CFP Villains In Medieval And Early Modern Life And Lit (7/2/2018)

Finally, a call of relevance to post:

Villains In Medieval And Early Modern Life And Lit
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/03/26/villains-in-medieval-and-early-modern-life-and-lit

deadline for submissions: 

July 2, 2018

full name / name of organization: 

Center for Medieval-Renaissance Studies, the University of Virginia’s College at Wise

contact email: 

sa2je@virginia.edu

 

This panel of the 32nd Medieval-Renaissance Conference (UVA-Wise, Sept. 13-15, 2018) invites papers on medieval and early modern villains and the dynamic ethical codes assigned them by authors, audiences, and critics. By villains we mean criminals, tricksters (such as professional beggers), political careerists, or poets and their characters, charismatic or not. Some viable threads: villains as likable (anti-)heroes; villains as reflections of med-ren political and social audiences; the vices, virtues, and skills of villains; the ethical implications their very existence conjures. Submit abstracts to Sherif Abdelkarim at sa2je@virginia.edu. Deadline July 2, 2018.

Last updated March 27, 2018
 

CFP Neo-Victorian Villain collecttion (9/15/13)

Proposals on villains are generally rare, so I thought I'd share this to readers (though, I confess, I would be a stretch to connect in directly to Arthurian villains).

[UPDATE] Deadline extended for 'Neo-Victorian Villains' edited volume

full name / name of organization: 

Benjamin Poore, University of York, UK

contact email: 

benjamin.poore@york.ac.uk

The deadline for chapter proposals for this edited collection has been extended to September 15th. There has been a very strong response so far, but there are still some areas mentioned in the CFP (reproduced below) that I would very much like to see proposals on, to help address the full range of the subject and different approaches to neo-Victorianism.

As before, potential contributors are invited to submit a 250-word abstract for consideration, along with a biographical note of 50 to 100 words, to:

Dr Benjamin Poore (Department of Theatre, Film and Television, University of York) at benjamin.poore@york.ac.uk

Neo-Victorian Villains: Neo-Victorian Fiction, Adaptation and Performance

The collection will provide an innovative and wide-ranging exploration of the afterlives of the Victorian villain, in fiction, and stage and screen performance.

Subjects covered may include, but are not limited to:

• Direct transmedia adaptations - from nineteenth-century classic fiction and neo-Victorian novels, to stage, screen, console and graphic novel. 

•  Intertextuality – including allusion, pastiche and crossover fiction and film.

• Genealogies of villainy from the nineteenth century to the present day – investigating the development of such figures and types as the supervillain, the master of disguise, the adventuress, the mesmerist, the femme fatale, and the split-personality. 

• The afterlives of specific Victorian villains in modern culture, for example: Augustus Melmotte, Michael Henchard, Count Fosco, Sweeney Todd, Svengali, Dracula, Edward Hyde, Hawley Griffin, Dorian Gray, Professor Moriarty, Jack the Ripper, Lucy Graham, Helen Vaughan, Lydia Gwilt.

• Processes of production, from the commissioning, filming and design of Victorian and neo-Victorian screen adaptations, to actors’ processes and approaches to their roles, as well as those of playwrights and screenwriters.

CFP Evil Incarnate Conference (1/1/14)

Cross-posted from Popular Preternaturaliana:

Evil Incarnate: Manifestations of Villains and Villainy

full name / name of organization: 

Case Western Reserve University and Crime Studies Network

contact email: 

evilincarnate@case.edu

Evil Incarnate: Manifestations of Villains and Villainy
11-13 July 2014
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH

Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Prof. David Frankfurter (Religious Studies, Boston University); Prof. Ronald Holmes (Justice Administration, University of Louisville); Prof. William Paul (Film Studies, Washington University in St. Louis)

The concept of villainy is a universal: the dichotomy of good versus evil has been a central conflict underlying ideologies and praxis across cultures and time. What, after all, is a hero without the villain as a foil? This conference asks: what defines villainy? Is it moral? Cultural? Inherent or the product of circumstance? How are villains represented textually, culturally, and politically? What does the presence of the villain do to the issues in which they are embedded? How would the issues change in their absence? By exploring the concept of villainy as it manifests itself, we want to explore the various permutations of villainy and their consequences.

