Monday, January 23, 2012

Medievalisms by Pugh and Weisl

Coming later this year:

Medievalisms
By Tison Pugh, Angela Weisl

To Be Published August 15th 2012 by Routledge – 208 pages
Purchasing Options:
Paperback: 978-0-415-61727-7: $31.95 
Hardback: 978-0-415-61726-0: $120.00

DESCRIPTION:

From King Arthur and Robin Hood, through to video games and jousting-themed restaurants, medieval culture continues to surround us and has retained a strong influence on literature and culture throughout the ages.

This fascinating and illuminating guide is written by two of the leading contemporary scholars of medieval literature, and explores:
  • The influence of medieval cultural concepts on literature and film, including key authors such as Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Mark Twain
  • The continued appeal of medieval cultural figures such as Dante, King Arthur, and Robin Hood
  • The influence of the medieval on such varied disciplines such as politics, music, children’s literature, and art.
  • Contemporary efforts to relive the Middle Ages.
Medievalisms: Making the Past in the Present surveys the critical field and sets the boundaries for future study, providing an essential background for literary study from the medieval period through to the twenty-first century.

CONTENTS:
1. Medievalisms: The Magic of the Middle Ages 
2. A Case Study of Dante: Naked Icons of Medievalism 
3. Literary Medievalisms: Inventing Inspirations 
4. "Medieval" Literature for Children and Young Adults: Fantasies of Innocence 
5. King Arthur’s and Robin Hood’s Adventures in Medievalism: Mythic Masculinities (and Magical Femininities) 
6. Movie Medievalisms: Five (or Six) Ways of Looking at an Anachronism 
7. Medievalisms in Music and the Arts: Longing for Transcendence 
8. Experiential Medievalisms: Reliving the Always Modern Middle Ages 
9. Political Medievalisms: The Darkness of the Dark Ages


AUTHOR BIOS:

Tison Pugh is Professor of English at the University of Central Florida, USA.

Angela Jane Weisl is Professor of English at Seton Hall University, USA.


Sunday, January 22, 2012

SMART 2011 Issues

Here are the details on the 2011 issues of Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching:

Fall 2011 (Volume 18, Issue 2)

TEACHING ITALY
(guest edited by Barbara Stevenson)
BARBARA STEVENSON Introduction to Teaching Italy
MARY BETH LONG Gum-Poppers Deserve their Own Level of Hell: Teaching the Inferno to Baptists
BARBARA STEVENSON Representations of Saladin in the (New) Middle Ages
KURT M. BOUGHAN Teaching Goro Dati’s Libro segreto
KATHRYN A. HALL Teaching Christine de Pizan and the Text via Late Medieval Book Production in Bologna and Paris
CARL GRINDLEY The Whisper Game: Teaching Stemmatics
DARCI N. HILL Altered Arguments: A Textual Analysis of George Herbert’s “Man”
JAY RUUD “A Great Flash of Understanding”: Teaching Dante and Mysticism
ALEXANDRA COOK “Why Study the Middle Ages?”  On Re-Imagining the Medieval Literature Survey
JOHN M. GANIM Book Review:  Illustrating Camelot, by Barbara Tepa Lupack with
Alan Lupack
ANTHONY J. CÁRDINAS-ROTTUNNO Book Review:  The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture, by Jerrilyn D. Dodds, María Rosa Menocal, and Abigail Krasner Balbale
LESLEY A. COOTE Book Review:  Shakespeare Films in the Making: Vision, Production and Reception, by Russell Jackson
GWENDOLYN MORGAN Book Review:  Key Concepts in Medieval Literature, by Elizabeth Solopova and Stuart D. Lee
EDWARD CHRISTIE Book Review:  Imaginary Worlds in Medieval Books: Exploring the Manuscript Matrix, by Martha Dana Rust
ROBERT GRAYBILL Book Review:  The Medieval British Literature Handbook, edited by Daniel T. Kline


Spring 2011 (Volume 18, Issue 1)

