The Fan Studies Network

Fan Phenomena: Rocky Horror Picture Show

Editor, Marisa C. Hayes

Now accepting abstracts to be considered for a new book Fan Phenomena: The Rocky Horror Picture Show from Intellect Press. This title will be part of the latest series of Fan Phenomena books, which aim to explore and decode the fascination we have with what constitutes an iconic or cultish phenomenon and how a particular person, TV show or film infiltrates its way into the public consciousness.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Fan Phenomena) title will examine the film’s fan culture, its essential role in creating the midnight movie, audience participation, and cult film cultures, as well as other areas of influence and social impact. Subjects are to be addressed in a thoughtful and accessible manner aimed at both fans and those interested in the cultural and social aspects of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:

– the film’s role in creating a culture of the midnight movie, audience participation, and the cult film circuit

-influence of developing the pastiche tribute film (for its homage to B-Grade Sci Fi, Hammer horror, early 20^th century musicals, pulp, comics, etc.)

-queer theory

-sexual liberation

-glam rock aesthetics/drag style

-hedonism

-language and linguistics explorations pertaining to the creative use of dialogue and audience call and response during the film

-diverse aspects of fan art, fan tributes, and fan culture

-economics of fan culture, including creation of low budget cult classic and/or how a cult subject becomes a franchise (sequels, stage revivals, etc.)

Ten essays will be selected and published within the following broad section categories: Fashion, Fan Media, Language, Economics, Virtual, Influence, Philosophies, Character/Characterization.

Abstracts should be 300 words long. Please include a CV or resume with your abstract. Abstracts due March 3, 2014. Final chapters of 3,000-3,500 words will be due July 15, 2014. Please direct all questions and submissions to editor Marisa Hayes: marisa@videodansebourgogne.com

CFP:  Twitter, Celebrity and online public identity

Abstracts due: 28^th Feb 2014

Contact and submissions to: Sarah Thomas skt@aber.ac.uk

The ongoing adoption of Twitter as a tool for communication, broadcasting and interaction has meant that the social media platform has emerged as a significant site for re-thinking some of the key relationships between celebrity, performance and the presentation of the self. This CFP seeks short articles for Celebrity Studies Journal Forum section that explore Twitter and its usage beyond its status as a ‘new’ platform (that positions its singular significance through comparison with traditional representational media). We aim to consider the diversity of presentational modes that Twitter allows for through an examination of the different functions, usages, modes of address and performance that may operate across the site in its own right. In particular, we are interested in the way the platform has re-invigorated debates around the conception of authenticity as a way of understanding the online presentation of public personalities, and are especially interested in receiving submissions that explore the following topics:

• The presentation of self online
• Authenticity and interactivity
• Performance, authenticity and the digital self
• Interactive celebrity
• Digital labour and celebrity
• Online spaces of ‘public privacy’

The special issue of the journal will incorporate the style and ethos of Twitter in the submissions:

Abstracts should be 140 words.

The short articles should begin with reference to a specific Tweet that sparks the analysis within the rest of the article.

The final word count for the article will be between 750 and 1,500 words, depending on the number of accepted submissions.

Detailed schedule of production

Abstracts due: 28^th Feb

First drafts: 28^th March

Editors return: 25^th April

Final drafts: 23^rd May

Contact and submissions to: Sarah Thomas skt@aber.ac.uk

CFP: New Perspectives on Cinematic Spectatorship, Digital Culture & Space: Re-evaluating Exhibition, Participation and Interaction

Throughout the history of the moving image interrogations of film as text have arguably taken precedence over analysis of cinema as space. The film industry and film academia both assume, and thus assert, a dominant understanding of the environmental architecture of cinema based on a set dynamic between projector, screen and viewer. Ingrained over time from these spatial parameters is an almost taken-for-granted idealisation of the unique experience of film viewing: the ‘cinematic dispositif’. Despite the cultural hegemony of the traditional ‘cinematic dispositif’, in a 2008 article André Parente and Victa de Carvalho suggest that film history is littered with (often overlooked) variations and experimentations in cinema’s spatial parameters. Writing from the context of the binary between cinema and art they suggest that contemporary transformations “call for a reproblematisation of the dispositif and its conceptual, historical and conceptual aspects” (2008: 39). This issue of Networking Knowledge seeks to publish a range of articles that interrogate and problematise the ‘cinematic dispositif’ in light of the transformative effects of digital culture.

A raft of digital, technological advances is affecting viewing practices, which in turn, are challenging the ‘sacrosanct’ space of the cinema auditorium in myriad ways. In the early nineties Thomas Elsaesser postulated a revolutionary time for cinema referencing reactions to the influence of television and VCR and only touching on the future virtual spaces to come. Since then, a host of institutional, technological and cultural transformations has engendered a redefinition of the production, distribution and exhibition landscape. Further than this the spectrum of outcomes and possibilities of cinema metamorphosing as a spatial, experiential, interactive, phenomenological construct have only just begun to be realised. This issue seeks to contextualise and theorise the relationship between bodies, spaces, technologies and screens in the digital age, providing a philosophical interrogation of contemporary cinematic experience. We invite articles in subject areas, which may include but are not limited to:

New theorisations of cinematic spectatorship
New philosophies of bodies/spaces/screens
The effect of new modes of distribution in cinematic viewing
Influence of communications technologies and social media
Forms of interactivity and cinematic immersion
New filmmaking practices and tools
Trans-media effects
Issues for film criticism, journalism and writing
Debates around the future of Film Studies as a discipline
Analysis of practices designed to preserve a ‘traditional’ understanding of cinema.

We invite articles by postgraduate and early career researchers, which are 5,000 to 6,000 words long. Please send abstracts of up to 300 words along with a 50-word biography by April 1st 2014 to Dario Llinares (dario.llinares@falmouth.ac.uk) and Sam Ward (aaxsjw@nottingham.ac.uk). Articles will be due on 1st August 2014. Please contact the editors for any further information.

Dr Dario Llinares and Dr Sarah Arnold, Falmouth University
Guest Editors

Sam Ward
Journal Editor

Edited by Alice Nuttall, Oxford Brookes University

Vince Gilligan’s series Breaking Bad, running from 2008-2013, has enjoyed immense popularity, gathering a dedicated fanbase and spawning several well-known memes. Following the metamorphosis of mild-mannered chemistry teacher Walter White into vicious drug lord Heisenberg, the series explores themes such as family, crime, drugs, and the blurring of the lines between good and bad.

This critical collection will explore the themes and narrative trends present in the series, as well as its impact on viewers. Potential topics for chapters may include, but are not limited to:

• Masculinity and femininity
• The family
• The law and morality
• Life and death
• Fandom and intertextual influences
• Science and medicine
• Class
• Race
• Drugs and addiction

Please submit a 300-word abstract and a short biography toreadingbad@gmail.com by 28th February 2014. Completed chapters of 5000-7000 words will be due by 30th June 2014.