Ultimately, we seek definition for villains in an attempt to overturn the characterizing of this pursuit as “[T]he motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity,” because, unfortunately, the designation of evil incarnate is also that of villainy beyond understanding (S. T. Coleridge). Instead, this conference asks whether W.H. Auden provided a more accurate depiction in his assertion that “evil is unspectacular and always human.” We hope that by coming to terms with villains and villainy, we can better understand the meaning of a hero’s victory.
We are interested in papers from a variety of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspectives.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Villains and crime in literature and /or fiction

• Villains and monsters in the media/ media constructions of villainy

• Moral transgression, evil, and villainy

• The making of national enemies

• Evil and history

• Evil as a necessity

• Monsters Across Cultures

• What Causes Evil

• Aliens and alienation

• Supernatural Evil and the Occult

• Political villains such as Dictators,Tyrants, Fascists, and/or Nazis

• Terrorists

• Criminality in Society

• Holocausts

Please send 300-word abstracts words for papers of 20 minutes to evilincarnate_at_case.edu by January 1, 2014. The abstract should also include a 50-word biographical note and AV requests. Please indicate if you wish the abstract to be considered for inclusion in the post-conference publications. We will send acceptances by February 28, 2014.

Conference Organizers: Drs. Malcah Effron and Brian Johnson (English, Case Western Reserve University)
Conference Sponsors: CWRU Department of English and the Crime Studies Network
Contact Details: evilincarnate_at_case.edu
Abstract Deadline: 1 January 2014

Kalamazoo Update

My apologies for the delaying in updating the site(s) and focusing on the Kalamazoo session on monsters. I have been thinking and reading much on monsters but (unfortunately) not doing much thinking about Kalamazoo these past few months.

Expect an update on the session by Monday and email responses to all proposals submitted to the Alliance address by tonight.

Michael Torregrossa

CFP Arthurian Monster Quest

CALL FOR PAPERS
ARTHURIAN MONSTER QUEST
INVESTIGATING THE MONSTERS OF THE ARTHURIAN TRADITION, MEDIEVAL THROUGH MODERN
A SESSION FOR THE 48TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES (WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, KALAMAZOO, MI) FROM 9-12 MAY 2013
SPONSORED BY THE ALLIANCE FOR THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH ON THE VILLAINS OF THE MATTER OF BRITAIN
PROPOSALS BY 1 SEPTEMBER 2012 (EARLY SUBMISSION RECOMMENDED)


Inspired by the pioneering work of Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, teratology, the study of monsters, is experiencing a renaissance of late in Medieval Studies. Much of this new work has been conducted under the auspices of MEARCSTAPA (Monsters: the Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology through Scholarly Theory and Practical Application), but there remain other avenues to explore, especially with regards to fields of interest, like Arthurian Studies, that stretch outside the medieval and into the various eras of post-medieval history. In sponsoring this session, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain hopes to offer some much needed illumination into the darker parts of Arthur’s realm and provide some sense of the history of the monsters that dwell in these shadows.

In existence for nearly fifteen hundred years, the Matter of Britain, the body of myths and legends associated with King Arthur and his court, has long been linked with the supernatural, chiefly in Arthur’s own nebulous fate as the Once and Future King and in the wonder-workings of the incubus-spawned Merlin, the fairy women variously called the Lady of the Lake, and Arthur’s sibling Morgan le Fay, who is of human origin despite her otherworldly title. These characters have all received much attention from scholars, but the larger mass of Arthurian preternature has not. Besides these examples, the denizens of Camelot presented in medieval texts encounter many further mystical creatures, all of which we might consider as unnatural, or monstrous, today, including demons, dragons, the Fair Folk, figures we would now label as witches, giants, griffins, hellhounds, the restless dead, unicorns, werewolves, and, who can forget, the enigmatic Questing Beast. These monsters, although important features of their respective narratives, have all received little attention in modern scholarship. Their successors have received even less attention, despite the continuance of all of these preternatural beings in post-medieval Arthurian texts, including such extremes as the Blazing Dragons franchise, which recasts Arthurian figures as anthropomorphic dragons. In addition, as the corpus of Arthuriana has expanded exponentially following the close of the Middle Ages, this new Matter of Britain has also introduced additional creatures of the night (such as ogres, vampires, zombies, and a plethora of new creations featured in the Merlin television series) not found in medieval tales of Arthur’s court. Modern Arthurian texts, moreover, have expanded the provenance of the monstrous and transformed ordinary figures from the legend into monsters. It is this world of Arthurian monsters that we seek to explore in these sessions with the intent of opening up their realm for further discussion and appreciation.

