CFP Queering Camelot: LGBTQIA+ Readings, Representations, and Retellings of Arthuriana (Spec Issue of Fantastika) (8/26/2022)

My thanks to the Open Graves, Open Minds site for the head's up on this:



Queering Camelot

Call for Papers: Queering Camelot: LGBTQIA+ Readings, Representations, and Retellings of Arthuriana

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Guest Editors: Rebecca Jones and Sebastian F. K. Svegaard

source: https://www.fantastikajournal.com/cfps
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A sequel to the Queering Fantastika issue, this is an open call for papers for a special issue of Fantastika Journal which will explore the queer side of Arthurian tales, adaptations, and fan-works including any and all media, whether directly adapting or only alluding to Camelot and Grail narratives. This issue will present a multivalent approach and is seeking both critical and critical practice-based research on this subject.



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Submissions can range from historic analyses of Medieval manuscripts up to and beyond analysis of fan-works published yesterday. This exploration seeks to acknowledge the ways in which Arthuriana has a legacy steeped in ideas of gender roles and relations; sexual encounters, taboos, and restraints; and the limitations that society and individuals place on themselves which break relationships and create toxic spaces. By exploring how adaptations, readings, games, and fan-works reframe these narratives and choose to explore more queer pairings (shipping in fanfiction) or the relationships already there (the polyamorous potential of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere and the swinger Lord and Lady of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) this special issue will open up new investigations of adaptation practice, fan responses and reframing, and present new readings of these old tales by allowing scholars and authors alike to take the chivalric and question how we engage with it today.

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We welcome work on any kind of Arthurian narrative with a queer background in theory and/or praxis. These could be, but are not limited to, Dark is Rising (1965-1977), Mists of Avalon (1982), Fables (2002-2015), BBC's Merlin (2008-2012), Once and Future (2019), Cursed (2020), The Green Knight (2021), or the tabletop role playing systems like Romance of the Perilous Lands (2019) and “The Lesbians in Avalon” setting for Advanced Lovers and Lesbians (2022). We are interested in all forms of media adaptation, allusion, and engagement. Subjects and ways of analysis may include, but are not limited to:

• Critical and queer readings of Arthurian adaptations (ex. lesbian Morgana in Cursed, the homoerotic tension in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
• Music and affect as queer and/or feminist influence in Arthurian adaptations
• The queerness of chivalry and the Arthurian body (ex. the Fisher King's body being bound to the land)
• Queering Camelot through casting
• Creative adaptations/retellings of Arthuriana
• Game worlds and player interactions in Arthuriana-inspired role playing, video games, and board games

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We are seeking articles and creative-critical works which should be between 5000-7000 words. All submissions must include a 100-word author biography and a 500 word abstract along with any required content warnings at the end if applicable (warnings are not included in word count).

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Creative-critical works should have a critical framework that informs its creative practice. This can either be critical discussion presented in a creative form following the tradition going back to Plato’s dialogues; or a creative piece that is accompanied by a critical reflective commentary (2000-4000 words). Submitted creative pieces must have a clear critical portion which contextualizes and highlights how the creative piece extends and responds to existing discourse on Queering Arthurian Legends. They should explore aspects of society, media and culture. For creative-critical abstracts, please explain the academic scope of the piece and how it relates to the theme of the journal. Feel free to email us if you have questions.

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The deadline for submission is 26 August 2022, but early submissions or expressions of interest are encouraged. Email us if you have any questions about critical-creative submissions. And please check https://www.fantastikajournal.com/submission-guidelines for further submissions guidelines, including information about copyright. Fantastika is an open access journal supported by a team of volunteers.

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The editors reserve the right to reject submissions that are not in keeping with the professional tones of Fantastika Journal or any which perpetuates a toxic environment. As well, we will not accept submissions arguing for the importance of studying Fantastika, and in the same vein we will not be accepting anything that argues for the importance of LGBTQIA+ representation and criticism. We take these arguments as a given and not open to debate. These ideas may of course be part of a larger and more nuanced analysis, but we do not accept submissions which have as its central aim arguing for its value.