TEACHING POSTCOLONIA HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 
(guest edited by Michael Matto)
MICHAEL MATTO Foreword: Teaching Postcolonial History of the English Language
ANDREW TROUP Postcolonial HEL: Where Do I Find Room on My Syllabus?
ELISE E. MORSE-GAGNÉ From Sutton Hoo to Tougaloo: Teaching HEL at an HBCU
ROBERT STANTON Teaching Varieties of English in the HEL Classroom
K. AARON SMITH Standardization after 1600 and Its Effects on Two Domains of English Linguistic Structure
JOSHUA PARENS Showing Students the Importance of Political Philosophy in Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy
JANE BLANCHARD Staying on Course with Spenser
GAVIN T. RICHARDSON Practical Paleography in the Chaucer Classroom
JENNY ADAMS Breaking the Waves: Margery Kempe Goes South
ROBERT BRAID Book Review:  Deviance and Power in Late Medieval London, by Frank Rexroth, translated by Pamela E. Selwyn
NIALL SHANKS Book Review:  The Black Death  1346–1353: The Complete History, by Ole J. Benedictow
MEL STORM Book Review:  Chaucerian Spaces: Spatial Poetics in Chaucer’s Opening Tales, by William F. Woods
AMY MORRIS Book Review:  Mary Queen of Scots: An Illustrated Life, by Susan Doran
REBECCA BRUNSON Book Review:  The Yale Companion to Chaucer, edited by Seth Lerer
DAVID J. DUNCAN Book Review:  The Seventh Crusade, 1244–1254: Sources and Documents, edited by Peter Jackson
CATHERINE R. ESKIN Book Review:  Romance for Sale in Early Modern England: The Rise of Prose Fiction, by Steve Mentz
GWENDOLYN MORGAN Book Review:  Erotic Discourse and Early English Religious Writing, by Lara Farina

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Tolkien and His Sources

Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays
Edited by Jason Fisher

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6482-1
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8728-8
notes, bibliography, index
240pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2011
Price: $40.00


About the Book
Source criticism--analysis of a writer’s source material--has emerged as one of the most popular approaches in exploring the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien drew from many disparate sources, an understanding of these sources, as well as how and why he incorporated them, can enhance readers’ appreciation. This set of new essays by leading Tolkien scholars describes the theory and methodology for proper source criticism and provides practical demonstrations of the approach.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Preface
Jason Fisher 1

Introduction: Why Source Criticism?
Tom Shippey 7
Source Criticism: Background and Applications
E. L. Risden 17
Tolkien and Source Criticism: Remarking and Remaking
Jason Fisher 29
The Stones and the Book: Tolkien, Mesopotamia, and Biblical Mythopoeia
Nicholas Birns 45
Sea Birds and Morning Stars: Ceyx, Alcyone, and the Many Metamorphoses of Eärendil and Elwing
Kristine Larsen 69

“Byzantium, New Rome!” Goths, Langobards, and Byzantium in The Lord of the Rings
Miryam Librán-Moreno 84
The Rohirrim: “Anglo-Saxons on Horseback”? An Inquiry into Tolkien’s Use of Sources
Thomas Honegger 116
William Caxton’s The Golden Legend as a Source for Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
Judy Ann Ford 133

She and Tolkien, Revisited
John D. Rateliff 145
Reading John Buchan in Search of Tolkien
Mark T. Hooker 162
Biography as Source: Niggles and Notions
Diana Pavlac Glyer and Josh B. Long 193

About the Contributors 215
Index 219


About the Author
Jason Fisher is an independent scholar specializing in J.R.R. Tolkien, the Inklings, and Medieval Germanic philology. He is also the editor of Mythprint, the monthly publication of The Mythopoeic Society, and has written for Tolkien Studies, Mythlore, Beyond Bree, North Wind, Renaissance, and other publications.

