17th June 2011,
Bangor University
We would like to invite all postgraduate and early career students interested in the Middle Ages to ‘Medievalism Transformed’, an interdisciplinary medievalists’ conference. The conference will be held on 17th June 2011 in Bangor University. This conference welcomes delegates from all arts disciplines, including languages, history, literature, art, archaeology, palaeography and philosophy. Papers should focus on the Middle Ages or on the impact of medieval thinking in the modern period.
The theme for 2011 is Texts and Territories. Any topic within this scope will be considered, including (but not limited to):
From country to state: political ideas of land and the creation of nations
Writing journeys: pilgrimages, crusades, travel writing, romances
Visualizing the narratives: maps and illuminations
National origins: creating identity through myth, chronicles, genealogies
Representations of the landscape or nationality in art and music
Beyond the Middle Ages: the influence of medieval concepts of territory on modern thought
Abstracts of 250 words for a twenty minute paper must be submitted before April 15, 2011 to the organizers or by post to:
Medievalism Transformed, School of English, Bangor University, Main Arts Building, College Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG, United Kingdom
If you require more information, visit the website.
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Submissions Wanted: Cottonopolis: Steampunk Manchester
Please note: the deadline for Cottonopolis submissions has been extended until October 31st 2011.
Submissions wanted for a new anthology of steampunk fiction set it Manchester. In the Age of Steam, Manchester ruled – the world’s first industrialized city; the first passenger railway station for new steam-powered transport; multi-millionaires pouring their money into Gothic libraries and trying to ignore the sprawling slums.
One 19th-century commentator wrote of Manchester: “A thick black smoke covers the city. The sun appears like a disc without any rays. In this semi-daylight 300,000 people work ceaselessly. A thousand noises rise amidst this unending damp and dark labyrinth ...the footsteps of a busy crowd, the crunching wheels of machines, the shriek of steam from the boilers, the regular beat of looms, the heavy rumble of carts, these are the only noises from which you can never escape in these dark half-lit streets”
What if these days had not come to an end? What if Cottonpolis, the Warehouse City, had gone from strength to steam-powered strength? We’re looking for new and established writers to contribute dark fiction tales for a new collection of stories that imagines that this ‘damp and dark labyrinth’ really was ‘unending’.
Editor: Hannah Kate
Publisher: Hic Dragones
What we want: Edgy dark steampunk fiction set in a fictionalized future Manchester. Some familiarity with the city and its history is advisable. Any interpretation within these bounds is welcome. Queer, trans, cis, straight are all welcome. Pure Victoriana is discouraged, as we are looking for stories set in an imagined future. (And, I should warn you, we are unlikely to be publishing any celebrations of imperialism!)
Word Count: 3000-5000
Submission Guidelines: Electronic submissions as .doc, .docx, .rtf attachments only. 12pt font, 1.5 or double spaced. Please ensure name, title and email address are included on attachment. Email to this address. Submissions are welcome from anywhere, but must be in English.
Submission Deadline: Monday 6th June 2011
Payment: 1 contributor copy (how we wish it could be more!)
For more information, visit the website or email us.
Submissions wanted for a new anthology of steampunk fiction set it Manchester. In the Age of Steam, Manchester ruled – the world’s first industrialized city; the first passenger railway station for new steam-powered transport; multi-millionaires pouring their money into Gothic libraries and trying to ignore the sprawling slums.
One 19th-century commentator wrote of Manchester: “A thick black smoke covers the city. The sun appears like a disc without any rays. In this semi-daylight 300,000 people work ceaselessly. A thousand noises rise amidst this unending damp and dark labyrinth ...the footsteps of a busy crowd, the crunching wheels of machines, the shriek of steam from the boilers, the regular beat of looms, the heavy rumble of carts, these are the only noises from which you can never escape in these dark half-lit streets”
What if these days had not come to an end? What if Cottonpolis, the Warehouse City, had gone from strength to steam-powered strength? We’re looking for new and established writers to contribute dark fiction tales for a new collection of stories that imagines that this ‘damp and dark labyrinth’ really was ‘unending’.
Editor: Hannah Kate
Publisher: Hic Dragones
What we want: Edgy dark steampunk fiction set in a fictionalized future Manchester. Some familiarity with the city and its history is advisable. Any interpretation within these bounds is welcome. Queer, trans, cis, straight are all welcome. Pure Victoriana is discouraged, as we are looking for stories set in an imagined future. (And, I should warn you, we are unlikely to be publishing any celebrations of imperialism!)
Word Count: 3000-5000
Submission Guidelines: Electronic submissions as .doc, .docx, .rtf attachments only. 12pt font, 1.5 or double spaced. Please ensure name, title and email address are included on attachment. Email to this address. Submissions are welcome from anywhere, but must be in English.
Submission Deadline: Monday 6th June 2011
Payment: 1 contributor copy (how we wish it could be more!)
For more information, visit the website or email us.
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:
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
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
CFP: 4th Global Conference: Madness: Probing the Boundaries
Tuesday 27th September - Thursday 29th September 2011
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers
This inter-disciplinary research conference seeks to explore issues of madness across historical periods and within cultural, political and social contexts. We are also interested in exploring the place of madness in persons and interpersonal relationships and across a range of critical perspectives. Seeking to encourage innovative inter, multi and post disciplinary dialogues, we warmly welcome papers from all disciplines, professions and vocations which struggle to understand the place of madness in the constitutions of persons, relationships and the complex interlacing of self and other.
In particular papers, workshops, presentations and pre-formed panel proposals are invited on any of the following themes:
1. The Value of Madness or Why is it that We Need Madness?
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers
This inter-disciplinary research conference seeks to explore issues of madness across historical periods and within cultural, political and social contexts. We are also interested in exploring the place of madness in persons and interpersonal relationships and across a range of critical perspectives. Seeking to encourage innovative inter, multi and post disciplinary dialogues, we warmly welcome papers from all disciplines, professions and vocations which struggle to understand the place of madness in the constitutions of persons, relationships and the complex interlacing of self and other.
In particular papers, workshops, presentations and pre-formed panel proposals are invited on any of the following themes:
1. The Value of Madness or Why is it that We Need Madness?
- Critical explorations: beyond madness/sanity/insanity
- Continuity and difference: always with us yet never quite the same
- Repetition and novelty: the incessant emergence and re-emergence of madness
- Profound attraction and desire; fear of the abyss and the radical unknown
- Naming, defining and understanding the elusive
2. The Passion of Madness or Madness and the Emotions
- Love as madness; uncontrollable passion; unrestrainable love
- Passion and love as a remaking of life and self
- Gender and madness; the feminine and the masculine
- Anger, resentment, revenge, hate, evil
- I would rather vomit, thank you; revulsion, badness and refusing to comply
3. The Boundaries of Madness or Resisting Normality
- Madness, sanity and the insane
- Being out of your mind, crazy, deranged... yet, perfectly sane
- Deviating from the normal; defining the self against the normal
- Control, self-control and the pull of the abyss
- When the insane becomes normal; when evil reigns in social life
4. Lunatics and the Asylum or Power and the Politics of Madness
- The social allure and fear of madness; the institutions of confining mad people
- Servicing normality by castigating the insane and marginalizing lunatics
- Medicine, psychiatry, psychology, law and the constructions of madness; madness as illness
- Contributions of the social sciences to the making and the critique of the making of madness
- Representations, explanations and the critique of madness from the humanities and the arts
5. Creativity, Critique and Cutting Edge
- Madness as genius, outstanding, out of the ordinary, spectacularly brilliant
- The art of madness; the science of madness
- Music, painting, dance, theatre: it is crazy to think of art without madness
- The language and communication of madness: who can translate?
- Creation as an unfolding of madness
6. Unrestrained and Boundless or The Liberating Promise of Madness
- Metaphors of feeling free, unrestrained, capable, lifted from reality
- Madness as clear-sightedness, as opening up possibilities, as re-visioning of the world
- The future, the prophetic, the unknown; the epic, the heroic and the tragic
- The unreachable and untouchable knowledge of madness
- The insanity of not loving madness
7. Lessons for Self and Other or Lessons for Life about and from Madness
- Cultural and social constructions of madness; images of the mad, crazy, insane, lunatic, abnormal
- What is real? Who defines reality? Learning from madness how to cope with reality
- Recognising madness in oneself; relativising madness in others
- Love, intimacy, care and the small spaces of madness
- Critical and ethical implosions of normality and normalness; sane in insane places and insane in sane places
Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes.
The 2011 meeting of Madness will run alongside the third of our projects on Strangers, Aliens and Foreigners and we anticipate holding sessions in common between the two projects. We welcome any papers or panels considering the problems or addressing issues that cross both projects.
Papers will be considered on any related theme. 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 22nd 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: Madness 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 for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Gonzalo Araoz
Project Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net and University of Cumbria, Cumbria, United Kingdom
Maria Vaccarella
Hub Leader, Making Sense of:, Inter-Disciplinary.Net and Marie Curie Research Fellow, King's College, London
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net, Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
The conference is part of the 'Making Sense Of:' series of research projects. 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.
