Archives de catégorie : Appels

Appel: Raconter à l'ère numérique (10 juillet 2012)

Comicalités

Raconter à l’ère numérique

Appel à contributions

Date limite : 10 juillet 2012

Après « La bande dessinée : un art sans mémoire ? », « Représenter l’auteur de bande dessinée » et « L’Allemagne : quelle(s) image(s) ? » (pour lesquels nous pouvons toujours recevoir des propositions), Comicalités. Etudes de culture graphique publie dont quatrième appel à communication : la thématique « Raconter à l’ère numérique » est confiée à Julien Falgas et Anthony Rageul.

Raconter à l’ère numérique

« Espèce narrative […] à dominante visuelle » (Groensteen, 2011), on considère généralement que la bande dessinée a pour vocation principale de raconter. « Faire le récit de » (Petit Larousse Illustré, 2000). Où il y a récit, on suppose un ordonnancement, un déroulé des événements, un début, un milieu, une fin. On suppose un (ra)conteur, un narrateur, qui guide le lecteur. Moyennant une certaine latitude dans ses marges (bande dessinée abstraite, poétique, expérimentale), ces assertions et définitions sont justes et vérifiées dans toute l’histoire de la bande dessinée, c’est-à-dire quelle que soit sa place dans la société ou dans l’art, quel que soit son modèle esthétique, économique, quel que soit son support ou mode de diffusion.

Depuis 25 ans, la bande dessinée a, à l’instar d’autres médias, été absorbée dans l’espace numérique. Déjà présente sur les premiers réseaux ancêtres de l’Internet moderne, puis sur CD-rom, les années 2000 voient l’explosion du blog-bd, du webcomic et autre formes de bandes dessinées en ligne de même que le développement de nouveaux supports pour sa diffusion et sa lecture (de l’écran de l’ordinateur à la tablette, au smartphone ou à la liseuse).

Le secteur professionnel de la bande dessinée, comme d’ailleurs toutes les autres industries culturelles, est animé depuis quelques années de vifs débats quant aux modèles économiques et au droit d’auteur. On peut, à la suite de Magali Boudissa, questionner « les limites ontologiques dans lesquelles la narration peut se développer sur support numérique, sans basculer dans une forme hybride de récit hypermédiatique » (Boudissa M., 2010). Mais, plus qu’un changement de support ou de vecteur de diffusion, nous assistons probablement à une évolution de nos pratiques de réception et de production de récits par-delà la bande dessinée. Pour Smolderen, le passage du livre au périodique puis au quotidien autour de 1900 déterminent la genèse du langage de la bande dessinée moderne (Smolderen, 2009). L’appropriation de nouveaux supports et de nouveaux vecteurs de diffusion à des fins narratives a engendré la bande dessinée telle que nous la connaissons. C’est pourquoi, plutôt que de questionner le devenir de la bande dessinée, nous souhaitons interroger ce que signifie raconter à l’ère numérique.

Cette question engendre de très nombreuses pistes de travail, le terrain de la recherche à ce sujet étant largement à l’état de friche. Voici une première série de propositions dont la liste n’est pas exhaustive.

Pour commencer, l’histoire de la bande dessinée numérique reste encore à écrire, et ce pour ses trois pôles géographiques principaux (USA, Asie, francophonie). Ses oeuvres sont à recenser, à analyser, à critiquer. Considérée comme objet esthétique, la bande dessinée numérique invite à observer comment elle s’inscrit dans l’histoire de l’art, comment s’y manifestent ou non les enjeux de l’art contemporain à l’orée du XXIème siècle, comment elle fait ou non écho aux autres arts numériques.

