, or Miller and postmodernism
• Changes in the style of performance of Miller’s plays from the 1940s to today
• Miller’s work with set designers and directors in shaping productions of his plays

We hope that this volume will consider Miller’s work and ideas from a variety of perspectives and serve as a significant guide to ongoing engagement with his oeuvre: plays and articles that were born at specific past moments in American culture yet continue to address themes we all face going forward into the 21st century.

Thank you for considering this call for proposals.

David Palmer
President, The Arthur Miller Society
(http://arthurmillersociety.net/)
(dpalmer@maritime.edu)

Deadline for submissions: August 1, 2017
Full name/name of organization: Kevin M. Scott and Connor M. Scott
Contact email: ohthehorror80s@gmail.com

Call for Paper (June 7, 2017)

Oh, The Horror: Politics and Culture in Horror Films of the 1980s

Kevin M Scott (Albany State University)

Connor M Scott (Georgia State University)

Contact email: ohthehorror80s@gmail.com

In the 1980s, a decade significantly known for Ronald Reagan, the Moral Majority, and the ascendance of the corporation as an aesthetic, Hollywood recovered from and reacted to the director-centric 1970s by reasserting studio control over mainstream cinema. With notable exceptions, the films of the 1980s were constructive—supporting a neater and more optimistic view of history and American culture—as opposed to the deconstructive films of the prior decade, challenging and, often, fatalistic. A simple review of Oscar nominees for the 1980s, compared to those of the 1970s, demonstrates that the capitalistic desires of the studios aligned neatly with an increasingly self-congratulatory culture and the fantasy of a return to an earlier, simpler, more conservative, whiter, United States.

By nature, however, the horror genre retains a bleaker view of society. In the 1980s, horror subverted corporate influences more often that other mainstream genres and did so both in covert support and critique of politics and values of the era. Because horror films were (and remain) lower budget productions and, hence, lower risk for studios, filmmakers enjoyed a greater degree of freedom. Some filmmakers used that freedom to reify “Reagan-era values” in violent and bloody ways (through figures like Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and other slashers) while others offered dark critiques of the politics of the decade—the anti-militarism of George Romero’s Day of the Dead (1985) or the deconstruction of the nuclear family in Joseph Rubin’s The Stepfather (1987).

The editors are developing a new collection of essays with McFarland Books and seek essays investigating the ways horror films during the 1980s responded to the cultural, social, and governmental politics of the decade. We welcome essays from a variety of critical stances (theoretical, psychological, formal, and so forth), but the volume’s purpose is to explore how horror films functioned as a site of political, cultural, and social engagement and/or critique.

We especially welcome essay proposals that take these approaches:

• Close readings of individual films and their engagement with the politics and culture of the era.
• Studies of particular filmmakers and the development of ongoing critiques or concerns within their films.
• Investigations of particular cultural and political themes (poverty, Barbara Creed’s idea of the “monstrous feminine,” the power of corporations, and so forth) in multiple films.
• The evolution within a subgenre over the decade (the slasher, religious/occult horror, and so forth) and how those changes reflected developments in American society.
• Discussions of how horror filmmakers interacted with the film industry and with American culture on an industry level.

This list is not intended to be complete. Other approaches are welcome. While the horror genre thrived in other countries, this volume is primarily interested in American films, films that were prominent for American moviegoers, and films that addressed American political and cultural concerns. While David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983, Canadian) fulfills this role, Dario Argento’s Italian films are less likely to do so. However, the inclusion of discussion of foreign films or films outside the decade in order to contrast “American” films of the 1980s or to highlight American political and/or cultural trends may be productive.

The editors seek essays of about 6,000 words.

The audience for this volume is undergraduates through active scholars, though books on this topic will attract an audience among fans of the genre.

Please submit abstracts of 500 words or less to Kevin M. Scott and Connor M. Scott (ohthehorror80s@gmail.com) by August 1, 2017. Abstracts should be accompanied by a short biography. Notification of acceptance will be given by August 15, 2017. Completed essays will be expected by December 15, 2017. And please email us if you have any questions.

Below, find a short list of films we would be especially interested in seeing discussed in essays for the volume. The list is certainly not meant to be exclusive, and we welcome any productive discussion of other films.

1980

Alligator

Altered States

Cannibal Holocaust

Demented

Friday the 13th

The Fog

Maniac

Motel Hell

Mother’s Day

The Watcher in the Woods

1981

An American Werewolf in London

The Entity

The Evil Dead

Friday the 13th PT 2

The Fun House

Graduation Day

Halloween II

Hell Night

The Howling

The Incubus

Inseminoid

My Bloody Valentine

Night School

Omen III: The Final Conflict

Wolfen

1982

The Aftermath

Alone in the Dark

Basket Case

Cat People

Creepshow

Curse of the Cannibal Confederates

Friday the 13th Part III

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

The Last Horror Film

Poltergeist

The Thing

1983

Christine

Cujo

Eyes of Fire

House on Sorority Row

The Hunger

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Videodrome

1984

C.H.U.D.