For further details about the project, please click here.
For further details about the conference, please click here.
Monday, 7 February 2011
CFP: 1st Global Conference: Beauty: Exploring Critical Issues
Monday 19th September - Wednesday 21st September 2011
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers
"The first real problem I faced in my life was that of beauty," wrote the poet-playwright-novelist Yukio Mishima, in Temple of the Golden Pavilion as he pondered beauty's relevance, meanings, and the spell it cast over him. Beauty is complicated by the word beauty itself. Limited or overloaded, beauty has been celebrated as essential or denounced as irrelevant. The existence of beauty has been challenged, called a search for Eldorado. Some find no beauty in life, a recurring motif in subcultures, music lyrics, and the notes left by suicides. Others dismiss that perspective, arguing that common sense, experience, and multidisciplinary research reveal the reality and centrality of beauty in our lives. But what exactly is beauty? Speculations about the nature of beauty are various and contradictory. Some philosophers have argued that it will remain a mystery. Other theorists have held less modest beliefs, arguing that beauty expresses a basic spiritual reality, has universal physical properties, or is an experience and construction of mind and culture. The beauty 'project' will explore, assess, and map a number of key core themes. Papers, presentations, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues to any of the following themes:
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers
"The first real problem I faced in my life was that of beauty," wrote the poet-playwright-novelist Yukio Mishima, in Temple of the Golden Pavilion as he pondered beauty's relevance, meanings, and the spell it cast over him. Beauty is complicated by the word beauty itself. Limited or overloaded, beauty has been celebrated as essential or denounced as irrelevant. The existence of beauty has been challenged, called a search for Eldorado. Some find no beauty in life, a recurring motif in subcultures, music lyrics, and the notes left by suicides. Others dismiss that perspective, arguing that common sense, experience, and multidisciplinary research reveal the reality and centrality of beauty in our lives. But what exactly is beauty? Speculations about the nature of beauty are various and contradictory. Some philosophers have argued that it will remain a mystery. Other theorists have held less modest beliefs, arguing that beauty expresses a basic spiritual reality, has universal physical properties, or is an experience and construction of mind and culture. The beauty 'project' will explore, assess, and map a number of key core themes. Papers, presentations, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues to any of the following themes:
- Defining beauty
- Studying beauty
- Power of beauty
- History of beauty
- Politics of beauty
- Experience of beauty
- Pursuit of beauty
- Expression of beauty
- The quality of beauty
- Beauty and emotion
- Look of beauty
- Making beauty
- Beauty in nature
- Beauty and desire
- Beauty and culture
- Beauty subcultures
- Anti-beauty movements
- Beauty and social stratification: gender, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, age, etc.
- Beauty, consumer culture, and cultural capital
- Beauty collectors
- Beauty business
- Representations of beauty
- Beauty in a globalized world
- Beauty in the 21st century
Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes.
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 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. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract
Emails should be entitled: Beauty Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and 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
Jacque Lynn Foltyn
Professor of Sociology, Dept. of Social Sciences, College of Letters and Sciences, National University, CA, USA
Dr. Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
The conference is part of the Critical Issues series of research projects. 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.
For further details about the project, please click here.
For further details about the conference, please click here.
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:
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.
CFP: 1st Global Conference: Gender and Love
Monday 19th September - Wednesday 21st September 2011
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers
The study of gender is an interdisciplinary field intertwined with feminism, queer studies, sexuality studies, postcolonial studies, and cultural studies (to name just some relevant fields).
This project calls for the consideration of gender in relation to various kinds of love (with regard, for example, to self, spirit, religion, family, friendship, ethics, nation, globalisation, environment, and so on). How do the interactions of gender and love promote particular performances of gender; conceptions of individual and collective identity; formations of community; notions of the human; understandings of good and evil? These are just some of the questions that occupy this project.
This conference welcomes research papers which seek to understand the interaction and interconnection between the concepts of love and gender; and whether, when, how and in what ways the two concepts conceive and construct each other.
Papers, presentations, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:
1. Love as a Disciplinary Force: Productions of Gender
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers
The study of gender is an interdisciplinary field intertwined with feminism, queer studies, sexuality studies, postcolonial studies, and cultural studies (to name just some relevant fields).
This project calls for the consideration of gender in relation to various kinds of love (with regard, for example, to self, spirit, religion, family, friendship, ethics, nation, globalisation, environment, and so on). How do the interactions of gender and love promote particular performances of gender; conceptions of individual and collective identity; formations of community; notions of the human; understandings of good and evil? These are just some of the questions that occupy this project.
This conference welcomes research papers which seek to understand the interaction and interconnection between the concepts of love and gender; and whether, when, how and in what ways the two concepts conceive and construct each other.
Papers, presentations, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:
1. Love as a Disciplinary Force: Productions of Gender
- Love, Gender, Essentialism and Ontology
- Love, Gender and Narrative
- Love, Gender and the Law
- Love, Gender and Religion
2. Norms, Normativity, Intimacy
- Rituals and Rites
- Conventions, Commitments and Obligations
- Choices and Respect; Loyalty and Trust
- Transgressions and Taboos
3. Gendered Yearnings
- Personhood and Identity
- Body Politics and Belonging
- Love and Gender Performativity
- Transgender Desires
- Queer Kinship Formations
- Queer Conceptualisations of the State
4. Global Perspectives on Gender and Love
- Transformations of Intimacy in a Global World
- Sex and Choice
- Reproductive Rights
- Sexual Citizenship
- Gender, Love and Trans/Nationalism
5. Representations of Gender and Love
- Aesthetics and Intelligibility
- Gendered Narrations of Love
- Media, Gender and Love
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 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. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract
Emails should be entitled: GL Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and 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:
Dikmen Yakali Camoglu
Department of Communication Sciences
Dogus University, Istanbul
Turkey
Dr. Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
The conference is part of the 'At the Interface' series of research projects run by ID.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into 20-25 page chapters for publication in a themed dialogic ISBN hard copy volume.
For further details about the project, please click here.
For further details about the conference, please click here.
CFP: 3rd Global Conference: Heroes and Villains: Justice and Punishment
Saturday 10th September - Monday 12th September 2011
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers
A villain (also known in film and literature as the "bad guy", "black hat", or "heavy") is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters. A femae villain is sometimes called a villainess (often to differentiate her from a male villain). Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines villain as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or a crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot".
Indicative themes for research and development will include (but are not limited to):
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers
A villain (also known in film and literature as the "bad guy", "black hat", or "heavy") is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters. A femae villain is sometimes called a villainess (often to differentiate her from a male villain). Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines villain as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or a crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot".
Indicative themes for research and development will include (but are not limited to):
- How do we define a villainous act?
- What is a villainous act? How do we define it?
- When we look at actions which are deemed and judged to be right/wrong, good/bad, how are such actions classified?
- What is a crime?
- How are crimes classified?
- What disciplines are needed to uncover, discover and identify a crime?
- How do we define crime scenes, ex. Scenes of atrocity, "crimes against humanity"?
- What do we learn about our view of "crime" via the depiction of forensic investigations of crime scenes?
- How does the idea of a criminal "underworld" which exists beneath, underneath, below the everyday world influence us?
- Why are villains more intriguing/interesting/attractive than heroes?
- How is the perception of crime and villainy shaped by space, place AND time?
- Does villainy belong to the realm of the night?
- Does villainy belong under cover of darkness?
- Does criminality and villainy depend on being hidden or concealed?
- Who are the people charged with doing the investigation, detection, sleuthing?
- What do villains do and why do they do it?
- What tools/skills do they have/use?
- Does the villain create the person who catches him/her - i.e. a nemesis?
- Does the existence of a villain create the need for a hero?
- What kind of personality/character traits/deviance creates a villain?
- What is the nature of the criminal mind?
- Is it differentiated from the minds of those who do good?
- What is the character of the heroic mind?
- Why do good? Why be a hero?
- Why side with/dispense justice?
- Why do we have 'criminal' psychology?
- Why don't we have 'goody two-shoes' psychology?
- How do notions of responsibility and diminished responsibility factor into the debate?
- How is crime defined by punishment?
- What are the causes of crime/villainy?
- What are the consequences of crime/villainy?
- How does fear define crime/villainy?
- Can villains actually be heroes?
- Can villains be portrayed as sympathetic or gain our sympathy?
- Is the villain sometimes on the side of right? Can criminality be an attempt at social justice against unjust regimes?
- Are heroes made villainous by blind allegiances to moral codes?
- Must 'justice' involve 'punishment' of the villain?
- Is punishment of the criminal required by 'justice'?
- How does the punishment of the hero increase his heroism or the lack of punishment increase the villainy of the villain?