Welsh Mythology and Folklore in Popular Culture

Welsh Mythology and Folklore in Popular Culture: Essays on Adaptations in Literature, Film, Television and Digital Media

Edited by Audrey L. Becker and Kristin Noone 
Series Editors Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6170-7
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8725-7
notes, bibliographies, index
234pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2011
Price: $35.00

About the Book
Examining how we interpret Welshness today, this volume brings together fourteen essays covering a full range of representations of Welsh mythology, folklore, and ritual in popular culture. Topics covered include the twentieth-century fantasy fiction of Evangeline Walton, the Welsh presence in the films of Walt Disney, Welshness in folk music, video games, and postmodern literature. Together, these interdisciplinary essays explore the ways that Welsh motifs have proliferated in this age of cultural cross-pollination, spreading worldwide the myths of one small British nation.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Re-Imagining Wales
AUDREY L. BECKER and KRISTIN NOONE 1
Celtic Studies and Modern Fantasy Literature
C.W. SULLIVAN III 9
“The Rough, Savage Strength of Earth”: Evangeline Walton’s Human Heroes and Mythic Spaces
KRISTIN NOONE 18
Branwen’s Shame: Voicing the Silent Feminine in Evangeline Walton’s The Children of Llyr
NICOLE A. THOMAS 30
Disavowing Maternity in Evangeline Walton’s The Virgin and the Swine: Fantasy Meets the Social Protest Fiction of the 1930s
DEBORAH HOOKER 42
“An Age-Old Memory”: Arthur Machen’s Celtic Redaction of the Welsh Revival in The Great Return
GEOFFREY REITER 61
Magical Goods, “Orphaned” Exchanges, Punishment and Power in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi
SUSANA BROWER 81
The Hand at the Window: Twm Siôn Cati, the Welsh Colonial Trickster
JONATHAN EVANS and STEPHEN KNIGHT 91
An Irregular Union: Exploring the Welsh Connection to a Popular African-American Wedding Ritual
TYLER D. PARRY 108
Constructing Myth in Music: Heather Dale, King Arthur and “Culhwch and Olwen”
MEGAN MACALYSTRE 130
Torchwood’s “Spooky-Do’s”: A Popular Culture Perspective on Celtic Mythology
LYNNETTE R. PORTER 140
Everyday Magic: Howl’s Moving Castle and Fantasy as Sociopolitical Commentary
CAROLYNN E. WILCOX 160
Loosely Based: The Problems of Adaptation in Disney’s The Black Cauldron
JEFF HICKS 171
We’re Not in Cymru Anymore: What’s Really Happening in the Online Mabinogi
CLAY KINCHEN SMITH 182
Temporality, Teleology and the Mabinogi in the Twenty-First Century
AUDREY L. BECKER 195

Further Reading 213
About the Contributors 219
Index 221


About the Author
Audrey L. Becker is an assistant professor of English literature at Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan. She writes on the intersection between Renaissance literature and cultural studies.  
Kristin Noone is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Riverside; her dissertation links medieval romance, fantasy fiction, and popular culture studies. She publishes academic articles on fantasy and medievalism as well as short fantasy fiction.
Donald E. Palumbo is a professor of English at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He lives in Greenville.
C.W. Sullivan III is Distinguished Professor of arts and sciences at East Carolina University and a full member of the Welsh Academy. He is the author of numerous books and the on-line journal Celtic Cultural Studies

Corporate Medievalism

Corporate Medievalism
Studies in Medievalism XXI
Edited by Karl Fugelso

Details
First Published: 19 Jul 2012
$90.00
13 Digit ISBN: 9781843843221
Pages: 208
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Series: Studies in Medievalism
Subject: Medieval Literature
BIC Class: DSBB
Details updated on 27 Nov 2011

Academia has never been immune to corporate culture, and despite the persistent association of medievalism with escapism, perhaps never has that been more obvious than at the present moment. The six essays that open the volume explore precisely how financial institutions have promoted, distorted, appropriated, resisted, and repudiated post-medieval interpretations of the middle ages. In the second part of the book, contributors explore medievalism in a variety of areas, juxtaposing specific case studies with broader investigations of the disciplines' motives and methods; they include Charles Kingsley's racial Anglo-Saxonism, Jessie L. Weston's Sir Gawain and the treatment of women in medievalist film. The book also includes a spirited response to previous Studies in Medievalism volumes on the topic neomedievalism.