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All submissions will be peer reviewed. As part of this process, we may request contributors also join in the anonymous peer review process by reviewing 1-2 submissions.

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Email all submissions to Rebecca Jones (she/they) and Sebastian Svegaard (he/him) at Queering.Camelot@gmail.com using the subject line ‘Queering Camelot Submission’. We invite you to include your preferred pronouns in your submission email and bionote.

CFP Arthurian Legend in the 20th & 21st Centuries (proposals 5/31/2018)

A third CFP for Arthuriana this month. Does this suggest a resurgence of interest in the Matter of Britain?

Call for chapter proposals in “Arthurian Legend in the 20th & 21st Centuries”
https://vernonpress.com/proposal/25/a95fc45a5abe0a5f037a6435acbbe029

Vernon Press invites chapter proposals on Arthurian Legend in the 20th & 21st Centuries. The volume will be edited by Susan Austin, Associate Professor of English at Landmark College in Putney, VT.



Nostalgia for an imagined and glorious past has influenced the evolution of stories about King Arthur and his court for centuries. According to the moods and needs of the period, new characters were added to demonstrate or question the excellence of these paragons, or to replace those who had perhaps become too human or simply gone out of style. New plot motifs, such as the search for the grail and Lancelot’s love for Guinevere became part of the legend.

The past hundred years has brought the legend of King Arthur to Broadway, television, comedy, and Disney; countless authors have appropriated or reimagined the legend and elements from it. How have films, television shows, games, comics, and books for all audiences and ages employed Arthurian characters, themes, motifs, and plots? How have these changes reflected shifting cultural attitudes and values? What do recent retellings and appropriations of Arthurian legend tell us about ourselves and the generations immediately preceding us? How have these changes reflected shifting cultural attitudes and values? What do we want and need from King Arthur and his court?

Possible contributions may include the following topics (non-comprehensive list, open to suggestions):

- How do references to and re-imaginings of Arthurian legend appear in literature, film, television and popular culture in general from 1960 onward?

- How have films, games, comics, and books for all ages employed Arthurian characters, themes, motifs, and plots?



Deadline for proposals: 31st May 2018

How to submit your proposal

Please submit one-page proposals including an annotated summary, a short biographical note and (if available) a list of similar titles.

For further questions or to submit your proposal, you can write to: SAustin@landmark.edu or carolina.sanchez@vernonpress.com

A paper that has been published previously may not be included.

About the publisher

Vernon Press is an independent publisher of scholarly books in the social sciences and humanities. Our mission is to serve the community of academic and professional scholars by providing a visible, quality platform for the dissemination of emergent ideas. We work closely with authors, academic associations, distributors and library information specialists to identify and develop high quality, high impact titles. For more information, visit www.vernonpress.com




Page last updated on March 12th 2018. All information correct at the time, but subject to change.

CFP Reading Arthur Today (9/3/2018)

Here is the second call:

 ‘Rex Quondam Rexque Futurus’: Reading Arthur Today
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/04/03/%E2%80%98rex-quondam-rexque-futurus%E2%80%99-reading-arthur-today

deadline for submissions: 

September 3, 2018

full name / name of organization: 

The Apollonian. A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

contact email: 

reading.arthur.today@gmail.com 

Rex Quondam Rexque Futurus’: Reading Arthur Today

Ana Rita Martins & Diana Marques

School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon | ULICES

In the work Travels in Hyperreality, Umberto Eco stated, “It seems people like the Middle Ages” (61). Considering the vast number of contemporary revisions on all aspects of medieval life, it seems Eco was right. From video games to films, novels to paintings, the medieval imaginary remains present in nearly every field of contemporary culture. In the academia, medievalism, “the study of responses to the Middle Ages at all periods since a sense of the mediaeval began to develop” (Shippey), is a growing field of study, which has spawned a number of publications over the last couple of years (D’Arcens 2016; Ashton 2015; Matthews 2015). Of the numerous characters, images and places retrieved or refashioned from the Middle Ages, King Arthur, “Rex Quondam Rexque Futurus” (Malory 689), stands today as he did in the medieval period as one of the weightiest figures.