- How does the depiction of heroes/villains evolve?
- How does such a depiction shape or reflect society?
Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes.
The 2011 meeting of Heroes and Villains: Justice and Punishment will run alongside our project on The Patient and we anticipate holding sessions in common between the two projects. We welcome any papers considering the problems or addressing the issues that straddle these two themes.
Papers will be considered on any related theme. 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 22nd 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
Emails should be entitled: Villains 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 for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
Evil Hub Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
The conference is part of the 'At the Interface' series of research projects. 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.
For further details about the project please click here.
For further details about the conference please click here.
CFP: 5th Global Conference: Fear, Horror and Terror
Tuesday 6th September 2011 - Thursday 8th September 2011
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine and explore issues which lie at the interface of fear, horror and terror. In particular the project is interested in inverstigating the various contexts of fear, horror and terror, and assessing issues surrounding the artistic, cinematic, literary, moral, social, (geo)political, philosophical, psychological and religious significance of them, both individually and together.
We are also looking towards a 'track' theme in the area of the relationship between fear, horror and terror and the audio-visual (sight/sound/silence) this year. We invite proposals on any area listed below that relates to this track theme, as well as any areas related to the conference. This thematic track is envisioned to develop with each subsequent meeting.
In addition to academic analysis, we welcome the submission of case studies or other approaches from those involved with its practice, such as people in religious orders, therapises, victims of events which have been provoked by experiences of fear, horror and terror - for example, lawyers or others involved with law enforcement, medical practitioners, or fiction authors whose work aims to evoke these reactions.
Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:
1. The Contexts of Fear, Horror and Terror
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine and explore issues which lie at the interface of fear, horror and terror. In particular the project is interested in inverstigating the various contexts of fear, horror and terror, and assessing issues surrounding the artistic, cinematic, literary, moral, social, (geo)political, philosophical, psychological and religious significance of them, both individually and together.
We are also looking towards a 'track' theme in the area of the relationship between fear, horror and terror and the audio-visual (sight/sound/silence) this year. We invite proposals on any area listed below that relates to this track theme, as well as any areas related to the conference. This thematic track is envisioned to develop with each subsequent meeting.
In addition to academic analysis, we welcome the submission of case studies or other approaches from those involved with its practice, such as people in religious orders, therapises, victims of events which have been provoked by experiences of fear, horror and terror - for example, lawyers or others involved with law enforcement, medical practitioners, or fiction authors whose work aims to evoke these reactions.
Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:
1. The Contexts of Fear, Horror and Terror
- case studies
- professions dealing with the Fear, Horror and Terror (Therapists, Clergy, Lawyers, Law enforcement etc.)
- creating and experiencing fear, horror and terror
- the properties of fear, horror and terror
- contexts of fear, horror and terror
- the language of fear, horror and terror
- the meaning of fear, horror and terror
- the significance of fear, horror and terror
2. At the Interface of Fear, Horror and Terror
- the role of fear, horror and terror
- emotional releases (pleasant or negative) achieved by Fear, Horror and Terror
- techniques of fear, horror and terror
- marketing fear, horror and terror
- recreational fear, horror and terror
- aesthetic fear, horror and terror
- the temperature of fear, horror and terror
- the sound of fear, horror and terror
- silence as a strategic subversion of the operation of fear, horror and terror
- fear, horror and terror and the visible/invisible
3. Representations of Fear, Horror and Terror and:
- the imagination
- pleasure
- art, cinema, theatre, media and the creative arts
- survival horror video games
- literature (including children's stories)
- the other
- technology
- hope and despair
- relations to anxiety, disgust, dread, loathing
- hope and the future
- the sublime
For 2011, the Fear, Horror and Terror project will meet alongside our project on Making Sense of: Health, Illness and Disease. It is our intention to create cross-over sessions between the two groups - and we welcome proposals which deal with the relationship between health, illness and disease and fear, horror and terror. Themes could include: fear and global threats to health (swine flu, bird flu, SARS, for example), or horror and disease (fear of our bodies, contagion, HIV/AIDS, for example), or terror and biological warfare. Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes.
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 22nd 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
Emails should be entitled: FHT Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times New 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
Colette Balmain
Independent Scholar, London, United Kingdom
Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
School of English, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net, Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
The conference is part of the At the Interface series of research projects. 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.
For further details about the project, please click here.
For further details about the conference, please click here.
CFP: The University of Manchester Medieval Postgraduate Conference
Education and Ignorance:
The Use of Knowledge in the Medieval World c.550-1550
John Rylands Library, Deansgate
Monday 6th-Tuesday 7th June 2011
CALL FOR PAPERS
Modern historiography has often depicted the Middle Ages as a period of ignorance, dogma and superstition - a period in which knowledge stagnated and education was both restricted to a privileged minority and dominated by the institutional and ideological authority of the Church. From the Carolingian Renaissance and the rise of the medieval universities to the condemnation of heretical teachings and the intellectual and spiritual ferment of the Reformation, the reality about education and knowledge in the medieval world is undoubtedly far more complex and contested than this picture suggests. This two day conference seeks to explore that reality through a diverse range of disciplines and across the full historical span of the period. We aim to address the questions - How was education theorised, institutionalised and practiced throughout the Middle Ages? How was knowledge controlled, transmitted and transformed? and To what uses were they put both by established ecclesiastical and feudal powers and the social and religious formations that opposed them?
With these questions in mind, we invite proposals for twenty minute papers from postgraduates and early career researchers on a variety of topics including, but not limited to:
- the losses and restoration of Classical knowledge in the early Middle Ages
- the development of the medieval universities
- the educational role of the monasteries and the mendicant orders
- scholasticism, scepticism and humanism
- heresy, censorship and reformation ideas about education
- didacticism in medieval literature, drama, art and architecture
- material culture and education: manuscripts, libraries, printing etc.
- theories and methods of learning - memory and scriptural exegesis
- unconventional and popular learning - alchemy, folk and occult practice
Please email abstracts of 250-300 words to the Manchester Medieval Postgraduate Conference along with your name, affiliation and title of paper. All queries should also be directed to this address. The deadline for submission is 31st March 2011. Selection of papers will be made by 15th April.
For more information concerning the conference, see our website.
CFP: 3rd Global Conference: Fashion: Exploring Critical Issues
Thursday 22nd September - Sunday 25th September 2011
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers
Fashion is a statement, a stylised form of expression which displays and begins to define a person, a place, a class, a time, a religion, a culture, and even a nation. This interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary conference seeks to explore the historical, social, cultural, psychological and artistic phenomenon of fashion. Fashion lies at the very heart of persons, their sense of identity and the communities in which they live. Individuals emerge as icons of beauty and style; cities are identified as centres of fashion. The project will assess the history and meanings of fashion; evaluate its expressions in politics, music, film, media and consumer culture; determine its effect on gender, sexuality, class, race, age and identity; examine the practice, tools, and business of fashion; consider the methodologies of studying fashion; and explore future directions and trends.
Papers, presentations, workshops and pre-formed are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:
1. Understanding Fashion
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers
Fashion is a statement, a stylised form of expression which displays and begins to define a person, a place, a class, a time, a religion, a culture, and even a nation. This interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary conference seeks to explore the historical, social, cultural, psychological and artistic phenomenon of fashion. Fashion lies at the very heart of persons, their sense of identity and the communities in which they live. Individuals emerge as icons of beauty and style; cities are identified as centres of fashion. The project will assess the history and meanings of fashion; evaluate its expressions in politics, music, film, media and consumer culture; determine its effect on gender, sexuality, class, race, age and identity; examine the practice, tools, and business of fashion; consider the methodologies of studying fashion; and explore future directions and trends.
Papers, presentations, workshops and pre-formed are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:
1. Understanding Fashion
- Fashion, Style, Taste-Making, and Chic
- Fashion and Fashionability
- Fashion and Zeitgeist
- History of Fashion
- Fashion Theory
- Fashion, Politics, and Ideology: e.g. 'message' fashion; fashion as a political platform, fashion as defiance; graffiti as a fashion statement
2. Studying Fashion
- Tools and Methodology; disciplines and perspectives; professions and trades
- Documentation
- Identifying, defining and refining concepts: e.g. 'style', 'fashion', 'look', 'fad', 'trend', 'in & out'
- 'Chasing' Fashion: Studying fashion collections, archives, and museums
- Fashion collections; fashion archives
- Designers and Muses
3. Cultures of Fashion
- Fashion in the City
- Men and Fashion; Children and Fashion
- Fashion Subcultures: e.g. pets and fashion, sports and fashion, supermodels, The Red Carpet, celebrity, vintage, glamour, gothic, etc.