Please note, all submissions will also be considered for a special issue of Arthuriana on the topic. Completed essays will be due in June 2013.


PLEASE SUBMIT PROPOSALS OF 500 WORDS OR LESS, PARTICIPANT INFORMATION FORM (AVAILABLE AT http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html), AND A COPY OF YOUR CV TO THE ORGANIZERS AT ArthurianVillainyResearch@gmail.com PLEASE INCLUDE “KALAMAZOO 2013 PROPOSAL” IN THE SUBJECT LINE

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ALLIANCE FOR THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH ON THE VILLAINS OF THE MATTER OF BRITAIN, PLEASE ACCESS OUR BLOG AT http://ArthurianVillainyResearch.blogspot.com/

A Go for Kalamazoo 2013

I am very pleased to report that the organizing committee of the International Congress on Medieval Studies has looked favorably on our proposal for sessions on the topic of "Arthurian Monster Quest: Investigating the Monsters of the Arthurian Tradition, Medieval through Modern" (details in previous post), though they have approved only one of our two requested sessions. That does severely limit our energies and time/space for the project, but I do welcome your ideas and proposals via email. All proposals submitted, regardless of their acceptance for the panel, will be considered for a special issue of Arthuriana on the topic. Michael Torregrossa Founder and Blog Editor

CFP Are You From Camelot? (Roundtable) (9/1/11; Kalamazoo 5/10-13/12)

CALL FOR PAPERS

ARE YOU FROM CAMELOT?
RECENT ARTHURIAN FILM, TELEVISION, AND ELECTRONIC GAMES AS INNOVATORS OF THE ARTHURIAN TRADITION AND THEIR IMPACT

A ROUNDTABLE FOR THE 47TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES (WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, KALAMAZOO, MI) FROM 10-13 MAY 2012

CO-SPONSORED BY THE ALLIANCE FOR THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH ON THE VILLAINS OF THE MATTER OF BRITAIN AND THE VIRTUAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR CULTURE AND THE MIDDLE AGES

PROPOSALS BY 1 SEPTEMBER 2011 (EARLY SUBMISSION RECOMMENDED)

The Matter of Britain is alive and well in modern mass media, and the media of film and television, especially, have long been recognized as important disseminators of the Arthurian legend to audiences of various ages and in disparate countries across the globe. Such productions are often assessed by their fidelity to pre-established versions of the legend, an anxiety of influence that Norris J. Lacy has termed “the tyranny of tradition.” However, mass media like film, television and electronic games also function as innovators of new traditions for representing characters or motifs that then become fixed in popular Arthuriana (consider, for example, both the long-standing iconographic portrayal of Merlin, cemented via Wolfgang Reitherman’s THE SWORD IN THE STONE, as an aged figure with flowing white hair, beard and robes or John Boorman’s conflation—copied by many later writers—of Morgan le Fay and Morgause in EXCALIBUR and the resulting figure’s role as the mother of Mordred, an expansion of her traditional filmic role as an enemy within Camelot), yet, to date, few studies, beyond lamentations of how to, as Lacy, puts it to “unteach” these texts, have explored this aspect of these modern Arthurian texts. The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, in particular, include many innovative productions (including Alexandre Astier’s KAAMELOTT; Steve Barron’s MERLIN; Chris Chibnall and Michael Hirst’s CAMELOT; Antoine Fuqua’s KING ARTHUR; Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Johnny Capps, and Julian Murphy’s MERLIN; Mythic Entertainment’s DARK AGE OF CAMELOT; SyFy’s STARGATE SG-1 and Type-Moon’s FATE/STAY NIGHT) that deviate significantly from preexisting literary and filmic/televisual traditions of the legend, and these works have influenced and will influence both further Arthurian texts and the popular reception of the Arthurian story as they are dispersed across the intertextual landscape of the modern Matter of Britain. For this session, in furtherance of the goals of the sponsoring organizations, we are particularly interested in how these recent representations of Arthurian characters (for example King Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin, Morded, Morgan le Fay, and Morgause) and motifs (such as the Grail legend) in film, television, and electronic games have shaped contemporary conceptions of these elements and, also, in exploring how these productions may influence ongoing or future Arthurian texts.