En tant que média, on pourra se demander quels sont les atouts et les limites de l’héritage de la bande dessinée pour aller au-delà du papier. Quelles sont les spécificités du récit sur écrans connectés ? Y a-t-il une « plus-value » sémantique et surtout comment s’exprime-t-elle ? Les technologies reconfigurent-elles le “système de la bande dessinée” (Groensteen T., 1999) et comment ? Numérique est-il synonyme de multimédia, d’interactif, de connecté ? Enfin, comme l’observe Jean Clément : « Au cours des siècles passés, chaque changement matériel des supports narratifs a entraîné d’importantes modifications dans l’art de raconter des histoires. (…) Nous ne sommes entrés dans l’ère du numérique que très récemment. Il n’est donc pas surprenant que les oeuvres multimédias qui apparaissent aujourd’hui cherchent encore un mode d’écriture qui leur soit propre. » (Clément J., 2000). Si la bande dessinée joue un rôle indéniable dans l’émergence d’un mode d’écriture propre à l’ère numérique, il semble bon d’observer les réponse qu’apportent les héritiers d’autres traditions narratives. Par exemple on pourra interroger des formes telles que le récit transmédia ou se tourner vers les théories déjà bien étoffées des arts et de la littérature numérique.

Avec ces nouvelles formes de récit, c’est la place même du récit dans nos sociétés contemporaines qui est questionnée. Quels sont les usages des auteurs et des lecteurs ? Pourquoi raconter ou lire des histoires sur écrans connectés ? Raconter pour et par ces outils est-il un métier d’auteur ou de technicien ? Un travail solitaire ou un travail d’équipe ? Ou se placent les savoirs-faire traditionnels (auteur, éditeur, dessinateur, producteur…) ? Quels métiers sont à inventer, quelles collaborations à envisager ?

Enfin, on pourra interroger le marché émergent en terme de modèle économique ou de pratiques éditoriales, mais aussi en se demandant dans quelle mesure ces évolutions relèvent ou non de réelles innovations. Quelles sont les limites des nouveaux supports ? Le “lire numérique” a-t-il besoin du livre numérique ? Au-delà du portage du papier au numérique, qu’est-ce qui fait changer la nature ou le régime du récit ?

Nous invitons les chercheurs à nous soumettre deux documents :

– Une fiche signalétique prenant la forme d’un court Curriculum Vitae exposant les axes de recherche du candidat.

– Un texte anonyme de 3000 signes espaces compris, présenté sans aucun enrichissement autre que l’italique ou le caractère gras, et adoptant une présentation standardisée (Times New Roman 12 pts pour le corps de texte, 10 pts pour les notes, aucun alinéa ou retrait de paragraphe, interligne 1,5).

La proposition sera évaluée de façon anonyme par deux membres du comité scientifique de la revue : son acceptation vaudra encouragement et suggestions quant à un article d’une taille comprise entre 25000 et 50000 signes espaces compris. Elle doit nous parvenir aux adresses électroniques suivantes avant le 10 juillet prochain.

Julien Falgas et Anthony Rageul, responsables de la « thématique »

julien.falgas@gmail.com

anthony.rageul@yahoo.fr

Benoît Berthou, directeur de Comicalités.

benoit.berthou@univ-paris13.fr

Références citées

•                Boudissa M., 2010, La Bande dessinée, entre la page et l’écran : Étude critique des enjeux théoriques liés au renouvellement du langage bédéique sous influence numérique., Thèse en esthétique, sciences et technologie des arts, Université Paris VIII.

•                Clément J., 2000, Hypertextes et mondes fictionnels ou l’avenir de la narration dans le cyberespace, [En ligne: http://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_00000294/fr/].

•                Groensteen, T., 1999, Système de la bande dessinée, Paris, PUF.

•                Groensteen, T., 2011, Bande dessinée et narration – Système de la bande dessinée 2, Paris, PUF, p.89.

•                Petit Larousse Illustré, 2000, Paris, Larousse/HER.

Smolderen, T., Naissances de la bande dessinée: de William Hogarth à Winsor McCay, Bruxelles, les Impressions nouvelles, 2009, 144 p.

CFP: Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Popular Culture – MPCA/ACA (30 avril 2012)

Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Popular Culture – MPCA/ACA

Deadline for receipt of proposals is April 30, 2012

The MPCA/ACA is seeking paper proposals that address any aspect of 19th century American popular culture for our annual conference. The 2012 conference will be held in Columbus, OH from October 12-14.