- Fashion and Nostalgia
- Fashion and Professional Dress: e.g. Fashion and the Law
- Ethical Issues in Fashion: e.g. cruelty free fashion; PETA anti-fur movement; slave labour. sweatshops, child labour; the growing 'fakes' market
4. Fashion and Identity
- Fashion, Culture, and the Human Body (e.g., beauty standards, body art, weight, plastic surgery)
- Self-fashioning: e.g., fashion as performance; body modifications, including make-up, hair design, piercings, tattoos, body sculpting, plastic surgery
- Fashion and Social Status: Gender, Sexuality, Class, Race, Age and Fashion
- Fashion and National Identities
- Fashion and Transnational Identities
- Fashion and Religion
5. Fashion, Representation, and Evolving Patterns of Communication & Criticism
- Fashion Photography, Magazines, Blogs, and Twitter
- Fashion Icons
- Fashion, Films and the Performing Arts
- Fashion and Music
- Fashion and Fantasy
- Fashion and Television
6. Fashion Practice
- Fashion and Curatorial Practice: e.g. possibilities and problems of creating fashion Archives; creating and accessing private and public fashion collections
- Fashion Design
- Fashion Specialists: e.g. pattern makers, fitters, embroiderers, tailors, textile experts
- Fashion Economies and the business of fashion, e.g. traditional markets, the luxury industry, the design industry, producing and displaying fashion (building showrooms, production sites, runway)
- Beyond Dress: e.g. architecture, food, furniture, kitchens, perfume
- Style Guides and Makeover Shows
7. The Future of Fashion
- Trends and Cycles; predicting fashion
- The Materials of Fashion: e.g. eco-fashion, intelligent textiles, nano-technology, etc.
- The rise of the Accessory as the Driving Force of Fashion: e.g. handbags and shoes
- Branding the Mass Market, and Consumerism: e.g. designer collections at H & M, Top Shop, M & S, Target, Wal-Mart
- Celebrities as Fashion Designers: e.g. J LO, Jessica Simpson, Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham, P Diddy
- Anti-Fashion
Papers will be accepted which deal with relate areas and themes.
The 2011 meeting of Fashion - Exploring Critical Issues will run alongside our project on Multiculturalism, Conflict and Belonging and we anticipate holding sessions in common between the two prjects. We welcome any papers considering the problems of addressing issues of Fashion and Multiculturalism, Conflict and Belonging.
Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th March 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 22nd July 2011.
300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formates, following this order:
a) author(s) b) affiliation c) email address d) title of abstract e) body of abstract
Emails should be entitled: Fashion Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times New 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:
Jacque Lynn Foltyn
Chair, Dept. of Social Sciences, College of Letters and Sciences, National University, CA, USA
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net, Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
This conference is part of the Critical Issues series of research projects. 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.
For further details about the project click here.
For further details about the conference click here.
Saturday, 5 February 2011
She-Wolf of the Mere vs. She-Wolf in the Closet
When I first decided to start researching female werewolves, I christened my project 'She-Wolf', as I enjoy the many resonances of this term. At the time I came up with the idea, Shakira was making waves with her lycanthropy-inspired 'She-Wolf':
As a bit of Shakira fan, I'll admit that I enjoyed the way my conference and book caused a lot of my friends and colleagues to have that song running through their heads on a regular basis.
But when I pitched the idea to my department, one of my colleagues in medieval studies, Professor Gale Owen-Crocker, was more insistent that I gave some consideration to Grendel's mother in Beowulf. After all, Professor Owen-Crocker said, she is the 'She-Wolf of the mere'.
This was not that long after Robert Zemeckis' performance capture version of Beowulf hit the big screens, which featured a truly memorable performance by Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother:
Watching those two videos, the parallels between Shakira's 'She-Wolf in your closet' and Jolie's 'She-Wolf of the mere' are striking. Lithe, nude, contorting female flesh both demands and threatens the male gaze. Hints of violence are offered and diffused by sexual, vibrant femininity. I think it's no coincidence that these visual depictions of the 'She-Wolf' appeared within a year or so of one another, and signalled the start of an onslaught of 'She-Wolf' imagery in popular culture.
However, today's blog post is less concerned with Jolie's depiction of Grendel's mother - interesting though it is - than with the parallels between Shakira's 'She-Wolf' and the depiction of Grendel's mother in the poem Beowulf. These texts are created near enough 1000 years apart (depending on the date we give for the composition of Beowulf), and yet there are some striking similarities in the way the 'She-Wolf' is portrayed.
While Grendel's mother is never actually described as a female werewolf, her association with the wolf is underlined at several points in the poem. She is the 'brimwylf [water-wolf]' (l. 1506) who lives in a 'wulfhleothu [wolf-haunted]' land (l. 1358), with her monstrous son. The multiplicity of the threat this wolf-like creature poses to the heroic male is made clear in her initial introduction: 'Grendles modor,/ ides, aglaecwif [Grendel's mother, woman, she-monster]' (ll. 1258-59). The repetition of 'ides' and 'wif', both Old English words for '[human] woman', along side terminology of the monster, is telling; the constant focus on her maternity is also significant. Wolf - woman - mother - outcast - enemy. This imagery is resonant with the presentation of female werewolves from the Victorian era to the present day. Indeed, Shakira's video makes references to this connection between the female werewolf and monstrous maternity by having the singer dance around in a red-lined cave-like set, which is highly suggestive of a womb (see. 1:39-1:49, for example).
In her influential 1980 article, 'The Structual Unity of Beowulf: The Problem of Grendel's Mother', Jane Chance hints at a way of reading the monstrousness of Grendel's mother as a specifically sexual threat to the hero. Certainly if one takes a Freudian view of the poem, it is hard to ignore the fact that when Beowulf attacks the 'brimwylf', 'sweord aer gemealt,/ forbarn brodenmael [the sword melted, its blade burned away]' (ll. 1615-6). So, here is a woman that can liquidize the ultimate token of masculinity. This is an image that is played out to the extreme in Zemeckis' 2007 film.
But is this enough to connect Shakira's 'She-Wolf' to Grendel's mother? I'd suggest not. In fact, the parallels between the two millenium-separated she-wolves lies in a different, though not wholly unrelated, aspect of their presentation.
Consider the opening lines to Shakira's song: 'A domesticated girl, that's all you ask of me./ Darling it's no joke, this is lycanthropy.' Thus, 'domestication' stands in sharp contrast to 'lycanthropy'. The video plays on this; the 'domesticated' (may I say, 'wifely'?) woman, lying in a pristine white double bed with her unaware male partner, rises and enters the closet. This unleashes a side of the woman which stands in stark distinction to the 'homely'. The song continues: 'I've been devoting myself to you Monday to Monday, Friday to Friday./ Not getting enough retribution or incentives to keep me at it.' The frame of reference here is the workplace, underlined by the female voice likening herself to a 'coffee machine' that has been 'abused'. So, 'lycanthropy' is an alternative to the patriarchal control of both 'domesticity' (literally, 'the home') and the contemporary workplace.
Grendel's mother also represents a threat to patriarchal structures. Her attack on 'Heorot' (literally, 'the deer hall'), the symbolic centre of the Danish comitatus, hits heroic masculinity right where it hurts, so to speak. Her decapitation of Aeschere is a feminine assault on the warrior world. Elsewhere in the poem, women are the tools by which the masculine realm functions; Wealtheow and Hildeburgh are devices to lubricate the wheels of the male domain (much like abused coffee machines, if you will). Grendel's mother bursts into this, and literally slices it to pieces.
The 'brimwylf' also challenges hegemony by dint of her position as 'mother'. She is a 'wyf', but of no man; she is a 'modor', but there is no father. Grendel's heritage is presented as purely matrilineal, which stands at a threatening remove to the patrilineal world of the rest of the poem. Even the reference to his biblical forebear, Cain, is dangerously feminine. 'Cain's kin' is likely a reference to Genesis 6:4, and the mating of the 'Sons of God' with the 'Daughters of Man'. Cain's kin, in the medieval world, carried with it the understanding that it was Cain's daughters than begot the race of giants. In the world of Beowulf, remnants of this female line were powerful enough to even, apparently, survive the flood sent by God to destroy them.
So, to return to my comparison with Shakira's 'She-Wolf', both texts present a dangerous and predatory female. In Shakira's song, this potential for violence is played out in a 'closet' fantasy; for Grendel's mother, it manifests in physical acts of revenge. Nevertheless, both attack the 'home' (be it domesticity or the mead hall) and the 'work-place' (whether the office or the comitatus). The smooth-running of the masculine world is disrupted by the intrusion of the She-Wolf: claws, teeth, sexuality, monstrosity, maternity, corporeality.
In the end, though, Shakira's She-Wolf leaves the closet. She writhes and fantasizes, but eventually comes home. At the close of the video, she returns to the clean white sheets of the marital bed and forgets her lycanthropy. Grendel's mother, on the other hand, is ultimately slain by Beowulf. Again, we see parallels. Both she-wolves are, eventually, 'put to bed'; they cease to threaten and are brought back into the hegemonic scheme of masculine control.
