cfp.english.upenn.edu

Seeking essays (25-30 pages in length) for a proposed book entitled, PORTALS OF THE PAST: VERTIGO AND THE SPECIFICITIES OF PLACE. In short, this collection of essays will be concerned with explorations of the ways in which specific places in the San Francisco Bay Area (Fort Point, the Presidio, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, the Mission Dolores) and Monterey County (e.g., Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Point Lobos State Park, the Mission San Juan Bautista, etc.) inform readings/experiences/memories of Hitchcock's 1958 masterpiece, VERTIGO.

Topics/ideas to consider include (but are not limited to) the following:
- How do the histories of these places and the colonial histories of California in general inform our readings/experiences of the film?
- How do our cinephilic pilgrimages to these sites enrich/detract/supplement/complement our experiences with the film itself?
- To what degree do these sites exploit their affiliation with VERTIGO? How did they participate, if at all, in the commemoration of the film's 50th Anniversary in 2008?
- Does an influential cultural artifact like VERTIGO warrant greater interpretation/appreciation by the National Park System and the California State Parks system? What forms should such interpretations/appreciations take?
- What roles do landscape, monumentalism, and erased cultural histories play in the timeless appeal of VERTIGO?
- How does VERTIGO share in the legacies of cultural pilgrimages like those inspired by the California-specific works of John Steinbeck and Helen Hunt Jackson (author of RAMONA)?

Some recommended sources for inspiration:
- FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG: ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S SAN FRANCISCO, by Jeff Kraft and Aaron Leventhal (Santa Monica Press, 2002).
- "'It's All There, It's No Dream': VERTIGO and the Redemptive Pleasures of the Cinephilic Pilgrimage," by Douglas Cunningham, in SCREEN vol. 49, no. 2.
- RAMONA MEMORIES: TOURISM AND THE SHAPING OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, by Dydia DeLyser (U of MINN Press, 2005).
- SANS SOLEIL, a film by Chris Marker (Criterion Collection, 2007).

A 300-word abstract and short bio are due by July 31st, 2009 (but if interested, please indicate so with a short e-mail ASAP). Final manuscript due December 15th, 2009.

Contact: Douglas A. Cunningham, Ph.D., vertigodac@yahoo.com