We are especially interested in papers that focus on literature and/or culture from a specific critical perspective; however, no particular approach is required. Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

– Literature
– Book History/Print Cultures
– Dime novels
– Politics
– Sports
– Religion
– Westward expansion
– Native Americans
– Women in popular culture
– Entertainment
– The Gothic

Those interested should review the information here (http://mpcaaca.org/columbus-2012/2012-cfp/) to include relevant details on their submission entry. Submissions should be made electronically via our online submission system (http://submissions.mpcaaca.org/). Deadline for receipt of proposals is April 30, 2012.

Any inquiries about this specific topic should be directed to the area chair, Patrick Prominski, Department of English, Michigan State University – promins2@msu.edu.

For more information on the conference and the MPCA/MACA, please visit the mpca website http://www.mpcaaca.org/

CFP: Dead Inside: The Walking Dead and the Problem of Meaning in the New Millennium (13 août 2012)

Dead Inside: The Walking Dead and the Problem of Meaning in the New Millennium.

Essay Collection.

Deadline: August 13, 2012

Dawn Keetley, Lehigh University
contact email: dek7@lehigh.edu

In the early twenty-first century, zombies are everywhere—in film (Land of the Dead, 28 Days Later, Dead Snow, Rammbock, The Horde), fiction (Stephen King’s Cell, Colson Whitehead’s Zone One, Max Brooks’ World War Z, John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Handling the Undead), social movements (zombie walks and the Zombie Research Society ), classrooms (Zombie Studies) and even politics (Daniel Drezner’s Theories of International Politics and Zombies). Undoubtedly one of the most sustained and complex representations of the modern zombie, though, is AMC’s television series, The Walking Dead, based on Robert Kirkman’s series of comics.

I am seeking essays for a collection that will explore the complexities of The Walking Dead in relation to the multiple forms of zombie revival, and that will address the ways in which the zombie articulates the crucial theoretical and political debates of the new century.

I am particularly interested in essays about how zombies, and narratives about zombies, engage problems of meaning. In the first episode of season one of The Walking Dead, after protagonist Rick Grimes wakes up in a hospital to a post-apocalyptic world, he encounters a door on which the words “Do Not Open. Dead Inside” are painted. Zombies claw at the opening. The moment encapsulates how zombies often function to signal inner deadness or absence—the loss of self, of consciousness, of history, of political efficacy, of meaning itself. How does the series, in its many contexts (literary, cinematic, historical, political, address compelling contemporary problems of meaning, of how we find and attribute significance in our lives? Essays should, then, take up The Walking Dead as a crystallization of one of the many contemporary problems of meaning. Some generative questions/contexts include:

–Why have zombies seen such a resurgence in the twenty-first century, after their apparent demise in the 1990s? How does The Walking Dead represent an evolution in the history of zombie fiction and film?

–How do zombies feature in imaginings of the end of the world? How do post-apocalyptic narratives with zombies (The Walking Dead, World War Z, Romero’s Dead cycle) differ from those without (The Road, Survivors, The Book of Eli)?

–How do fictional, cinematic, and televisual zombies illuminate philosophical debates over the conceivability of the zombie and what the possible existence (or lack thereof) of zombies says about human consciousness and identity?

–How do zombie narratives encode politics and offer forms of social critique (notably of global capitalism), as well as embodying forms of utopian political thinking?

–How do zombies serve as figures of contagion—as a virus that infects both the body and the mind (memes, flash mobs, etc.)? What meanings inhere in zombies’ contagiousness?

–How do zombies engage with recent theorists of the posthuman?

Please send your essay of no more than 30 pages to Dawn Keetley, Associate Professor of English, at Lehigh University, 35 Sayre Drive, Bethlehem PA 18015. Email: dek7@lehigh.edu. The deadline is Monday August 13, 2012. All disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives are welcome. I will be happy to address any questions via email at any time. McFarland (who have been publishing the best books on zombies) is interested in publishing this collection.

