cfp.english.upenn.edu

Call for Papers
"Love and Commitment in the Fraternity/Sorority Film"
2010 Film & History Conference: Representations of Love in Film and Television
November 11-14, 2010
Hyatt Regency Milwaukee
www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory
Second Round Deadline: November 1, 2009

AREA: Love and Commitment in the Fraternity/Sorority Film

Fraternities and sororities vary in purpose and prestige, but most of them share formal systems of recruitment that echo or anticipate the "rushing" and "bidding" of love, with its social (and often sexual) enmeshments, its vagaries of "pledging" and "hazing," and its complex blending of personal and institutional histories. But what sort of love is this, and how do films depict it—or mistake it? Is it a romance? Is it a mock-epic? Why do fraternity or sorority films rely so often on comedy or horror? And how do the loyalty and love of one's "brothers" or "sisters" develop within either of these generic frameworks? How have fraternity/sorority films evolved over the last century of filmmaking? Or the last decade?

This area welcomes papers and panel proposals that consider films focusing on the many different forms of love within fraternities and sororities (or similar brotherhoods and sisterhoods). Possible topics:

• Homosocial bonding as proving ground for romantic relationships (Going Greek, American Pie Presents: Beta House)
• Repression and Aggression (Frat House, Higher Learning)
• Desperation and Validation (Old School, Accepted, Revenge of the Nerds, College)
• Sisterhood and Survival (Black Christmas, Sorority Row, Scream)
• The Masculine Sister or the Feminine Brother (King Frat, Revenge of the Nerds, The House Bunny)
• Love and sex in the co-ed fraternity/sorority (PCU, Sorority Boys)
• Romantic love as threat to the brotherhood/sisterhood (Friends "Til the End, Grease, Superbad)
• Initiation rituals as secondary/late sexual maturation (The House Bunny, Going Greek, The 40 Year-Old Virgin)
• No Women Allowed/The "Frat Pack" effect (Wedding Crashers, Old School, Step Brothers)

Please send your 200-word proposal by e-mail to the area chair:

Thomas Britt, Area Chair
Film and Video Studies
George Mason University
4400 University Drive MS 3E6
Fairfax, VA 22030
703-993-1992
Email: tbritt@gmu.edu (E-mail submissions preferred)

Panel proposals for up to four presenters are also welcome, but each presenter must submit his or her own paper proposal. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website (www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory).