Does the Matter of Britain (Sill) Matter NeMLA Update

I am pleased to announce the slate for our round table on the relevance of the Arthurian tradition. Full details below. My thanks to the panelists for their interesting ideas.


Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter?
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

The Figure of King Arthur in the 21st Century
Christopher Berard, Providence College

Is There a Place for the Matter of Britain in Contemporary Arthurian Narrative?
Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University

Death Redeems Us Not from Tongues: Thomas Hughes and the 16th-century Crisis of Arthurian History
Liam Daley, University of Maryland College Park

From Round Table Tournaments to Renaissance Festivals: Arthuriana and the Hyperreal
Theresa FitzPatrick, Concordia University Saint Paul

'And What Everybody Else Needs, Too': Seeking the Grail in The Unwritten
Emily Race, Sewanee: The University of the South

Afterlives of Connecticut Yankee Session for NeMLA 2020

It appears that the Afterlives of Connecticut Yankee session will be running after all. 

Here are the details. I am grateful to everyone in Arthurian Studies and Twain Studies that helped make this session possible.


Afterlives of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain.

Sir Boss, His Successors, and His Surrogates: Classifying Adaptations of Connecticut Yankee
Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

‘Thou Swell’: The Power of Words (and Music) as a Connecticut Yankee goes Back to the Future
Tammy Rose, Independent Scholar

A Secret Agent in King Arthur's Court: MacGyver Saves the 7th Century from Nuclear Proliferation
Emily Race, Sewanee: The University of the South

CFP Quests: Magical Journeys and Wayside Attractions (Spec. Issue of Coreopsis) (12/24/19)

Quests: Magical Journeys and Wayside Attractions
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/08/29/quests-magical-journeys-and-wayside-attractions

deadline for submissions:
December 24, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Coreopsis Journal Of Myth & Theatre
contact email:
coreopsisjournalofmyththeatre@gmail.com




Call for papers Spring 2020



Publication date: February 29, 2020



Query/Abstract Deadline: December 20th, 2019

Full paper due upon acceptance of abstract.



Announcements Deadline: February 1, 2020

Coreopsis Journal of Myth & Theatre

Theme:

Quests: Magical Journeys and Wayside Attractions



“The road goes ever, ever on…” JRR Tolkien.



Quests...an image that evokes enchanted woods, magical beasts, and knights with and without shining armour. The road into the unknown where a great treasure lies at the end. How many have traveled that road, whether in the waking world or in the realm of the heart? Were there pitfalls and wayside attractions?

The realm of mythopoetics and speculative fiction, popular dramas, and the ancient art of the story-song. From the ancient texts of Inanna, the wonder tales of the Mabinogion and Troyes’ Sainte Grail cycle, to Baum’s Land of Oz and Tolkien’s Hobbits, to the very modern American Gods, or McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld the tale of the quest and journeys into the realm of magic and wonder are part and parcel of the art of storytellers.

Whether we explore the realm of story, or use the idea of a quest or journey as a metaphor, or find ourselves walking into the unknown in the waking world, questing after an idea or an object in a laboratory or in the natural world, the image of seeking and finding -- or, not finding -- is a powerful one. In the Spring 2020 issue, we will explore the idea of questing and journeys into the unknown.

Paper topics to consider are:

• The Perilous Distraction - a phrase made famous by the late Joseph Campbell in describing Gawain’s stay in Maiden Castle where all of his needs were met and he never achieved the Grail …
• The Mask and the Mirror: the spiritual journey: metaphors, pilgrimages, rituals, and holy places 
• Pen, quill and microchip: the intellectual quest
• Mythopoetics: analysis of modern retellings and original works of fantasy and speculative fiction that explore journeys and quests
• Failed journeys and the lessons learned: gifts of unknown things
• Science and discovery - Surprise! -: When you were on one quest and discovered that it was something quite different that needed to be discovered
• Exploration: Journeys across oceans, time, and beyond the Earth
• Those who walked away: what does it mean to walk away? From ideas, narratives, beliefs, relationships, workplaces, cities, and countries. What was found? What was lost? 

Send queries and abstracts to: “Spring 2020”  coreopsisjournalofmyththeatre@gmail.com

Please read the submission guidelines before sending your paper or editorial, here: http://societyforritualarts.com/coreopsis/contact-us/

Published 2X yearly, by the Society for Ritual Arts. Peer reviewed. Never for profit.


Last updated August 30, 2019

CFP Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter?: Reflections on the State of Arthurian Studies Today (A Roundtable) (EXTENDED DEADLINE 10/7/19; NeMLA Boston 3/5/8/2020)

Call for Papers for Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter?: Reflections on the State of Arthurian Studies Today (A Roundtable)

51st Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

Boston Marriott Copley Place, in Boston, Massachusetts, from 5-8 March 2020

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Paper abstracts are due by 7 October 2019

Session organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

The Arthurian legend is now over a millennium and a half old and continues to inspire new creative works each year. However, texts with widespread distribution and/or lasting impact are rare. Consequently, the Matter of Britain now often seems very distant from our daily lives. The purpose of this session is to explore the reasons for this separation of the stories of Arthur from the popular consciousness.