Contributors: Harry Brown, Henrik Aubert, Helen Brookman, Pamela Clements, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, Jil Hanifan, Michael R. Kightley, Felice Lifshitz, Lauren S. Mayer, Brent Moberley, Kevin Moberley, E. L. Risden, Carol L. Robinson, M. J. Toswell, J. Rubén Valdés Miyares


Contents
1 Editorial Notes
2 Lives of Total Dedication? Medieval and Modern Corporate Identity
3 Reincorporating the Medieval: Morality, Chivalry, and Honor in Post-Financial-Meltdown Corporate Revisionism
4 Medievalism and Representations of Corporate Identity
5 Knights of the Ownership Society: Economic Inequality and Medievalist Film
6 A Corporate neo-Beowulf: Ready or Not, Here We Come
7 Unsettled Accounts: Corporate Culture and George R.R. Martin's Fetish Medievalism
8 Historicizing Neumatic Notation: Medieval Neumes as Cultural Artefacts of Early Modern Times
9 Hereward the Dane and the English, but Not the Saxon: Kingsley's Racial Anglo-Saxonism
10 From Romance to Ritual: Jessie L. Weston's Gawain
11 The Cinematic Sign of the Grail
12 Destructive Dominae: Women and Vengeance in Medievalist Film (Felice Lifshitz) (abstract)
13 Neomedievalism Unplugged
14 Notes on Contributors

Saturday, November 5, 2011

CFP Medieval Popular Culture and Arthurian Legends at PCA 2012


Medieval Popular Culture and Arthurian Legends (download PDF)
at the 42nd  Annual Popular and American Culture Associations Conference
April 11-14th, 2012, Boston, Massachusetts

Call for papers and panel proposals on all popular treatments of the Middle Ages or
Arthurian Legend from any period and in any medium. We will consider all proposals for
papers, but we especially encourage abstracts on the following for this year’s conference:

Arthurian themes in Dragon Age I and II 
Harry Potter and medievalism
The Lost finale and the Holy Grail
Medievalism in Martin’s Game of Thrones
The Mists of Avalon after 30 years
New Camelots: Camelot on Starz and the BBC’s Merlin
Paranormal romance and medievalism
Robin Hood

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words and papers must keep to a reading time of 15
minutes (approximately 7-8 double spaced pages). Be sure to include your full name,
affiliation, mailing address, phone number and email address on your abstract, not just in
the email. Email submissions are preferred.

Deadline: December 15, 2011
Send submissions to Amy Kaufman at: kaufmana@mtsu.edu
or mail to:
Amy S. Kaufman
Department of English, Middle Tennessee State University
MTSU Box 0070, 1301 East Main Street
Murfreesboro, TN  37132-0001

Please note: Membership in the PCA is required for participation. Membership forms and more
information about the conference are available online at www.pcaaca.org.

Friday, November 4, 2011

CFP ICoM 2012

Call for Papers (download the CFP)
27th International Conference on Medievalism 
Hosted by Kent State University Regional Campuses 
(October 18-20, 2012)

THEME: Medievalism(s) & Diversity
Deadline: June 1, 2012


Conference Theme: Is there diversity in medievalism? How has medievalism represented diversity of religion, race, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, gender,...? How have medievalist works supported issues concerning equity and inclusion? How have medievalist works oppressed and suppressed? Are there elements of bigotry and discrimination? What about human rights as a medieval concept, as a contemporary concept? Media to consider might include (but are not limited to) any of the following: novels, plays, films, art works, the Internet, television, historical works, political works, comics, video games. Angles to consider might include (but are not limited to) any of the following: race, gender, sexuality, disability/ability, religion, corporation and/or class, nationality, human rights, political correctness, marginalization, anti-marginalization tactics, rewritten codes, rewritten ideologies, re-affirmed codes, re-affirmed ideologies.

Conference Location: Nestled on 200 beautiful acres, yet only minutes from the hustle and bustle of The Strip and Westfield Belden Village Mall, Kent State University at Stark provides a quiet, serene and picturesque setting for students and the community to enjoy. With rolling hills, a pond, walking trail, and a Campus Center and Food Emporium, it is located in Jackson Township, just five minutes from the Akron-Canton Airport and easily accessible from Interstate-77.

Publication Opportunities:
Selected papers related to the conference theme will be published in The Year’s Work in Medievalism.