PLEASE SUBMIT PROPOSALS OF 500 WORDS OR LESS, PARTICIPANT INFORMATION FORM (AVAILABLE AT
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html), AND A COPY OF YOUR CV TO THE ORGANIZERS AT

Popular.Culture.and.the.Middle.Ages@gmail.com

PLEASE INCLUDE “KALAMAZOO 2012 PROPOSAL” IN THE SUBJECT LINE


FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ALLIANCE FOR THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH ON THE VILLAINS OF THE MATTER OF BRITAIN, PLEASE ACCESS OUR BLOG AT http://ArthurianVillainyResearch.blogspot.com/

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE VIRTUAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR CULTURE AND THE MIDDLE AGES, PLEASE ACCESS OUR BLOG AT http://PopularCultureandtheMiddleAges.blogspot.com/

Kalamazoo 2012 Session Proposals

The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain in association with The Institute for the Advancement of Scholarship on the Magic-Wielding Figures of Visual Electronic Multimedia and The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages has proposed the following session for the 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies to be held from 10-13 May 2012. Interested parties should contact the Society at Popular.Culture.and.the.Middle.Ages@gmail.com (please note "Are You From Camelot 2012" in the subject line). An official call for papers will be distributed this summer upon notification of acceptance from the Congress's organizing committee.

Are You From Camelot? Recent Arthurian Film, Television, and Electronic Games as Innovators of the Arthurian Tradition and Their Impact (Roundtable)

The Matter of Britain is alive and well in modern mass media, and the media of film and television, especially, have long been recognized as important disseminators of the Arthurian legend to audiences of various ages and in disparate countries across the globe. Such productions are often assessed by their fidelity to pre-established versions of the legend, an anxiety of influence that Norris J. Lacy has termed “the tyranny of tradition.” However, mass media like film, television and electronic games also function as innovators of new traditions for representing characters or motifs that then become fixed in popular Arthuriana (consider, for example, both the long-standing iconographic portrayal of Merlin, cemented via Wolfgang Reitherman’s The Sword in the Stone, as an aged figure with flowing white hair, beard and robes or John Boorman’s conflation—copied by many later writers—of Morgan le Fay and Morgause in Excalibur and the resulting figure’s role as the mother of Mordred, an expansion of her traditional filmic role as an enemy within Camelot), yet, to date, few studies, beyond lamentations of how to, as Lacy, puts it to “unteach” these texts, have explored this aspect of these modern Arthurian texts. The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, in particular, include many innovative productions (including Alexandre Astier’s Kaamelott; Steve Barron’s Merlin; Chris Chibnall and Michael Hirst’s Camelot; Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur; Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Johnny Capps, and Julian Murphy’s Merlin; Mythic Entertainment’s Dark Age of Camelot; SyFy’s Stargate SG-1 and Type-Moon’s Fate/Stay Night) that deviate significantly from preexisting literary and filmic/televisual traditions of the legend, and these works have influenced and will influence both further Arthurian texts and the popular reception of the Arthurian story as they are dispersed across the intertextual landscape of the modern Matter of Britain. For this session, in furtherance of the goals of the three sponsoring organizations, we are particularly interested in how these recent representations of Arthurian characters (for example King Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin, Morded, Morgan le Fay, and Morgause) and motifs (such as the Grail legend) in film, television, and electronic games have shaped contemporary conceptions of these elements and, also, in exploring how these productions may influence ongoing or future Arthurian texts.

Kalamazoo Session Cancelled

I am sorry to report that our co-sponsored session "Arthurian Villains on Film: Studies in Commemoration of the Thirtieth Anniversary of John Boorman’s Excalibur" has been cancelled due to under-whelming interest in the topic.