Children of the Corn

Gremlins

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Silent Night, Deadly Night

1985

Day of the Dead

Fright Night

The Hills Have Eyes Part II

Lifeforce

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge

The Return of the Living Dead

1986

Aliens

Class of Nuke ‘Em High

The Fly

The Hitcher

Little Shop of Horrors

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

1987

Dark Tower

Evil Dead II

Killing Spree

The Lost Boys

Near Dark

Predator

Prince of Darkness

Hellraiser

Stepfather

1988

The Blob

Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Maniac Cop

Pumpkinhead

1989

Dr. Caligari

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

Deadline for submissions: July 1, 2017
Full name/name of organization: Jody Baumgartner, editor
Contact email: ABCCLIOSATIRE@GMAIL.COM

Seeking contributors for ABC-CLIO’s two-volume forthcoming encyclopedia, “American Political Humor: Masters of Satire and Their Impact on U.S. Policy and Culture.” This two volume set, due out in the fall of 2019, will have a total of approximately 110 profiles, 2,000 words in length, of important individuals or media outlets (specific magazines, television shows, websites, and specific vehicles of political humor). These will be divided into 12 chronological chapters.

In exchange for agreeing to contribute, all authors will have complimentary e-book access to the set and an ABC-CLIO gift card worth $100 as a token of appreciation.

The complete list of the topics to be covered in the encyclopedia can be found at http://satire.jodyb.net (entries that are already “claimed” are in strike-out, italicized text).

If you are interested, send an email to ABCCLIOSATIRE@GMAIL.COM listing your choice(s) along with your contact information. Entries will be due December 30, 2017.

If you are not interested or unable to participate in this project, but know of someone who might be, please consider forwarding this call to them.

Deadline for submissions: June 14, 2017
Full name/name of organization: Southern Studies in the UK Network
Contact email: ssuknetwork@gmail.com
Studying the South: Approaches and Orientations

A one-day colloquium organised by the Southern Studies in the UK Network

26th August 2017, University of Hertfordshire

Studies of the U.S. South have radically changed across the last century, and especially so in the twenty-first. As Michael Bibler (2016) has argued recently, southern studies scholars “begin with the assumption that there’s no such thing as a solid South. We are interested in all kinds of Souths, bringing a dazzling range of theoretical approaches” to the region. This one-day colloquium will explore the variety of perspectives or “orientations” (Bibler) that open up discussion of the U.S. South today. Where historically the South has been considered as the “nation’s region” (in Leigh Ann Duck’s words), southern studies scholars have begun to see the region in smaller and larger scales and frames. The South can be read in relation to other American regions like the West or Midwest; it can be thought of in circum-Caribbean networks; it can be connected to Black, Red, and Green Atlantics; it can be theorised in transregional, postregional, transnational, hemispheric, global, and planetary terms; and it can also be considered at micro-regional or community-based scales. Souths can be: queer and Native and disabled and Eco and Black and trans, and so on. The plurality and diversity of this region—far from fixed or ossified—will be at the heart of this colloquium.

In addition to developing interdisciplinary approaches and orientations to studying the South, this event will also be the official launch of the Southern Studies in the UK Network. The day will consist of paper presentations and a closing roundtable. The aim of the colloquium is to bring together scholars of the South that are working in the UK and elsewhere, as well as setting an agenda for the future of the SSUKN. Members and non-members of the network are welcome to submit and/or attend.

We therefore welcome paper and panel proposals on the U.S. South from interdisciplinary perspectives. Approaches from literary studies, history, cultural criticism, media studies, visual studies and more are encouraged. Some possible topics might include:

-The U.S. South at different scales

– The South in the Anthropocene

-The South and the world

-New materialisms, animal studies, posthumanism, memory studies, and the South

-The South on film and television

-Literary depictions of southernness

-Immigration, multiculturalism, and globalisation

-Queer Souths

-Native and Indigenous Studies

-African-American culture in the South

-Gulf, Appalachian, Sea Island, Bayou, Delta, and other southern micro-regions

-Slavery, Jim Crow, and Incarceration

Abstract proposals of 300 words, accompanied by a short bio, should be sent to ssuknetwork@gmail.com by June 14th, 2017. You can also contact the organiser, Christopher Lloyd, at c.lloyd@herts.ac.uk.