Deadline: June 1, 2012
Please send paper and/or session proposals to either
Carol Robinson (Conference Chair) or to Elizabeth Williamsen (Conference Assistant Chair).

Carol L. Robinson, Conference Chair
International Conference on Medievalism
Kent State University Trumbull
4314 Mahoning Avenue, NW
Warren, Ohio 44483
EMAIL: clrobins@kent.edu
FAX: 330-437-0490

Elizabeth Williamsen, Conference Assist. Chair
International Conference on Medievalism
Kent State University Stark
6000 Frank Avenue, NW
North Canton, Ohio 44720
EMAIL: ewilli46@kent.edu
FAX: 330-437-0490

ICoM 2011


With apologies for cross-posting:

The International Society for the Study of Medievalism recently convened its 26th International Conference on Medievalism at the University of New Mexico under the general theme of Medievalism, Arthuriana, and Landscapes of Enchantment from 21-22 October 2011. The complete program can be accessed at http://ims.unm.edu/sim/.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Kalamazoo 2012 Sessions

As promised, here are the complete details for our sessions for next year's International Congress on Medieval Studies:

The Comics Get Medieval at Kalamazoo: New Perspectives for Incorporating Comics into Medieval Studies Teaching and Research (Roundtable)
Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

Presider: Mikee Delony, Abilene Christian University

1. “Grotesque in Comics”

Fabio Mourilhe, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

2. “Caliber (2008), or Arthur’s Mystical Six-Shooter and the Gunslingers of the O.K. Corral”

Karen (Casey) Casebier, St. Mary’s College of Maryland

3. “Arthurian Themes in DC Comic’s Demon Knights (2011-)”

Jason Tondro, University of California, Riverside


Are You From Camelot? Recent Arthurian Film and Television as Innovators of the Arthurian Tradition and Their Impact (Roundtable) (co-sponsored with The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain)

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

Presider: Charlotte A. T. Wulf, Stevenson University

1. “Merlin: Magician, Man, and Manipulator in Starz’s Camelot (2011)”

Caroline Womack, University of Leeds

2. “Morgan, Uther’s Other Child, in BBC1’s Merlin (2008-) and Starz’s Camelot (2011)”

Cindy Mediavilla, UCLA Department of Information Studies

3. “Galahad and Indiana Jones: The Commodification of the Holy Grail in Modern Grail Quests”

Schuyler Eastin, San Diego Christian College

4. Arthurising the Wife of Bath: The Wife of Bath’s Tale in S4C’s The Canterbury Tales (1999) and BBC’s Canterbury Tales (2003)

Paul Hardwick, Leeds Trinity University College

5. Respondent

Karolyn Kinane, Plymouth State University

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Our Kalamazoo Sessions 2012

We are in the process of finalizing our sessions for the 2012 International Congress on Medieval Studies. Details will be posted first to the respective blogs (film and comics) and then re-posted here.


Medievalism at NEPCA

A number of papers with medieval subjects will be presented in November at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury Connecticut, from 11-12 November. The complete program is now available online.

FRIDAY, 11 NOV., 4-5:30 PM
8) Science and Technology I/Symposium: Geeks, Gadgets and Games: The Influence of Technology on Media Entertainment in Contemporary Culture (ROOM: WHITE 024)

PAPER 1 OF 3: “From Mighty Thor to Thor: Problematizing the Inherent Societal Values and Individual Identities of “Geek” Culture Artifacts Appropriated by Mainstream America” – Jessica Eckstein and David Kazibut, Western Connecticut State University


SATURDAY, 12 NOV., 8:30-10 AM
6) Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend II: Legends Old and New (ROOM: WARNER 320)

PAPER 1 OF 4: “The Werewolf: Out of Bounds”—Barry Hall, University of Nizwa

PAPER 2 OF 4: “Robin Hood in Ballad and Film”—Kerry R. Kaleba, George Mason University

PAPER 3 OF 4: “What Do Vampires Have to Do with the Holy Grail? The Transformation of the Grail Legend in Undead Arthuriana”—Michael A. Torregrossa, The Virtual Society for the Study Of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages


SATURDAY, 12 NOV., 10:30 AM - 12 PM 
8) Science Fiction, Fantasy and Legend III: Fantasy (ROOM: WHITE 023)