CFP: "Revisiting the Dime Novel": 2012 PAMLA Conference CFP (deadline: april 22, 2012)

Call For Papers

“Revisiting the Dime Novel”: 2012 PAMLA Conference CFP

(deadline: april 22, 2012)

This approved session will explore the largely forgotten or ignored dime-novel–the American pulp novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries, including Westerns, detective stories, school stories, romance tales, or early science fiction. All aspects of the phenomenon of the dime-novel are fair game; papers may explore the dime novel through a new-Historical, Cultural Studies, Queer Theory, Marxist, post-Colonial, or other analytic lens.

The Online CFP List and Paper Proposal Form for the October 19-21 PAMLA Conference, to be held at Seattle University in Seattle, WA, is now open. The deadline for proposing a paper to this or any of the more than 100 approved sessions is April 22, 2012. For more information, please visit the PAMLA Conference website: http://www.pamla.org/2012

Call for papers: Crime Fiction (Deadline: 31 juillet 2012)

Call for papers

Crime Fiction

(Deadline: 31 juillet 2012)

Following our recent project The Foreign in International Crime Fiction: Transcultural Representations (forthcoming from Continuum, August 2012, see information available at www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=167802&SubjectId=997&Subject2Id=927), we invite interested scholars and specialists to contribute to a planned volume on crime series.  We envisage including studies of print, television, and film series and are keen to consider a wide range of authors, countries and time periods. The category ‘crime fiction’ is here understood in the broad sense i.e. detective, spy, mystery and thriller. Research which includes interview input from crime fiction authors is especially welcome.

According to Eco (1966) in his study of the Bond books, a series is constructed around a fixed grammar. Other critics such as Cawelti (1976) have insisted on the formulaic nature of crime fiction, including the series. To what extent is this accurate? What are the mechanisms that anchor a series? What constitutes a series? How do the central characters evolve over time? Can a series (eg. Sherlock Holmes or James Bond) be successfully continued by another author or authors? What moves or allows an author to create more than one series? Might a series be based on elements other than the main protagonist, for example a place? Are series able to create a “sense of a place” (Geherin 2008)? Are there different criteria for a series in different cultures, or across genders and age groups? Can series address the problems and anxieties of a specific class, gender or age group? To what extent do readers’ expectations play a role? How do print series translate into visual form or vice-versa? We welcome proposals addressing these and any other pertinent aspects.

Schedule: Proposals of approximately 500 words, a short bibliography and a 50-word author note should be sent by 31st July 2012. Selected proposers will be invited by 31st August 2012 to send their full article of no more than 5000 words including bibliography and notes by 30th November 2012. Final acceptance will be advised by 31st January 2013.

Please send all inquiries and initial proposals to: carolina.miranda@vuw.ac.nz.

Jean Anderson

Carolina Miranda

Barbara Pezzotti

CFP: Weird Lovecraft H.P. Lovecraft, Weird Tales, and the Construction of the American Horror Canon

Weird Lovecraft

H.P. Lovecraft, Weird Tales, and the Construction of the American Horror Canon

There is little doubt as to the importance that H.P. Lovecraft has played in the development of American horror. Additionally, the pulp magazine Weird Tales, which published much of Lovecraft’s fiction, is also consistently recognized as a seminal publication for eerie and horrific texts. With these two givens in mind, we are actively looking for paper proposals that explore the way that Lovecraft and/or Weird Tales helped construct the American horror canon or the American horrific aesthetic. Papers will be presented at the College of St. Joseph’s popular culture conference, held the last weekend in October [we are hosting the conference in October to help break up the conference jam that happens over Winter and Spring recess].

