cfp.english.upenn.edu

He’s the Silent Type: Modern Masculinity in Silent Film
Special Session Proposal for MLA 2011, Los Angeles

This panel will investigate how silent film redefined, codified, and explored masculinity for modern audiences. With stars like Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle and others, masculinity emerges in the teens and 1920s as performative and thus was marked by an endless variety of masculine types. What did it mean to be a modern man? How did a man look and act modern? Papers can focus on a specific star, a star in a series of films, or on a film (or films) that feature a particular masculine type. American-made films are preferred, though the male stars do not have to be American-born. Examinations of race, sexuality, or other forms of “hidden” or “resistant” identities are encouraged.

Interested panelists should submit a 250 word abstract and a recent CV via E-mail by March 15, 2010 to Sharon Becker at sharon_becker@redlands.edu. Queries welcome. Those interested in acting as a respondent for the panel are encouraged to contact the organizer of this panel as well.

All panelists chosen for participation must be members of the Modern Language Association by April 7, 2010.