1. “ ‘Epic’ in Epic-Fantasy Literature”—Robert Luce, Independent Scholar

2. “ Who Is Afraid of Merlin? The Darkening of Merlin in Modern Arthurian Fiction” -- Anne Berthelot, University of Connecticut

3. “ ‘Close This Book Right Now’: The Writer-Character in Children’s Fantasy”-- Amie A. Doughty, SUNY Oneonta

4. “Fandom 2.0: Fantasy, Social Media, and Fan Creativity” -- James Kennedy, Columbia College


SATURDAY, 12 NOV., 1:30-3 PM
2) Comics and Graphic Novels II: Damsels Causing Distress (ROOM: WARNER 226)

PAPER 2 OF 4: “Vampiric Viragoes: Villainizing and Sexualizing Arthurian Women in King Arthur v. Dracula (2005) and Madame Xanadu (2008)”—Kate Allocco, Western Connecticut State University

Monday, September 19, 2011

Beowulf by James Rumford

I recently picked up James Rumford's Beowulf: A Hero's Tale Retold (2007) and found it an interesting read. The book--both written and illustrated by Rumford--offers young readers a simplified and non-gory version of Beowulf that makes several attempts for a more "authentic" version of the story. The costumes, arms and armor, architecture and decoration are suitably early medieval in appearance, and the text itself both uses keenings and employs a lexicon of words primarily derived from Old English. Rumford details his approach to the book in an author's note that concludes the work and on his website. This is definitely something to consider for the young medievalists on your holiday shopping lists.


Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Medieval Popular Culture and Arthurian Legends (12/15/11; PCA Boston 4/11-14/12)

Medieval Popular Culture and Arthurian Legends, April 11-14th, 2012, Boston, Massachusetts
42nd Annual Popular and American Culture Associations Conference
contact email: kaufmana@mtsu.edu

Medieval Popular Culture and Arthurian Legends at the 42nd Annual Popular and American Culture Associations Conference

April 11-14th, 2012, Boston, Massachusetts

Call for papers and panel proposals on all popular treatments of the Middle Ages or Arthurian Legend from any period and in any medium. We will consider all proposals for papers, but we especially encourage abstracts on the following for this year’s conference:

Arthurian themes in _Dragon Age_ I and II
Harry Potter and medievalism
The _Lost_ finale and the Holy Grail
Medievalism in Martin’s _Game of Thrones_
_The Mists of Avalon_ after 30 years
New Camelots: _Camelot_ on Starz and the BBC’s _Merlin_
Paranormal romance and medievalism
Robin Hood

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words and papers must keep to a reading time of 15 minutes (approximately 7-8 double spaced pages). Be sure to include your full name, affiliation, mailing address, phone number and email address on your abstract, not just in the email. Email submissions are preferred.

Deadline: December 15, 2011

Send submissions to Amy Kaufman at: kaufmana@mtsu.edu

or mail to:
Amy S. Kaufman
Department of English, Middle Tennessee State University
MTSU Box 0070, 1301 East Main Street Murfreesboro
TN 37132-0001

Please note: Membership in the PCA is required for participation. Membership forms and more information about the conference are available online at www.pcaaca.org.

Monday, July 18, 2011

CFP Global Shakespeare, Spec. Issue of Shakespeare: Journal of British Shakespeare Association (9/30/11)

http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/41938

CFP: Global Shakespeare
full name / name of organization: Shakespeare: Journal of British Shakespeare Association
contact email: acyhuang@gwu.edu

CALL FOR PAPERS

Shakespeare: Journal of British Shakespeare Association special issue

"Global Shakespeare"

Deadline: September 30, 2011

The special issue welcomes papers on Shakespeare in performance in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that participate in or initiate debates—theory, praxis, reception—worldwide. During his lifetime, Shakespeare’s plays were performed in Europe and subsequently taken to remote corners of the globe, including Sierra Leone, Socotra, and colonial Indonesia. Performances in England also had a global flair. European visitors such as Thomas Platter witnessed the plays on stage at the Globe (1599) and left behind diary records. Four centuries on, there has been a sea change. In theatre, Shakespeare has been recruited, exemplified, resisted, and debated in post/colonial encounters, in the international avant-garde led by Ariane Mnouchkine, Ninagawa Yukio, Peter Brook, Tadashi Suzuki, and others, and in the circuits of global politics and tourism in late capitalist societies.