Potential paper topics [this list should not be seen as limiting]:

Lesser Lovecrafts: Unknown Weird Tales contributors in the Lovecraftian style
The art of Weird Tales
From Weird Tales to Tales from the Crypt
The horror aesthetic between the wars
Racial horror in Weird Tales
The economics of horror
Eco-critical readings of Weird Tales
Lovecraft’s narratives, Hollywood’s stories
Lovecraft in the 21st century
Eerie, Creepy, and the influence of Lovecraft on Warren Publications
“The Thing That Should not Be”: Weird Tales and transgressive music

250-300 word paper abstracts should be sent to Dr. Jonas Prida at jprida@csj.edu by May 15th. If accepted, papers/presentations should be in the 3000 word range. We encourage creative projects, co-presentations, faculty/undergraduate collaboration, and graduate students. Any questions can be send to Dr. Jonas Prida as well.

CFP: Edited Collection on Sherlock Holmes Adaptations (2 avril)

CFP

Edited Collection on Sherlock Holmes Adaptations (2 avril)

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories have recently gained new popularity through a variety of adaptations and re-interpretations in a broad variety of media forms. This edited collection will focus on three ways to access these texts: Fan and audience activity, adaptations throughout history and their political and ideological contextualization, and intertextual influences. We welcome submissions for articles of 200 word abstracts on adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

– Adaptation in film, television, theatre/performance, graphic novels, games, and other media forms
– Fan activity surrounding all texts, including fan fiction, slash fiction, shipping, online fandom, etc.
– Reception of adaptations
– Historical adaptations
– Influences on other franchises, such as the CSI franchise or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel series, or literary influences, such as Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series
– Games adaptation from board games to contemporary video gaming
– Adaptation in varying political contexts and systems
– Influences on the genre

Please submit 200 word abstracts by the 2nd of April to Stephanie Jones (sbj@aber.ac.uk), Nia Edwards-Behi (nne09@aber.ac.uk) and Mareike Jenner (mmj09@aber.ac.uk)

CFP: MAPACA 2012; SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY AREA (deadline: june 5, 2012)

Call for Papers MAPACA 2012
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY AREA
PITTSBURGH, PA

The Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (MAPACA) invites academics, graduate and undergraduate students, independent scholars, and artists to submit papers for the annual conference, to be held in Pittsburgh, PA., November 1-3, 2012. Those interested in presenting at the conference are invited to submit a proposal or panel by June 15, 2012. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words long. Include a brief bio with your proposal. Single papers, as well as 3- or 4-person panels and roundtables, are encouraged. For further information, updates on areas and area chairs, please visit MAPACA’s web site at www.mapaca.net.

Science Fiction and Fantasy
Science Fiction and Fantasy welcomes papers/presentations in any critical, theoretical, or (inter)disciplinary approach to any topic related to SF/F: art; literature; radio; film; television; video, role-playing, and multi-player online games. Though not an exhaustive list, potential presenters may wish to consider the following:

§ Vampire Romance
§ Gender and Sexuality
§ Race and Otherness
§ Class and Hierarchies
§ Utopia/Dystopia
§ Mythology and Quest Narratives
§ Creatures and Aliens
§ Science and Magic
§ Language and Rhetoric
§ Genre—Space Opera, Cyberpunk, Dark Fantasy, etc.
§ Fans and Fandom/Community Building
§ Textual Analysis
§ Sociological or Psychological Readings
§ Archival Research/History
§ Technology—Textual and Literal
§ Online Identity Construction
§ Reading Other “Worlds”
Ø SPECIAL PANEL: GAME OF THRONES/SONG OF ICE & FIRE
Ø SPECIAL PANEL: THE HUNGER GAMES
Ø SPECIAL PANEL: THE FAIRY TALE PHENOMENON

Please e-mail a copy of your abstract and bio to the area chairs:
Marilyn Stern sternm@wit.edu
Leigha McReynolds lhm@gwmail.gwu.edu

CFP: Espionage Fiction; Paradoxa (1 june 2012)

CALL FOR PAPERS

Espionage Fiction

Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres

Previously unpublished essays are solicited for a special issue of Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres devoted to espionage fiction. The collection of original scholarship will concentrate on the genre’s “mainstream” appeal and aesthetic sophistication. Given that focus, submissions in any of the following areas are welcome:

