http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/monsters-and-the-monstrous/call-for-papers/
Monday 14th September - Thursday 17th September 2009
Mansfield College, Oxford
This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary project seeks to investigate and explore the enduring influence and imagery of monsters and the monstrous on human culture throughout history. In particular, the project will have a dual focus with the intention of examining specific ‘monsters’ as well as assessing the role, function and consequences of persons, actions or events identified as ‘monstrous’. The history and contemporary cultural influences of monsters and monstrous metaphors will also be examined.
Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:
* The “monster” through history
* Civilization, monsters and the monstrous
* Children, childhood, stories and monsters
* Comedy: funny monsters and/or making fun of monsters (e.g. Monsters Inc, the Addams Family)
* Making monsters; monstrous births, childhood
* Mutants and mutations and freaks
* Technologies of the monstrous
* Horror, fear and scare
* Do monsters kill because they are monstrous or are they monstrous because they kill?
* How critical to the definition of “monster” is death or the threat of death?
* Human ‘monsters’ and ‘monstrous’ acts? e.g, perverts, paedophiles and serial killers
* Revolution and monsters
* Enemies (political/social/military) and monsters
* Iconography of the monstrous
* The popularity of the modern monsters; the Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein, Vampires, Cannibals
* The monster in literature
* The monster in media (television, cinema, radio, internet)
* Religious depictions of the monstrous
* Metaphors and the monstrous
* The problematic attraction and admiration of monsters
* Gothic Monsters
Papers will be accepted which deal solely with specific monsters. Pre-formed panel proposals are also encouraged.
The 2009 meeting of Monsters will run alongside our project on Madness - Probing the Boundaries and we anticipate holding sessions in common between the two projects. We welcome any papers considering the problems or addressing issues of Monsters and Madness for joint project sessions.
Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 17th April 2009. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 7th August 2009.
300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order: author(s), affiliation, email address, title of abstract, body of abstract.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
* Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
Hub Leader
School of English, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
E-mail: Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
* Rob Fisher
Network Founder & Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire
United Kingdom
E-mail: Rob Fisher
* Stephen Morris
Hub Leader
Independent Scholar
New York, USA
USA
E-mail: Stephen Morris
The aim of the conference is to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume. Some papers may also be invited for inclusion in the Journal of Monsters and the Monstrous.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
IEET Blog