CFP: The Monster Inside Us, The Monsters Around Us: Monstrosity and Humanity

A three-day conference

De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

In association with the Centre for Adaptation

18-20 November 2011

Keynote speakers: David Punter, University of Bristol, Andy Mousley, De Montfort University

From the 12th-century Old French mostre, meaning prodigy or marvel, the general use of the word 'monster' has been derogatory: something large, gross, malformed or abnormal. The monstrous creates fear and loathing, and includes difference through race, culture, society, ideology, psychology and many other Others. This fear is not produced by something alien but by the recognition of ourselves in the Other. In his introduction to Cogito and the Unconscious, Slavoj Zizek argues that the Cartesian subject has at its heart the monster which emerges when deprived of the 'wealth of self-experience'. The ease by which the border between 'human' and 'monster' is transgressed has long been debated in literature, both nineteenth-century Flora Bannerworth in Varney the Vampire and twenty-first-century Sookie Stackhouse recognise the human origins of the vampire. At the heart of the monster is the human; at the heart of the human is the monster.

This conference seeks to understand the relationship between the human and the monstrous across the centuries and across disciplines. In what ways and to what ends have the human and the monster been defined and polarised? How has the monster been subdued, and with what success? How do definitions and separations of the human and the monstrous change and through what pressures and motivations? How does the emerging field of posthumanism enable us to conceptualise the monstrous in relation to the human and humanism?

Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers which may address, but are not limited to:

• Monstrosity in the humanities
• The monster and criminality
• Psychology and the monster
• Monstrosity and the internet
• The human and the monster in the post-national world
• Monstrosity and miscegenation
• Liminality and transgression
• Theories of monstrosity and/or the human
• Historical monsters
• Humanism, the post-human and monstrosity

Please send abstracts of 300 words to Dr Deborah Mutch, Department of English, Clephan Buildng, De Montfort University, Leicester, LE1 9BH, or email Deborah Mutch.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 June 2011

CFP: 9th Global Conference: Monsters and the Monstrous

Saturday 10th - Tuesday 13th September 2011

Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Papers

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, workshops and pre-formed panels 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 vs. Aliens, the Addams Family)
• Monstrous Avatars or objects
• Monsters and subjectivity
• Monsters and Sexuality
• Making monsters; monstrous births; childhood
• Mutants and mutations and freaks
• Technologies of the monstrous (including Role Playing Games)
• 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
• Monstrous (In)Humanity/(In)Human Monstrosity
• Monstrous Politics
• Critical Theories on the Monstrous

Papers can be accepted which deal solely with specific monsters. This project will run concurrently with our project on Space and Place - we welcome any papers considering the problems or addressing issues on Monsters and Space and Place for a cross-over panel. We also welcome pre-formed panels on any aspect of the monstrous or in relation to crossover panel(s).

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 25th March 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 8th July 2011.

300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract

E-mails should be entitled: Monsters Abstract Submission

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 an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs

Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
Hub Leader, Evil Hub, Inter-Disciplinary.Net
School of English, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Rob Fisher
Network Founder & Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire
United Kingdom

Stephen Morris
Hub Leader
Independent Scholar
New York, USA

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 eBoook. 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.

For further details of the project, please click here.

For further details of the conference, please click here.

She-Wolf Fringe: Final Event Announcement

Our final event for the She-Wolf Fringe will be something a little different... and aimed at a slightly different audience to our other events!

So... here's one for the kids...

Saturday 11th September: Design a Monster at the Manchester Museum.

A drop-in activity session for young children, running from 11am-4pm, in the Manchester Museum Discovery Centre.

Free and no booking required.

Entry to the museum is also free. Opening times: 10am-5pm. For more information about the Manchester Museum, click here.

She-Wolf Conference Criticized by Werewolf

During my regular cyber-surveys of all things werewolf, I've come across a few mentions of the conference on blogs, livejournal and other sites. We certainly seem to have caught people's attention. However, tonight I discovered that not all the attention is positive. I found A Werewolf Blog in Brooklyn, a blog written by a 'modern day werewolf from Brooklyn'. The female werewolf who authors the site has taken some offence at the ways in which we are marketing the She-Wolf Conference. In particular, she's not happy about the link I have made between the 'female monster' and the 'female werewolf'.

Of course, it has never been my intention to cause offence. But I would like to offer a brief defence. Theoretical considerations of the 'monster' are becoming more common in academic discourse; literary studies, film studies, psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, history, legal studies, theology... and many other disciplines are becoming more and more engaged with exploring the concept of the 'monster' and the impact this has on our understanding of the 'human'. Though in everyday parlance the word can simply refer to something repellant, unpleasant or dangerous, academics seek to go beyond this and question the far-reaching implications of 'monster-production', 'monstrosity' and the 'monstrous'.

I would suggest that this is even more problematic when examining the female 'monster'. Women - werewolf or otherwise - are monsterized and dehumanized in many discourses. So what happens when we create or are confronted by the monstrous monster? The other of the other? The inhuman non-human? Does this double otherness, as many critics have suggested, give the female monster more power? Or does it render her utterly abject?

These are the questions I wanted to raise and discuss by organizing She-Wolf. And, if you have a look at our programme, you'll see that our speakers will be grappling with these questions from different perspectives and from different theoretical positions. I believe that our discussions will cover many of the representations of the female werewolf in art, literature and culture - but will also explore what it means when we distinguish between the human and the monster.

I hope this clears up some of the thinking behind the conference. Despite the animosity the author clearly feels towards the conference, I would recommend giving A Werewolf Blog in Brooklyn or the downloadable zines a go. It's an interesting read, particularly if you're familiar with a lot of the recent pop culture representations of female werewolves.

Feel free to comment!

She-Wolf Fringe Events

In addition to our academic conference programme, we are also running two 'Fringe' events on Wednesday 8th September. These events are open to the public, and booking is not required.

She-Wolf: Writing the Female Monster
Wednesday 8th September, 6-8pm

A creative writing discussion panel and workshop, featuring Manchester's very own Vampire Queen Rosie Lugosi, and Chantal Bourgault du Coudray, screenwriter and author of The Curse of the Werewolf. Writers will be performing and reading their work, and discussing the rewards and challenges of writing the female monster. Other local writers will be in attendance to discuss their work, and the panel will be chaired by Manchester poet Hannah Kate.

Film Screening: Ginger Snaps
Wednesday 8th September, 8.30pm

Following on from the workshop, we will be screening the classic female werewolf flick Ginger Snaps. Come and join us for some lycanthropic fun!

Both events will be held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Engine House, Chorlton Mill, Cambridge Street, Manchester M1 5BY. Tickets cost £3 per event, or £5 for both (payable on the night). For more information, please email Hannah Kate or call 07968188727.