•  The interplay between nationalism and transnationalism in such “novels of intrigue”

•  Liminality, surveillance, and borders, geographic and otherwise, as recurrent topoi

•  Studies of individual authors/texts that exemplify the genre’s evolution, structures, assumptions, tropes, and perspectives

•  Espionage fiction’s transformation(s) since the Cold War’s end and during the “Age of Terrorism”

•  Cinematic adaptations and their constructions of the literary genre’s heterogeneity

Not generally encouraged are papers on Ian Fleming’s parodic “James Bond” cycle or narrowly conceived “source” analyses that trace connections to “real-life” events. Prospective contributors may contact the guest editor (see name and email address below) if they have questions about a particular topic’s appropriateness.

Double-spaced submissions should be between 6,000 and 10,000 words in length, not including “Works Cited,” and prepared in accordance with MLA style favoring parenthetical documentation and endnotes. Jurying will follow a “double-blind” process. After a preliminary screening essays will be forwarded electronically to consultant referees for peer review. MS Word or .doc files sent as attachments thus should not identify an author’s name or affiliation. Within the email itself please include that information as well as a 300-word abstract and any other relevant background.

Submissions should be directed to Paradoxa’s guest editor, Robert Lance Snyder, at robertsnyder1@bellsouth.net by 1 June 2012. All queries and manuscripts will be acknowledged promptly.

CFP: The Marginalised Mainstream: Literature, Culture & Popularity, 8–9 November 2012 (ABSTRACTS: 1 June)

CFP

The Marginalised Mainstream: Literature, Culture & Popularity

8–9 November 2012

(ABSTRACTS: 1 June)

8-9 November 2012, Senate House, University of London

Keynote speakers include: Professor Phillip Tew (Brunel University) and Professor Christoph Lindner (University of Amsterdam)

‘Texts are always sites of evaluative struggle between the “high” and the “low”, whatever the presumed hierarchical positioning of their overall domain.’ (Léon Hunt)

The Marginalised Mainstream seeks to discuss the growing interest in and importance of mainstream culture and the popular as ways of engaging with cultural products of the late nineteenth to early twenty-first centuries, the long twentieth century, 1880–2010. Specifically, we seek to bring together postgraduate students, early career academics and established researchers working in the fields of Literature, Cultural Studies and elsewhere in the Humanities, to explore the mainstream culture and objects of mass appeal are so frequently marginalised by the academic community, as well as to offer some explanations for why this marginalisation might be.

We invite proposals for papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels from all disciples on themes that could include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The changing conceptualisation of canonicity;
• Genres, subgenres and the process of genre-fication;
• Queer fictions and alien concepts;
• ‘Low-’, ‘middle-’ and ‘high-brow’ texts;
• Critical acclaim vs. mass appeal;
• Cult classics and forgotten classics;
• Award winners, box-office smashes and bestsellers;
• Taking theory where it’s never gone before;
• Historiographies of gender, race and class.

It goes without saying that writers, texts or topics need not be canonical and we actively encourage papers discussing writers, texts and visual media from around the world.

Panels will consist of three 20-minute papers followed by discussion. A lunch will be included on the first day, followed by a closing wine reception at the end of the second, where we hope all delegates and attendees will have a chance to mingle.

Abstracts of no more than 350 words are invited by 1 June 2012 . They must include:

• 350-word abstract, including title;
• your name;
• affiliation;
• contact information;
• a brief biographical paragraph about your academic interests;
• any technical support that might be needed.

Please email submissions, in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, to organisers Brittain Bright (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Sam Goodman (University of Exeter) and Emma Grundy Haigh (Goldsmiths College, University of London) at

marginalisedmainstream@gmail.com

Acceptances will be sent out by no later than 16 July 2012.

Conference website: http://marginalisedmainstream.wordpress.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marginalised-Mainstream-Conference-2012/25…

Please note: we are not in a position to assist with conference travel or subsistence.