As a point of fantasy identification where a group as large as a nation could locate itself (Cohen 69), Arthur is intrinsically linked to the British Isles. Yet, the stories around King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table have also been regarded as “[o]ne of the West’s few remaining master myths” and “capable of embodying almost any desire” (Haydock 165), which might explain why they have been revisited, reimagined, and remodelled over the last two centuries with unceasing interest. Arthur’s long reign still holds a strong pull over Western imagination and beyond, even in cases in which its retelling is not quite successful, as seems to have been the case of the most recent film adaptation Excalibur: The Legend of the Sword (Dir. Guy Richie, 2017).

For this special issue we are looking for new approaches to the Arthurian myth that consider how these stories have been refashioned through different forms and media to suit modern and post-modern society. We are especially interested in readings that take into account non-conventional approaches (such as queer, gender, racial, monster studies, etc.) and themes/voices thus far considered marginal. We seek papers and original critical articles that address these concerns from a variety of perspectives. Themes may include, but are not limited to:

• Arthurian heroism today;
  
• Arthur on screen (film, video-games, television);
  
• Contemporary Arthur;
  
• Emotions: Medieval and/versus Modern;
  
• Influence of Arthurian myth on contemporary medieval fantasy;
  
• Medieval characters, modern concerns;
  
• Medievalism and neomedievalism in Arthurian studies;
  
• New versions of Excalibur;
  
• The Arthurian myth beyond Britain;
  
• Voices at (and from) the edge.
  

Papers of up to 8000 words using MLA referencing style, accompanied by an abstract within 300 words, must be submitted to the following email address reading.arthur.today@gmail.com by SEPTEMBER 3, 2018.

Works cited
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. Of Giants. Sex, Monsters and the Middle Ages. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1999.
Eco, Umberto. Travels in Hyperreality. Trans. William Weaver. San Diego: Harvest, 1986.
Haydock, Nickolas. Movie Medievalism. The Imaginary Middle Ages. Jefferson and London: McFarland & Company, 2008.
Malory, Thomas. Le Morte D’Arthur. Ed. Stephen H.A. Shepherd. New York and London: A Norton Critical Edition, 2004.
Shippey, Tom. The International Society for the Study of Medievalism. http://www.medievalism.net. Accessed Feb.15, 2017.

Last updated April 3, 2018

CFP Arthurian Literature Volume 35 (5/4/2018)

I hadn't planned on updating the blog tonight but came across two calls for papers of definite interest. Here is the first.

Arthurian Literature Volume 35
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/03/26/arthurian-literature-volume-35
 

deadline for submissions: 

May 4, 2018

full name / name of organization: 

Arthurian Literature, Boydell & Brewer

contact email: 

a.e.dow@durham.ac.uk

 

The editors of Arthurian Literature invite submissions for Volume 35 (2019).
Arthurian Literature is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal published annually by Boydell & Brewer. Previous editors include Richard Barber, James P. Carley, Felicity Riddy, Roger Dalrymple and Keith Busby. The current editors are Elizabeth Archibald and David Johnson. For further information on the journal, please see:
https://boydellandbrewer.com/series/arthurian-literature.html

Articles relating to any area of Arthurian studies are welcome. Arthurian Literature specialises in publishing articles on literary, historical and art historical topics relating to the medieval textual sources of the Arthurian legend, but has a broad scope and has also published articles on music, heraldic emblems and photographic illustrations. The primary focus of the journal is medieval and early modern, but articles on Arthurian reception are also welcome. High quality, scholarly studies on the medieval sources of the Arthurian legend or their afterlives are invited to be considered for the current volume.

Articles may be up to 20,000 words in length. The journal also publishes new editions of medieval texts; and scholarly pieces under 5,000 words, which are considered as notes.
There is no strict deadline for submissions, but articles should be submitted by 4 May 2018 in order to be considered for inclusion in the current volume. Please send your submission to all three of the following email addresses: e.f.archibald@durham.ac.uk, djohnson@fsu.edu, a.e.dow@durham.ac.uk

 Last updated March 27, 2018