As artists reconstruct various traditions, critics are also troubling narrowly defined concept of cultural authenticity. What are the new paradigms that can help us avoid replicating the old author-centered textuality in performance criticism? What critical resources might we bring to the task of interpreting the behaviors and signs in performance? What is the role of local and global spectators? More importantly, what is the task of criticism as it deals with the transformations of Shakespeare and various performance idioms?

Research articles in this issue will take stock of the worldwide histories of performance and criticism to uncover any blind spots in current methodologies to study the theoretical and artistic implications of Shakespeare and the cultures of diaspora, the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Commonwealth countries, Europe, Russia, Africa, the Arab world, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere.

In addition, this issue will also feature a section devoted to recent adaptations in English and other languages.

We invite two types of submissions --

• Research article: criticism (5,000-8,000 words)
• Short performance reviews (1,000-2,000 words)

Please follow the Journal's Instructions for Authors:

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=1745-0918&linktype=44

Submissions--WORD (.doc) file, double-spaced, 12-point font; no .docx files please--or queries to be emailed to Alex Huang at the following address:

acyhuang@gwu.edu

CFP "Does Beowulf Allow (for) Illustration?" (due 9/5/2011)

http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/42051

New College Conference, March 8-10, 2012, Sarasota, FL: Call for papers: "Does Beowulf Allow (for) Illustration?" (due 9/5/2011)
full name / name of organization:
Matthew J. Snyder / University of Florida
contact email:
msnyder@ufl.edu

This session will seek to explore the question: Can Beowulf be illustrated, or does the poem exhibit and/or foster an inherent antagonism between sign and icon? Recent efforts to provide illustration that augments (or perhaps subsumes or subordinates) the poem's 3182 lines of text, including Seamus Heaney and John D. Niles' Beowulf: An Illustrated Edition (Norton, 2007), the graphic novel Beowulf: Monster Slayer (Graphic Universe, 2008), and Robert Zemeckis' 2007 motion-capture animated film, all would seem to push back against what might be termed the text's opacity of the visual imaginary. Do these works and others, including various Beowulf adaptations to film and new media, succeed in their self-appointed task of turning the poem into a (moving-)picture book? Can they? Why might – or might not – these approaches represent successful or failed (re)interpretations or adaptations of the epic, and is there some other logic or desire behind the apparent drive to illustrate Beowulf that we ought to try to get at?

Please submit 250-word abstracts of proposed twenty-minute papers in the body of an email with a current CV attached. The deadline for the submission of abstracts for this session is 5 September 2011. For more on the New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, visit http://faculty.ncf.edu/medievalstudies/index.html.

Matthew J. Snyder
Department of English
University of Florida

CFP The Once and Future Classroom Journal seeks submissions (by 12/15/2011)

http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/42033

The Once and Future Classroom Journal seeks submissions (by 12/15/2011)
full name / name of organization:
TEAMS: The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages
contact email:
cneufeld@emich.edu

The Once and Future Classroom is an electronic journal published by TEAMS (The Consortium for Teaching the Middle Ages). This peer-reviewed journal seeks to encourage medieval studies in the K-12 and community college contexts by providing teachers with inspiring topics, new strategies and academically-sound resources. The OFC is dedicated to representing the diversity of medieval studies and the most current pedagogical modes. The journal welcomes a variety of formats: annotated bibliographies, lesson plans, reviews of teaching materials, books, or films, as well as more traditional scholarship on teaching medieval topics. The journal’s electronic format allows for flexibility in content length, as well as exciting presentation options—such as the inclusion of images, video clips, as well as live links to other web resources.
For more information see: http://www.teamsmedieval.org/ofc/index.html
Or contact the Managing Editor, Dr. Christine Neufeld, at cneufeld@emich.edu.