And yet, the transgressive potential of the lycanthropic woman remains. Beowulf's sword melts; Shakira's she-wolf gives a knowing full-moon-framed glance to the camera. Whatever opportunities are offered for feminine destruction of male-centred hegemonic structures are curtailed by the reinstating of the warrior's sword and the husband's bed - but these opportunities can not be truly forgotten.
One thousand year apart, and yet the She-Wolf of the Mere and the She-Wolf in the Closet bear striking similarities. Neither one fully delivers on her promise, but the threat to domesticity, the family and patriarchy is there. As Shakira says, the She-Wolf is 'coming out, coming out, coming out'. What does she does when she gets there still remains to be seen.
Quotes from Beowulf are taken from Michael Swanton's edition (Manchester University Press, 1997). Due to the limitations of blogspot.com, I've modernized orthography.
As a bit of Shakira fan, I'll admit that I enjoyed the way my conference and book caused a lot of my friends and colleagues to have that song running through their heads on a regular basis.
But when I pitched the idea to my department, one of my colleagues in medieval studies, Professor Gale Owen-Crocker, was more insistent that I gave some consideration to Grendel's mother in Beowulf. After all, Professor Owen-Crocker said, she is the 'She-Wolf of the mere'.
This was not that long after Robert Zemeckis' performance capture version of Beowulf hit the big screens, which featured a truly memorable performance by Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother:
Watching those two videos, the parallels between Shakira's 'She-Wolf in your closet' and Jolie's 'She-Wolf of the mere' are striking. Lithe, nude, contorting female flesh both demands and threatens the male gaze. Hints of violence are offered and diffused by sexual, vibrant femininity. I think it's no coincidence that these visual depictions of the 'She-Wolf' appeared within a year or so of one another, and signalled the start of an onslaught of 'She-Wolf' imagery in popular culture.
However, today's blog post is less concerned with Jolie's depiction of Grendel's mother - interesting though it is - than with the parallels between Shakira's 'She-Wolf' and the depiction of Grendel's mother in the poem Beowulf. These texts are created near enough 1000 years apart (depending on the date we give for the composition of Beowulf), and yet there are some striking similarities in the way the 'She-Wolf' is portrayed.
While Grendel's mother is never actually described as a female werewolf, her association with the wolf is underlined at several points in the poem. She is the 'brimwylf [water-wolf]' (l. 1506) who lives in a 'wulfhleothu [wolf-haunted]' land (l. 1358), with her monstrous son. The multiplicity of the threat this wolf-like creature poses to the heroic male is made clear in her initial introduction: 'Grendles modor,/ ides, aglaecwif [Grendel's mother, woman, she-monster]' (ll. 1258-59). The repetition of 'ides' and 'wif', both Old English words for '[human] woman', along side terminology of the monster, is telling; the constant focus on her maternity is also significant. Wolf - woman - mother - outcast - enemy. This imagery is resonant with the presentation of female werewolves from the Victorian era to the present day. Indeed, Shakira's video makes references to this connection between the female werewolf and monstrous maternity by having the singer dance around in a red-lined cave-like set, which is highly suggestive of a womb (see. 1:39-1:49, for example).
In her influential 1980 article, 'The Structual Unity of Beowulf: The Problem of Grendel's Mother', Jane Chance hints at a way of reading the monstrousness of Grendel's mother as a specifically sexual threat to the hero. Certainly if one takes a Freudian view of the poem, it is hard to ignore the fact that when Beowulf attacks the 'brimwylf', 'sweord aer gemealt,/ forbarn brodenmael [the sword melted, its blade burned away]' (ll. 1615-6). So, here is a woman that can liquidize the ultimate token of masculinity. This is an image that is played out to the extreme in Zemeckis' 2007 film.
But is this enough to connect Shakira's 'She-Wolf' to Grendel's mother? I'd suggest not. In fact, the parallels between the two millenium-separated she-wolves lies in a different, though not wholly unrelated, aspect of their presentation.
Consider the opening lines to Shakira's song: 'A domesticated girl, that's all you ask of me./ Darling it's no joke, this is lycanthropy.' Thus, 'domestication' stands in sharp contrast to 'lycanthropy'. The video plays on this; the 'domesticated' (may I say, 'wifely'?) woman, lying in a pristine white double bed with her unaware male partner, rises and enters the closet. This unleashes a side of the woman which stands in stark distinction to the 'homely'. The song continues: 'I've been devoting myself to you Monday to Monday, Friday to Friday./ Not getting enough retribution or incentives to keep me at it.' The frame of reference here is the workplace, underlined by the female voice likening herself to a 'coffee machine' that has been 'abused'. So, 'lycanthropy' is an alternative to the patriarchal control of both 'domesticity' (literally, 'the home') and the contemporary workplace.
Grendel's mother also represents a threat to patriarchal structures. Her attack on 'Heorot' (literally, 'the deer hall'), the symbolic centre of the Danish comitatus, hits heroic masculinity right where it hurts, so to speak. Her decapitation of Aeschere is a feminine assault on the warrior world. Elsewhere in the poem, women are the tools by which the masculine realm functions; Wealtheow and Hildeburgh are devices to lubricate the wheels of the male domain (much like abused coffee machines, if you will). Grendel's mother bursts into this, and literally slices it to pieces.
The 'brimwylf' also challenges hegemony by dint of her position as 'mother'. She is a 'wyf', but of no man; she is a 'modor', but there is no father. Grendel's heritage is presented as purely matrilineal, which stands at a threatening remove to the patrilineal world of the rest of the poem. Even the reference to his biblical forebear, Cain, is dangerously feminine. 'Cain's kin' is likely a reference to Genesis 6:4, and the mating of the 'Sons of God' with the 'Daughters of Man'. Cain's kin, in the medieval world, carried with it the understanding that it was Cain's daughters than begot the race of giants. In the world of Beowulf, remnants of this female line were powerful enough to even, apparently, survive the flood sent by God to destroy them.
So, to return to my comparison with Shakira's 'She-Wolf', both texts present a dangerous and predatory female. In Shakira's song, this potential for violence is played out in a 'closet' fantasy; for Grendel's mother, it manifests in physical acts of revenge. Nevertheless, both attack the 'home' (be it domesticity or the mead hall) and the 'work-place' (whether the office or the comitatus). The smooth-running of the masculine world is disrupted by the intrusion of the She-Wolf: claws, teeth, sexuality, monstrosity, maternity, corporeality.
In the end, though, Shakira's She-Wolf leaves the closet. She writhes and fantasizes, but eventually comes home. At the close of the video, she returns to the clean white sheets of the marital bed and forgets her lycanthropy. Grendel's mother, on the other hand, is ultimately slain by Beowulf. Again, we see parallels. Both she-wolves are, eventually, 'put to bed'; they cease to threaten and are brought back into the hegemonic scheme of masculine control.
And yet, the transgressive potential of the lycanthropic woman remains. Beowulf's sword melts; Shakira's she-wolf gives a knowing full-moon-framed glance to the camera. Whatever opportunities are offered for feminine destruction of male-centred hegemonic structures are curtailed by the reinstating of the warrior's sword and the husband's bed - but these opportunities can not be truly forgotten.
One thousand year apart, and yet the She-Wolf of the Mere and the She-Wolf in the Closet bear striking similarities. Neither one fully delivers on her promise, but the threat to domesticity, the family and patriarchy is there. As Shakira says, the She-Wolf is 'coming out, coming out, coming out'. What does she does when she gets there still remains to be seen.
Quotes from Beowulf are taken from Michael Swanton's edition (Manchester University Press, 1997). Due to the limitations of blogspot.com, I've modernized orthography.
Monday, 10 January 2011
CFP: Before Man and God: Sin, Confession, Forgiveness and Redemption in the Anglo-Saxon World
Sixth Annual Postgraduate Conference
March 7-8, 2011
John Rylands Library, Deansgate
University of Manchester
Before Man and God
Sin, Confession, Forgiveness and Redemption in the Anglo-Saxon World
In Anglo-Saxon England, the priest was expected to teach both from the Bible and his Scriftboc (handbook of penance). He was to educate his flock in matters of sin, make judgements on the size of tariffs for penance, and show the sinner how to atone for his misdeeds. Sinners were urged to confess with humility all their sins, whatever their nature. Better to feel shame before a man now than to do so before God on Judgement Day!
This conference aims to draw together evidence for the practice of private confession throughout the Anglo-Saxon period and to situate it within the history of confession up to and including the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, when the Church stipulated an annual requirement for confession. In doing this, it also aims to explore the Anglo-Saxon world through its understanding of sin, confession, penance, forgiveness and redemption. It will ask questions such as: How did the theology of confession influence Anglo-Saxon society more broadly? What was the impact on law? How are sin and confession represented in literature, art and architecture? Can the evidence from penitential literature be understood as social commentary?
