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.

Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2017
Full name/name of organization: Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
Contact email: jhotz@esu.edu

Art, Responsibility, and Satire: The Challenges of Kurt Vonnegut’s Fiction

This panel for the 2018 Annual Convention for the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA), to be held in Pittsburgh, PA, from April 12 to April 15, 2018, will examine the fiction of Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) on the eleventh anniversary of the author’s death on April 11, 2007.

Kurt Vonnegut’s fourteen novels and three short story collections, written over the course of five decades, express complex, sometimes shifting views about the meaning of art and the dimensions of human responsibility. Throughout his fiction, Vonnegut remained a committed satirist. Over a series of interviews with The Paris Review in the 1970s, Vonnegut described fiction itself as an inherently humorous endeavor: “If you make people laugh or cry about little black marks on sheets of white paper, what is that but a practical joke? All the great story lines are great practical jokes that people fall for over and over again.”

This panel seeks papers that explore the challenges of Kurt Vonnegut’s fiction, particularly in relation to his evolving artistic vision in the various phases of his career; his speculations about human agency and responsibility; and his use of satire and humor. Papers may focus on single works or multiple books, and consider any number of topics and subtopics that touch on these larger themes.

Paper proposals (300 words) may be submitted between June 15, 2017, and September 30, 2017, and must be posted through NEMLA’s online system at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp.

The panel description and link to submit an abstract for this panel are available at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/17066.

Decision emails will be sent out after the submission deadline, no later than October 15, 2017. NeMLA requires that accepted panelists pay their membership/registration fees by December 1, 2017, in order to present at the 2018 convention. Please send any questions about the specific panel to Jeffrey Hotz at jhotz@esu.edu.

Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2017
Full name/name of organization: Northeastern Modern Language Association
Contact email: ed.simon@themarginaliareview.com
Since the 1939 publication of Perry Miller’s classic The New England Mind early Americanists have acknowledged the fundamental role New English Puritanism played in the subsequent development of American culture. Scholars like Edmund Morgan, Sacvan Bercovitch, Andrew Delbanco and many others have placed New England at the center of the development of American identity. Yet in the past generation, other scholars have broadened an understanding of regionalism in the construction of American nationhood, with many focusing on the polyglot, multiethnic and religiously non-conformist colonies of New York, New Jersey, and especially Pennsylvania. This panel asks for papers that help to recontextualize the central role that the middle colonies, and in particular Pennsylvania’s far western frontier, held in the future development of American culture. How did the Mid-Atlantic contribute to later understandings of religious pluralism and multiculturalism? Potential topics could include Mid-Atlantic religious literature, including discussions of the Society of Friends, Moravians, German pietism, Dutch Reformed churches, Anabaptists including the Brethren as well as the Amish and Mennonites, as well as smaller sects including the Ephrata colonists and the Society of the Women in the Wilderness, and general religious culture from the first to the second Great Awakenings. Other papers could examine the culture and literature of European colonialism in the Mid-Atlantic from the English, Dutch, and Swedish, as well as interactions with native populations including the Lenape and the Iroquois, racial conflicts such as those involving the Paxton Boys or Pontiac’s siege on Fort Pitt, German Pennsylvanians, Huguenot immigration to Pennsylvania and Delaware, Presbyterian immigration on the western frontier, linguistic diversity in the Mid-Atlantic, military history including the Seven Years War and the Revolutionary War, as well as Mid-Atlantic writers including Benjamin Franklin, Charles Brockden Brown, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Benjamin Banneker, and Francis Daniel Pastorius among others.

Please simulaneously submit abstracts to both Ed Simon, associate editor of The Marginalia Review of Books (ed.simon@themarginaliareview.com), as well as through the Northeastern Modern Language Association’s online submission form.

Deadline for submissions: June 15, 2017
Full name/name of organization: Amber P. Hodge, University of Mississippi
Contact email: ahodge@go.olemiss.edu
Although popular culture has gained significant traction as a subject worthy of intellectual consideration over the last decade, a divide between popular and canonical persists. The academy may have instituted a boundary distinguishing high culture from low, but film and television regularly crosses these fabricated borders as popular media evokes the canon. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) to Penny Dreadful (2014–2016), the most successful narratives among millennial viewers (roughly, those born 1982–2004) share a common theme, the incorporation of texts considered canonical into popular storylines. For example, films such as She’s the Man (2006) and The Great Gatsby (2013) contextualize classic literature within a contemporary aesthetic. What does media that evokes or adapts the canon have to say about the priorities of millennial viewers? How does contemporary culture impact classic literature (and vice versa)? This panel will examine these and related questions on the intersection of popular culture and the canon as they relate specifically to a millennial audience, exploring how traditional narratives function in a post-9/11, social media-driven age. By June 15, please send a 300-word abstract, brief bio, and A/V requirements to Amber P. Hodge, University of Mississippi, at ahodge@go.olemiss.edu.