CFP Shakespearean Echoes (7/20/11)

http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/41425

Shakespearean Echoes
full name / name of organization:
Paul Gleed, Dickinson College
contact email:
gleedp@dickinson.edu

I am seeking chapter abstracts for a proposed volume on Shakespeare in popular culture. The tentative title for this project is Shakespearean Echoes: Shakespeare in Contemporary Culture.
Why another volume on Shakespeare and popular culture? Understandably, the vast majority of work on Shakespeare’s contemporary life has focused on direct adaptations of the playwright’s work. What I propose with this volume, however, is to exclusively study “echoes” of Shakespeare rather than adaptations, the less tangible and precise ways in which Shakespeare has appeared within contemporary culture. Authors might address echoes of Shakespeare in contemporary music, film, literature, television, advertising, new media or any other worthwhile venue.
I am particularly interested in essays exploring relatively untouched interconnections between Shakespeare and contemporary culture. I’m eager, also, to have a global perspective, and hope to present a selection of chapters reflecting Shakespeare’s current international afterlife. Work on British and American subjects is welcome (and needed), of course, but projects reflecting a multicultural perspective will be particularly appreciated. Essays should address texts no older than 1980.
What I hope to show is the pervasiveness and variety of Shakespeare’s current afterlife. With this in mind, I’m trying to get the right blend of breadth and depth. I’m hoping to accomplish this through a mix of short and long essays (a first section featuring ten to fifteen short essays and a second section of fewer, longer essays). Short essays will be around 2,000 words while fuller essays will come in at about 5,000 words. Please indicate which type of essay you would like to write.
Finally, all essays, short and long, should present an interpretive position and develop an argument. This work is not intended to simply catalogue Shakespearean “echoes.” Many existing publications on Shakespeare and popular culture tend to take the survey or introductory approach, while this volume hopes to offer readers a different format. Importantly, authors should say something rewarding about both Shakespeare and the contemporary text/context being studied.
After the deadline for submissions, I will contact authors to let them know if their work has been selected. The next step will be to approach publishers with a full, detailed proposal. I anticipate, of course, that this will be a lengthy process, but will keep authors informed and updated as the project moves forward.

The Deadline for abstracts is July 20th, 2011. Please send abstract and C.V. to: gleedp@dickinson.edu
Paul Gleed
Assistant Professor of English and Film
Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA 17013

CFP Locating Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century (6/30/11)

http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=185512

Locating Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century
Call for Papers Date: 2011-06-30
Date Submitted: 2011-05-26
Announcement ID: 185512

William Shakespeare has long been a global cultural commodity, but in the twenty-first century "Shakespeare" is oft positioned as a social concept with the man almost forgotten amidst the terminology that surrounds the criticism, tourism, adaptation, and utilization of the plays. For instance, the plays themselves are as often re-worked and adapted as performed wholly in their own right on stage. Moreover, there are currently well-established alternative strands, identities, and locations of "Shakespeare" (e.g., metanarratives, gender-reworking, inter-cultural adapting, online streaming), and the growth is as widespread and fast as technology, performance, social networking, and cinema will allow. It is this new and exciting approach to "Shakespeare," which clearly suits both the adaptation process and the technology and mindset of the twenty-first century, that our volume will consider.
Potential topics for the anthology include the following:

• Shakespeare depicted on film and TV "outside" the mainstream: reality TV documentary from prison, schools, etc.
• Adaptation online: podcasts, webcasts, webisodes (e.g., Second City's Sassy Gay Friend series), YouTube Shakespeare, Shakespeare on Twitter (e.g., Such Tweet Sorrow)
• Streaming live theatre: the National Theatre Live and not-so-live Hamlet and Lear experiments
• Meta-narratives of Shakespeare, positioning the works through embedded and presumed knowledge in adaptations
• Global Shakespeares located within and for national identities
• Shakespeare as illustrated text: graphic novels, animation, special effects
• And of course, any other ways of "locating Shakespeare in the twenty-first century"

Please send a 500-word abstract/synopsis of the project to Kelli Marshall (kellirmarshall_at_gmail.com) by June 30, 2011. Complete essays of approximately 6,000 words would be expected around September 1, 2011.

Kelli Marshall
kellirmarshall@gmail.com
Email: kellirmarshall@gmail.com