Postgraduate and early-career researchers are invited to submit abstracts of no more than 250 words for 20-minute papers that engage with the conference's themes. The following list of topics for consideration is not exhaustive:
- Anglo-Saxon penitential literature: the relationship of vernacular texts to Latin sources; the relationship between penitentials and law codes; penance tariffs
- Anglo-Saxon confessional literature within the history of private and/or public confession: comparative analysis of Irish and continental penitentials; comparative analysis of later confessional literature (twelfth- and thirteenth-century)
- Sin as (theological) discourse: e.g. the meaning of sin, including guilt and shame
- The priest and his scriftboc: pastoral care and education
- Confession/penance and types of sin: e.g. sexual sins, theft, manslaughter
- Fasting, almsgiving and singing psalms
- Penitential/confessional dialogue
- Confession and gender; confession and status
- Anglo-Saxon readings of original sin
- Confession as poetic motif
- The confessional 'self'
- Sin/the sinner/confession/penance in Anglo-Sexon art and sculpture
- Judgement Day: the sinner before God in literature and/or art
A keynote address and masterclass will be delivered by Dr. Catherine Cubitt (York)
Submissions by January 28th, 2011 and registration enquiries to Christopher Monk.
Conference supported by SAGE, SAHC and John Rylands Library, Deansgate
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Review: Martin Millar, Lonely Werewolf Girl (Piatkus, 2009)
Given my interest in female werewolves, it's actually quite shocking that it has taken me this long to read Martin Millar's Lonely Werewolf Girl. First published in 2007, Millar's book tells the story of Kalix - the eponymous 'lonely werewolf girl' - an exiled daughter of the MacRinnalch clan.After attacking her father for banishing her lover, Kalix is exiled from her Scottish home. When the novel begins, she is drifting through the streets of London, addicted to laudanum, anorexic (except when in werewolf form) and cutting herself. As all characters, including Kalix, constantly remind us, Kalix is "mad". If this were all the book had to offer, it would still be worthy of note. Millar's portrayal of the detachment, isolation and abjection of the self-harming anorexic, as well as the matter-of-fact comfort taken in self-destructive behaviours, is both sensitive and brutal - and utterly believable. The hopeless and hostile Kalix is neither victim nor abuser, and she requests neither our sympathy nor our censure. In fact, the lonely werewolf girl doesn't seem to want any emotional engagement from anyone - not the other characters in the book, and not the readers.
But readers, like the other characters, can't help but be drawn to Millar's creation. She is violent, antagonistic and destructive - but also sweet, loyal and heart-breakingly low on self-esteem: "Kalix felt like a young and very boring werewolf with nothing interesting to say. She wanted to leave but she couldn't seem to find an opportunity to say goodbye." Although Kalix tries her best to make herself difficult to like - something that her sister Thrix also feels about her - the novel sees her negotiating a number of unexpected new relationships, against her better judgement.
While Kalix attempts to make herself as near invisible as possible in London, trouble stirs in the MacRinnalch clan's Scottish home. Kalix's father has died, partly as a result of the injuries he received during his daughter's attack. This means that a new Thane must be selected, and Kalix's brothers - Markus and Sarapen - are each determined to fight (and fight dirty) for the title. The MacRinnalch werewolves are divided between the two brothers, which leads to violence, betrayal and plotting. Dragged into this conflict are Kalix's cousins, Butix and Delix, a pair of dissolute werewolves who have changed their names to Beauty and Delicious, dyed their hair and run off to London to be rock stars. In order to secure the support of the "cousins about whom the family did not speak", Mistress of the Werewolves Verasa sends Dominil, an intellectual but cold-hearted, white wolf to act as their band manager. Dominil is possibly my favourite character in the novel as, although Beauty and Delicious write songs about her entitled "Stupid Werewolf Bitch" and "Evil White-Haired Slut", everything she says makes complete sense, and she approaches life with a logical, rather than emotional, eye.
Like all the characters in the novel, Dominil has her flaws. And this is the major strength of Millar's writing. While much fantasy literature - and, to be honest, literature in general - still clings to the Mary/Eve distinction of female characters (put her on a pedestal or condemn her to Hell), Millar's creations are far more nuanced and layered. I would go as far as to argue that Millar has created some of the most fully-rounded, three-dimensional female werewolves that you will come across. Yes - they are highly sexed, aggresive and violent. But they are also by turns vain, selfish, obstinate, illiterate, intellectual, creative, loyal, vengeful, funny, drug-addicted, talented, gentle, caring, spoilt... In other words, Millar's female werewolves are about as close to human as you can get. Without wishing to make unfair generalizations, it is refreshing to see a male writer approach female characters by privileging 'character' over 'female'.
By contrast - and, as a feminist, I had to smile at the reversal of fortunes - Millar's male characters are, on the whole, a series of near caricatures. There is Sarapen, Kalix's older brother. Sarapen is a vicious and thuggish bully, whose idea of courtship is to abduct a woman and lock her in a cell. When she refuses his 'advances', he beats her to within an inch of her life. Cross-dressing Markus is the spoilt younger brother: a vain, preening mummy's boy who treats all women as objects to boost his vanity and sense of self-worth. Gawain, Kalix's idealized lost love, plays pretty much the role of the female love interest in the majority of fantasy fiction. The only exception to this portrayal of male characters is Daniel, the human boy who attempts to help Kalix in London. Daniel is boring and hopeless with women, but has a certain hapless charm about him. As events unfold and become increasingly dangerous and strange, Daniel is revealed to be a warm, sympathetic and loyal person, who becomes more and more likable as the novel progresses.
The innovation and originality of Lonely Werewolf Girl lie not in its basic plot nor in its version of werewolf mythology- both of these are in many ways similar to other fantasy fiction. However, the characterization in the novel is striking, and it is this that makes the novel one of the strongest female werewolf stories I have read. In addition to this, Millar's storytelling is quirky and compelling. The novel contains 236 short chapters, some of which are less than a page long, and moves briskly between scenes. This technique allows Millar to strictly control pacing, which is handled very well. As the story develops, the disparate scenes begin to come together, drawing the reader onwards to the climactic scenes. The combination of dynamic storytelling and careful characterization makes the conclusion very satisfying.
So, although I come late to the party, I now strongly recommend Lonely Werewolf Girl. Well-written, eccentric and some of the most memorable female werewolves in fiction.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Manchester: Then & Now Tour
I've recently been contacted by Walk Talk Tours with some interesting information about their audio tour of Manchester:
The tour offers descriptions of "some of the key socio-economic developments and personalities responsible for shaping Manchester's past and present".
Check out their blog for more info.
We're recently made our 2.4 mile (3.8km) Manchester: Then & Now tour completely free - for good.
The audio downloadable tour is available in MP3 format and can be played on iPods, iPhones, smart phones, MP3 players and other devices with MP3 playing capabilities.
The tour offers descriptions of "some of the key socio-economic developments and personalities responsible for shaping Manchester's past and present".
Check out their blog for more info.
The Lexis of Cloth and Clothing Project at the University of Manchester
Although this blog began life as a home for female werewolf-related news, I'd like to post about something slightly different - but equally interesting - today.
The Lexis of Cloth and Clothing Project at the University of Manchester is a major AHRC-funded project, headed up by Professor Gale Owen-Crocker and a dedicated team of academics and researchers, which will provide interdisciplinary research into the terminology of medieval dress and textiles in Britain (c.700-1450). Their website offers the following introduction to the project:
I've been fortunate enough to already benefit from this project - despite the fact that my research is not primarily focused on medieval textiles. Last year, while working on the fourteenth-century werewolf poem William of Palerne, I gave a paper about a knight who has sex with a pillow. (ed. - How strange my life is sometimes!) I have become quite fixated on this knight and his relationship with his soft furnishings, and Professor Owen-Crocker was kind enough to encourage me to consult the Lexis database. In hardly any time at all, I was able to access a bank of information about medieval pillows, their uses and their connotations. The detail was fascinating - and certainly helped me to understand exactly what that poor knight was doing to the upholstery!
In addition to the database, The Lexis Project will also be producing The Encyclopaedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles, which will be published by Brill. The encyclopedia will comprise of essays and short pieces from research scholars from all over the world. The contents cover a vast array of subjects. I've co-written a piece on 'Cross-Dressing' with Professor Owen-Crocker, and other entries include armour, the wool trade, various literary texts and religious dress.
I'd strongly encourage anyone interested in medieval culture to check out the project website. The Word of the Month is a great feature, and is guaranteed to give you some insight into the significance of medieval cloth and clothing, as well as the continuation of these ideas beyond the Middle Ages.
For more information, click here.
The Lexis of Cloth and Clothing Project at the University of Manchester is a major AHRC-funded project, headed up by Professor Gale Owen-Crocker and a dedicated team of academics and researchers, which will provide interdisciplinary research into the terminology of medieval dress and textiles in Britain (c.700-1450). Their website offers the following introduction to the project:
While the importance of cloth and textiles to medieval culture cannot be denied, researchers must currently look to a diverse range of disciplines, specialist dictionaries, artefacts and texts in order to explore the meanings and significances of a particular term or object. The Lexis Project is intended to offer an analytic corpus of the lexis of clothing and textile, and to offer a significant exploration of the development of this vocabulary. The project continues to assemble and examine citations and terminology in all the early languages of Britain and to provide a database of definitions, artefacts, images and technical processes.
