cfp.english.upenn.edu

1st Global Conference
Villains and Villainy

Saturday 19th September - Monday 21st September 2009
Mansfield College, Oxford

Call for Papers
The hero may always get the bad guy but the bad guys always grab our attention first. Bad guys – both male and female – are almost always the more interesting characters in a tale, whether told via song, film, folk-tale, novel, theatre, myth, television (live action or animated), or urban legend. Villains can devise and implement or commit their acts of villainy either by their innate sheer genius or employing the dark arts of black magic.

This interdisciplinary research and publications project and conference will seek to uncover the historical origins of the ‘villain’, chart the changing meanings of ‘villain’ and ‘villainy’ across times and cultures, explore the characteristics of persons and actions labelled as villainous and assess the various incarnations of the villain in literature, film, media and cultures.

Papers that deal with any and all aspects of villains and their villainy are welcome.

1. The history of villains and villainy
2. Concepts and definitions of villains and villainy
3. Mythological villainy
4. Villains, antagonists and scoundrels
5. Devotion to cruelty and the love of the malicious
6. Villainous laughter
7. Incarnations of the villainous; this may involve the figures of:

* Anti-villain
* Archenemy
* Dark Lord
* Evil Twin
* Femme Fatal
* Mad Scientist
* Supervillain
* Tragic Villain
* Trickster (such as the character Loki in Norse myth or “Q” from *Star Trek: The Next Generation*)
* Henchman or Minion
* Evil Sidekick/Comic Relief/Comedic Villain
* Villain as Celebrity/Cause Célébres
* Menace and Vengeance
* The Unseen Villain
* Sympathetic Villains

Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes. Pre-formed panel proposals are also encouraged.

The 2009 meeting of Villains and Villainy will run alongside our project on Fear, Horror and Terror and we anticipate holding sessions in common between the two projects. We welcome any papers considering the problems or addressing issues of Villains, Villainy, Fear, Horror and Terror.

Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 17th April 2009. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 7th August 2009.

300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
author(s), affiliation, email address, title of abstract, body of abstract
E-mails 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
E-mail: snf@inter-disciplinary.net

Stephen Morris
Evil Hub Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net
New York, USA
E-mail: smmorris58@yahoo.com

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
E-mail: vav@inter-disciplinary.net

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.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

For further details about the project please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/villains-and-vil...

For further details about the conference please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/villains-and-vil...