In conceiving this session, we are interested in exploring the answers to several questions. First, why has the Matter of Britain—once an important part of what J. R. R. Tolkien has termed “the cauldron of story”—now become something that is sampled by few artists with the means to promote their work to the larger segment of the global population that once devoured such stories with enthusiasm? Continuing with this idea, do these works, when noticed, not receive acclaim simply because of their creators’ failure to overcome what Norris J. Lacy has termed the “tyranny of tradition” and produce something that is both recognizable and innovative, or has the legend truly become a niche brand, a fascination to a few cognoscenti but something totally off the radar of most individuals? Similarly, when versions of the legend are produced by individuals with the means to create something that transcends the financial and distributive restrictions that hold back other works (and that might thus have the potential to shape how the current generation perceives the Arthurian story), why do they so often not succeed? Have these creators also simply failed to negotiate the tyranny of tradition, or are audiences at large just not interested in Arthur and all that he represents anymore? Lastly, if the legend no longer appeals, what is the future of Arthurian Studies (and Arthurian scholars) in the remainder of the twenty-first century? Should we entrench ourselves and hope for the best, or can we fight for our field and the glory that was Camelot?

This session is a roundtable, in which 3-10 participants give brief, informal presentations (5-10 minutes) and the session is open to conversation and debate between participants and the audience.

The direct link for this session is https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18038. Please contact the organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

Abstract submissions must be made through NeMLA’s official site. Applicants will need to login or create an account at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login. Submissions must begin with a paper title of not more than 100 characters (including spaces) and adhering to the following: capitalize titles by MLA formatting rules unless the title is in a language other than English; do not use quotation marks in the session title or abstract title itself but please use only single quotation marks around titles of short stories, poems, and similar short works; italicize the titles of long works mentioned in the paper title; and do not place a period at the end of the title. Submissions should also include an academic biography (usually transferred from your NeMLA profile) and a paper abstract of not more than 300 words; be sure to italicize or use quotation marks around titles according to MLA guidelines.

Please be aware that NeMLA membership is not required to submit abstracts, but it is required to present at the convention. In addition, note that it is permissible to present on (1) a panel (or seminar) and (2) a roundtable or a creative session, but it is not permissible to present on a panel and a seminar (because both are paper-based), on two panels or two roundtables (because both would be the same type). Further information on these and other policies can be accessed at http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/callforpapers/submit.html.

Chairs will confirm the acceptance of abstracts before 15 October 2019. At that time, applicants must confirm the panel on which they wish to participate. Convention registration/membership for 2019-2020 must be paid by 1 December 2019.

CFP Afterlives of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (EXTENDED DEADLINE 10/7/19; NeMLA 3/5-8/2020)

Call for Papers for Afterlives of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

51st Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

Boston Marriott Copley Place, in Boston, Massachusetts, from 5-8 March 2020

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Paper abstracts are due by 7 October 2019

Session organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

Writer Mark Twain and illustrator Daniel Carter Beard’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) has had a long history of adaptation in popular culture, but the full scope of its reception remains untold. There are, of course, the obvious texts, both in print and on film, that merely retell the story. Of these, more work is needed on the illustrative tradition. Along with retellings, there are also a small number of works that continue Connecticut Yankee. These appear entirely unknown to Twainians but offer a unique approach to the author’s legacy. More importantly, Connecticut Yankee itself or its story as mediated through one of its many retellings has also stimulated new narratives detached from Twain and Beard’s telling that recast characters and restage events. Also relatively unknown by scholars of the novel, these materials can be found throughout modern popular culture, and, although Elizabeth S. Sklar somewhat derisibly labels these as “spinoffs and ripoffs” of the novel, they are of value (as she suggests) and perhaps more so than the retellings because such items serve as the base for an extensive corpus of transformations of the novel that send various protagonists, all characters more familiar to contemporary readers and viewers than Twain’s Hank Morgan, into the medieval past and set a common pattern for time travel stories.

In the end, this session will offer a broad view of adaptations of the Connecticut Yankee story to situate both retellings and the lesser known and/or hitherto unknown continuations and recastings into a new continuum to offer a more complete picture of the novel’s effect on popular culture and provide fresh insight into the various ways that the producers responsible for these re-imaginings have appropriated the story and its time-travel motif for their own purposes.

This session is a paper panel in traditional format, which will include 3-4 participants, reading a formal paper of 15-20 minutes (2500-3000 words) as set by the chair, followed by Q&A.

The direct link for this session is https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18029. Please contact the organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

Abstract submissions must be made through NeMLA’s official site. Applicants will need to login or create an account at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login. Submissions must begin with a paper title of not more than 100 characters (including spaces) and adhering to the following: capitalize titles by MLA formatting rules unless the title is in a language other than English; do not use quotation marks in the session title or abstract title itself but please use only single quotation marks around titles of short stories, poems, and similar short works; italicize the titles of long works mentioned in the paper title; and do not place a period at the end of the title. Submissions should also include an academic biography (usually transferred from your NeMLA profile) and a paper abstract of not more than 300 words; be sure to italicize or use quotation marks around titles according to MLA guidelines.

Please be aware that NeMLA membership is not required to submit abstracts, but it is required to present at the convention. In addition, note that it is permissible to present on (1) a panel (or seminar) and (2) a roundtable or a creative session, but it is not permissible to present on a panel and a seminar (because both are paper-based), on two panels or two roundtables (because both would be the same type). Further information on these and other policies can be accessed at http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/callforpapers/submit.html.

Chairs will confirm the acceptance of abstracts before 15 October 2019. At that time, applicants must confirm the panel on which they wish to participate. Convention registration/membership for 2019-2020 must be paid by 1 December 2019.