In the Middle Ages dress was an identifier of occupation, status, gender and ethnicity; textiles ranged through opulent, symbolic, utilitarian and recycled. Cloth production and international trade constituted a major sector of the economy of medieval Britain.
I've been fortunate enough to already benefit from this project - despite the fact that my research is not primarily focused on medieval textiles. Last year, while working on the fourteenth-century werewolf poem William of Palerne, I gave a paper about a knight who has sex with a pillow. (ed. - How strange my life is sometimes!) I have become quite fixated on this knight and his relationship with his soft furnishings, and Professor Owen-Crocker was kind enough to encourage me to consult the Lexis database. In hardly any time at all, I was able to access a bank of information about medieval pillows, their uses and their connotations. The detail was fascinating - and certainly helped me to understand exactly what that poor knight was doing to the upholstery!
In addition to the database, The Lexis Project will also be producing The Encyclopaedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles, which will be published by Brill. The encyclopedia will comprise of essays and short pieces from research scholars from all over the world. The contents cover a vast array of subjects. I've co-written a piece on 'Cross-Dressing' with Professor Owen-Crocker, and other entries include armour, the wool trade, various literary texts and religious dress.
I'd strongly encourage anyone interested in medieval culture to check out the project website. The Word of the Month is a great feature, and is guaranteed to give you some insight into the significance of medieval cloth and clothing, as well as the continuation of these ideas beyond the Middle Ages.
For more information, click here.
Monday, 3 January 2011
Call for Submissions: Wolf-Girls: Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny
Call for Submissions
Wolf-Girls
Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny
Submissions wanted for a new anthology of short stories of bad, bad, female werewolves. Kicking, biting, clawing, fighting: the new lycogyny is far from pretty. We're looking for new and established writers to contribute dark fiction tales for a new collection of stories filled with feral and feisty lupine femmes.
Editor: Hannah Kate
Publisher: Hic Dragones
What we want: Edgy dark fiction short stories about female werewolves. Male characters are, of course, allowed, but the central character(s) should be female. We have no preconceptions about what 'female' or 'werewolf' might mean - so all interpretations welcome. Any genre considered: dark fantasy, urban fantasy, horror, sci fi, steampunk, cyberpunk, biopunk, dystopian, crossover. Queer, trans, cis, straight are all welcome. High fantasy, revenge fantasy and anything about 'lunar cycles' and 'Mother Nature' will be considered, but are discouraged. Rather, we're looking for new takes on an old legend, stories that challenge and unsettle. (And it should go without saying that we won't be including any misogyny, misandry, homophobia, transphobia or racism!)
Word Count: 3000-5000
Submission Guidelines: Electronic submissions as .doc, .docx, .rtf attachments only. 12pt font, 1.5 or double spaced. Please ensure name, title and email address are included on attachment. Email submissions to this address. Submissions are welcome from anywhere, but must be in English.
Submission Deadline: Monday 4th April 2011
Payment: 1 contributor copy (how we wish it could be more!)
For more information, click here or email Hic Dragones.
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Beautiful, Strong, Broken Women
Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that tonight I watched Buffy s5 ep12 ('The Body') for the first time in ages. In case you can't recall, this is the episode where Buffy finds her mother's dead body on the couch and has to deal with the immediate aftermath. The episode is wonderfully played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, and beautifully directed. There is no soundtrack, and each of the central characters plays out the most attractive facet of their character. As I said on Twitter, I'll only get behind a Buffy reboot if they can pull off something as beautiful as that episode.
Sarah Michelle Gellar's performance as the amazingly strong, yet perfectly vulnerable, Buffy got me thinking about femininity. And the way in which women are forced to juggle 'surviving' with 'being beautiful' and 'being good'. This is something I've had to deal with in my own life - as an apparently 'confident' and 'successful' woman - and I'm going to give you a run-down of women that have given me strength. Don't get me wrong... I find strength in so many women (from Emmeline Pankhurst to my bestest mate K), but these are the beautiful, strong, broken women who speak to my experience.
I would love to hear who your beautiful, broken icons are...
5. Buffy. This time last year, my dad found out he had cancer. During the time of his treatment, I got dumped and had to deal with my younger brother's 'issues' with his relationship to our dad. Of course, there are a lot of background issues, and my brother is only 16 months younger than me, but up until now his whole experience with death has revolved around my protecting him from it (mine hasn't - as my job from being 16 entails I've had to go to a lot of colleagues' funerals). Our (me and my bro) first bereavement was three days before my 8th birthday - I understood, he (aged 6) didn't - and our next was on his 13th birthday, and I've spent a lot of time making sure his birthday doesn't remind him of Grandma's death (he doesn't actually remember that Granny died around my birthday, but I'd rather he didn't remember our first bereavement). When the next death happened (when I was 17, he was 15), I had to be the one to break it to him. I might not be a slayer, but I am a big sister - and a child of a cancer patient -which is why Buffy is the first on my list of beautiful women. I can't show the whole episode, and you really do need the whole soundtrack-less thing to get the picture, but you'll get it from this:
4. Stacey Slater in Eastenders. Bipolar rape victim who wasn't totally sure what consent might mean when she was ill. (And the older, wiser me will say, hun, you can't consent if you're having an episode. And yes - I am bipolar. And yes - I am a rape victim.) Found one good man... and he died for her 'crime'. Beautifully, beautifully portrayed by Lacey Turner:
3. Tina Turner. This should be considered a clarion call to all of us who have suffered domestic abuse. And trust me, I know whereof I speak (My ex - hit me, hit his son, hit the cat). When they hit us, when they make us feel small, when they rape us, we should remember:
2. Blanche Dubois. A double one here. The character is a (possibly) mentally ill rape victim; the actress is a perfect, fragile, violent, broken harridan. No-one wanted to help Blanche or Vivien, because they were too much like hard work. I'm mentally ill (which should have been apparent throughout this post), and I've been forced to accept all NHS treatments short of sectioning. Blanche took it like this (I didn't... and Vivien Leigh didn't either...):
1. Judy Garland. I left her to last, because this says it all. For me, she is the beautiful, strong, broken woman par excellence. This is one of the most painful videos I've ever seen. Look into her eyes. You will see her soul... and mine:
Sarah Michelle Gellar's performance as the amazingly strong, yet perfectly vulnerable, Buffy got me thinking about femininity. And the way in which women are forced to juggle 'surviving' with 'being beautiful' and 'being good'. This is something I've had to deal with in my own life - as an apparently 'confident' and 'successful' woman - and I'm going to give you a run-down of women that have given me strength. Don't get me wrong... I find strength in so many women (from Emmeline Pankhurst to my bestest mate K), but these are the beautiful, strong, broken women who speak to my experience.
I would love to hear who your beautiful, broken icons are...
5. Buffy. This time last year, my dad found out he had cancer. During the time of his treatment, I got dumped and had to deal with my younger brother's 'issues' with his relationship to our dad. Of course, there are a lot of background issues, and my brother is only 16 months younger than me, but up until now his whole experience with death has revolved around my protecting him from it (mine hasn't - as my job from being 16 entails I've had to go to a lot of colleagues' funerals). Our (me and my bro) first bereavement was three days before my 8th birthday - I understood, he (aged 6) didn't - and our next was on his 13th birthday, and I've spent a lot of time making sure his birthday doesn't remind him of Grandma's death (he doesn't actually remember that Granny died around my birthday, but I'd rather he didn't remember our first bereavement). When the next death happened (when I was 17, he was 15), I had to be the one to break it to him. I might not be a slayer, but I am a big sister - and a child of a cancer patient -which is why Buffy is the first on my list of beautiful women. I can't show the whole episode, and you really do need the whole soundtrack-less thing to get the picture, but you'll get it from this:
4. Stacey Slater in Eastenders. Bipolar rape victim who wasn't totally sure what consent might mean when she was ill. (And the older, wiser me will say, hun, you can't consent if you're having an episode. And yes - I am bipolar. And yes - I am a rape victim.) Found one good man... and he died for her 'crime'. Beautifully, beautifully portrayed by Lacey Turner:
3. Tina Turner. This should be considered a clarion call to all of us who have suffered domestic abuse. And trust me, I know whereof I speak (My ex - hit me, hit his son, hit the cat). When they hit us, when they make us feel small, when they rape us, we should remember:
2. Blanche Dubois. A double one here. The character is a (possibly) mentally ill rape victim; the actress is a perfect, fragile, violent, broken harridan. No-one wanted to help Blanche or Vivien, because they were too much like hard work. I'm mentally ill (which should have been apparent throughout this post), and I've been forced to accept all NHS treatments short of sectioning. Blanche took it like this (I didn't... and Vivien Leigh didn't either...):
1. Judy Garland. I left her to last, because this says it all. For me, she is the beautiful, strong, broken woman par excellence. This is one of the most painful videos I've ever seen. Look into her eyes. You will see her soul... and mine:
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Review: Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Raised by Wolves (Quercus, 2010)
Raised by Wolves, published by Quercus in 2010, is a YA urban fantasy novel, which tells the story of Bronwyn (otherwise known as Bryn), a girl raised by a werewolf pack. When she was four years old, a lone "Rabid" werewolf - the "Big, Bad Wolf" - attacked and killed Bryn's family. She only escaped by hiding in a cupboard until the Stone River Pack arrive to kill the lone wolf and save the girl's life. Bryn is then taken into the pack by powerful alpha Callum, who "Marks" her and raises her. When human woman Ali arrives - searching for her sister who has run off with a werewolf - she is given Bryn as a surrogate daughter, despite being only a few years older. This semi-stable family set-up continues until Bryn is seventeen, when the arrival of newly-converted "Were" Chase causes Bryn to question everything she thinks she knows about the pack and her place within it.