CFP: Arthurian Villains on Film/TV/Etc (9/1/10; Kalamazoo, MI 5/12-15/11)

CALL FOR PAPERS
ARTHURIAN VILLAINS ON FILM:
STUDIES IN COMMEMORATION OF THE THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF JOHN BOORMAN'S EXCALIBUR
THE 46TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES,
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, KALAMAZOO, MI
12-15 MAY 2011
CO-SPONSORED BY THE ALLIANCE FOR THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH ON THE VILLAINS OF THE MATTER OF BRITAIN AND THE VIRTUAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR CULTURE AND THE MIDDLE AGES
PROPOSALS BY 1 SEPTEMBER 2010 (EARLY SUBMISSION RECOMMENDED)

In furtherance of our respective missions, the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain and the Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages (formerly the Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages) are proposing a session devoted to the theme of Arthurian Villains on Film: Studies in Commemoration of the Thirtieth Anniversary of John Boorman’s EXCALIBUR. Papers included in these sessions will explore the representations of the villains of the Matter of Britain, both traditional ones (e.g. Cerdic, Lot of Orkney, Mark of Cornwall, Mordred, Morgan le Fay, Morgause, and Vortigern) as well as those (e.g. Brack, Cynric, Mab, Mad Madame Mim, Palamides, Ruber, and, even sometimes, Merlin) unique to specific productions, as represented in films, television programming, and other visual electronic multimedia, such as electronic games and Internet videos.

The Arthurian legend has been represented in films since at least the late 1890s and in television programming since the 1950s, and the villains of these productions serve important, though often overlooked, roles as the initiators of dramatic action and as the counteragents to their respective heroes. Despite these vital narrative functions, study of the filmic villains of the Matter of Britain remains in its infancy with few studies engaged with their role in specific productions and with only a handful of overviews of their careers as investigated (in chronological order) by Elizabeth S. Sklar, Jacqueline de Weever, Maureen Fries, and Michael A. Torregrossa.

Since its introduction in the 1980s, Arthurian film and television studies has matured into a legitimate field of investigation, and the thirtieth anniversary of John Boorman’s EXCALIBUR (1981), a key text for the study of Arthurian villains on film, marks an appropriate time to reflect upon the role that the villains play in the Arthurian story. Boorman’s EXCALIBUR has become a seminal text for scholars of Arthurian-themed films and part of the modern canon of popular Arthuriana. Moreover, it is especially important for its presentation of the villains Morgana and Mordred and their relationship to King Arthur, as Boorman is the first filmmaker (as Torregrossa has explored) to fully depict the incest of King Arthur (here with Morgana), an act that results in the conception of Mordred, and its consequences. In addition, Boorman’s versions of both Morgan le Fay and Mordred have shaped countless later representations of these characters in popular Arthuriana throughout the globe.


PLEASE SUBMIT PROPOSALS OF 500 WORDS OR LESS, PARTICIPANT INFORMATION FORM (AVAILABLE AT
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html IN JULY), AND A COPY OF YOUR CV TO THE ORGANIZERS AT

ArthurianVillainyResearch-AT-gmail-dot-com


PLEASE INCLUDE “KALAMAZOO 2011 PROPOSAL” IN THE SUBJECT LINE


FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ALLIANCE FOR THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH ON THE VILLAINS OF THE MATTER OF BRITAIN, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR BLOG AT http://ArthurianVillainyResearch.blogspot.com/

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE VIRTUAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR CULTURE AND THE MIDDLE AGES, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR BLOG AT
http://popularcultureandthemiddleages.blogspot.com/

CFP: Arthurian Villains in Film/Television/Electronic Games (1st Round 4/1/10; Kalamazoo 5/12-15/11)

The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain, in conjunction with the Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages, will be proposing a set of panels for the 2011 International Congress on Medieval Studies (Western Michigan University, 12-15 May 2011) on the topic of Arthurian Villains in Film/Television/Electronic Games in celebration of the 30th anniversary of John Boorman's Excalibur (1981). Prior to submitting our session proposal, we would like to gauge interest in the topic and appreciate brief proposals and a short CV from potential presenters.

Michael A Torregrossa
The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain
34 Second Street
Smithfield, RI 02917-3627
United States
Email: arthurianvillainyresearch-at-gmail.com
Visit the website at http://arthurianvillainyresearch.blogspot.com/