Barnes' werewolves are of a recognizable type: presented as a sort of cohabitation of human and wolf within one 'shifting' bodyt; 'born' not 'made' (on the whole); subject to the strict regulation of a hierarchical pack structure; and telepathic via a "Pack bond", a shared consciousness that links all members of a particular pack. The societal organization of the pack is utterly patriarchal, reliant on obedience to the alpha male. Bryn is doubly subject to this patriarchy; as a woman, but also a human, she has ostensibly little power to rebel against the rigorous and controlling influence of alpha Callum. The novel begins with Callum chastizing Bryn for three transgressions: she has 'borrowed' a motorbike from a classmate [What is it with YA heroines and secret motorbikes??]; her Algebra marks are low; she hasn't fully complied with her curfew. These circumstances may be reasonably familiar to readers of YA fiction. However, on eof the strengths of Raised by Wolves is that Barnes extends this marginalized, powerless situation of the heroine to a wider presentation of women within the werewolf world.
It is made clear throughout the book that there are very few female werewolves. This is presented as a fluke of werewolf biology: "Something about the chemistry involved in werewolf conception made it impossible for girl embryos to survive the first trimester, unless they were half of a set of twins and had a brother to mask their presence in the womb." This 'scientific fact' has a series of deep repercussions for the female characters in the novel. It makes female werewolves very rare: Bryn's foster-sister Kaitlin and close friend Lake are unusual, and thus highly prized members of the pack. As werewolves are 'born' and not 'made', the only way to breed 'purebred' werewolves is for these females to mate with male members of the pack. Their relative scarcity means that they are the focus of an undercurrent of sexual violence and coercion. In the later chapters of the novel, Bryn becomes aware of this when Lake - a rebellious tomboy of breeding age - hides in the mountains when a group of alphas visit her home. As Lake's father explains: "Some Weres, especially the dominant ones, get real funny around females, and Lake's not a kid anymore." Not only is the fifteen-year-old Lake now at risk of the "real funny" behaviour of dominant males, she may also be subject to "bartering" by her own alpha. Bryn comes to a realization that her friend - and, evenutally, her younger sister - will be seen as "commodities" by Callum.
One of the ways alphas exert power over each other is through the size of their pack. The more members to a pack, the more power the alpha has. As there is no way - apparently - of converting humans into werewolves, breeding is an important concern for the pack. The rareness of female werewolves results in most werewolves taking human wives. Barnes is fairly stark in her portrayal of these women - they are little more than breeding machines, and maternal mortality rates are ridiculously high. At one point, the narrator Bryn comments on mass, unmarked graves of female women who have died giving birth to werewolf children. The cumulative effect of this focus on reproduction, mating and mortality is to create a world in which to be female is to be inferior, fragile and vulnerable to patriarchal violence and control. Barnes sustains this throughout her novel, adding to the tension and precariousness of Bryn's situation.
Nevertheless, Bryn is not the sort of heroine who will simply compel with such monolithic societal controls. As Lake's father comments, she is "scrappy". The characterization of Bryn, and her determination to rebel against and subvert the world in which she lives, is one of the most compelling aspects of the novel. Bryn is adept at finding loopholes in pack rule, and discovers a number of skills and attributes that allow her to fight back against the injustices she has faced. (And I will say no more on these, as they are integral to the development of the plot.) Moreover, Bryn configures an alternative society, at odds with the traditional pack, made up of the marginalized, the disenfranchised and the powerless. This social group includes Chase (the werewolf convert who 'shouldn't' exist), Lake and Bryn's close friend Devon - "the world's only metrosexual werewolf". This group - also incorporating Bryn's strong and principled foster-mother Ali and adorable wolf-cub Kaitlin - is likable and sympathetic. The reader sides with them easily against the rigid and brutal pack patriarchy.
Although, as I have said, Barnes' werewolves are of a reasonably familiar type, the author plays around with the usual formula. For example, the "Pack bond" shared by the werewolves can also be enjoyed by humans who have been "Marked". Bryn and Ali have the opportunity to share in this bond, but choose to close off their minds to it. This leads to some consideration by Bryn about what exactly separates humans from "Weres". Though she realizes that she is not actually a werewolf, Bryn doesn't feel or act fully human either. Snarling in anger and revelling in the unrestrained physical freedom of "running with the Pack", Bryn seems to be part-werewolf, despite the impossibility of this. This all raises an interesting question: is it nature or nurture that makes a werewolf?
Raised by Wolves is an enjoyable and gripping YA fantasy. Believable characters and a well-handled and suspenseful plot make for a great read. While the basic premise of the book (and its werewolf world) may seem like well-trodden territory, Barnes' handling of these ideas is original and fresh. The writing bears favourable comparison with other bestselling examples of YA fantasy - and, indeed, is an instance of the genre at its best. Definitely recommended.
Thursday, 2 December 2010
CFP: Revenge - Probing the Boundaries
16th July 2011 - Monday 19th July 2011
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers
Revenge, so we are told, is a dish best served cold: a ‘sweet’ wreaking of vengeance on those who have – either in reality or in our minds – slighted, wronged or in some way ‘injured’ us and who are now ‘enjoying’ their just deserts by an avenging angel (or angels) on the great day of reckoning. This inter- and multi-disciplinary research and publications project seeks to explore the multi-layered ideas and actions of vengeance or revenge. The project aims to explore the nature of revenge, its relationship with issues of justice, and its manifestation in the actions of individuals, groups, communities and nations. The project will also consider the history of revenge, its ‘legitimacy’, the‘scale’ of vengeful actions and whether revenge has (or should have) ‘limits’. Representations of revenge in film, literature, tv, theatre and radio will be analysed; cultural ‘traditions’ of retaliation and revenge will be considered. And the role of mercy, forgiveness and pardon will be assessed.
Papers will consider the following indicative themes:
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers
Revenge, so we are told, is a dish best served cold: a ‘sweet’ wreaking of vengeance on those who have – either in reality or in our minds – slighted, wronged or in some way ‘injured’ us and who are now ‘enjoying’ their just deserts by an avenging angel (or angels) on the great day of reckoning. This inter- and multi-disciplinary research and publications project seeks to explore the multi-layered ideas and actions of vengeance or revenge. The project aims to explore the nature of revenge, its relationship with issues of justice, and its manifestation in the actions of individuals, groups, communities and nations. The project will also consider the history of revenge, its ‘legitimacy’, the‘scale’ of vengeful actions and whether revenge has (or should have) ‘limits’. Representations of revenge in film, literature, tv, theatre and radio will be analysed; cultural ‘traditions’ of retaliation and revenge will be considered. And the role of mercy, forgiveness and pardon will be assessed.
Papers will consider the following indicative themes:
- the nature of reveng
- vengeance in history
- revenge cross-culturally
- the role of revenge
- is there any proper and improper time for revenge? Can an act of revenge be carried across generations?
- revenge, vengeance, retaliation: to avenge
- justice and revenge; redressing the balance, just desert
- betrayal, humiliation, shame, resentment and revenge
- revenge and the individual; revenge and the group; revenge and the nation
- revenge in literature and the arts
- revenge in music
- revenge in tv, film, radio and theatre: the nemesis
- relationship between revenge and mercy, forgiveness, pardon
- revenge case-studies: individual and collective
Papers on any other topic related to the theme will also be considered. The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme.
300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 14th January 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper shouldbe submitted by Friday 27th May 2011.
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract
E-mails should be entitled: REV2 Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such asbold, 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.
Joint Organising Chairs:
Karolina Wigura
Institute of Sociology,
Warsaw University,
Warsaw,
Poland
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland,
Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom
The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims 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 will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited for development for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).
For further details about the project please click here.
For further details about the conference please click here.
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