The Velvet Light Trap Issue #85

Title: Bad Objects 

The Contingent Dynamics of Political Humor

Political humor has long been implicated in both the juridical settings of government and its policymaking and the everyday lived possibilities constrained by social institutions and expectations. This is perhaps especially true today.  In contemporary societies around the world, political humor abounds in a great diversity of media. Politicians and parties use humor to advance their interests and agendas.  Individuals and social movements use humor to express their needs and causes.

This special issue of NANO will explore the significance of the recently released third season of the seminal television show, Twin Peaks. Controversial from the outset and divisive to fans and critics alike, the new Twin Peaks (2017) is emerging as perhaps even more radical and important than the original series (1990-1991). The original Twin Peaks is often considered the first cult television show that spawned intensive fan followings in the emergent world of the web, and the immense catalogue of paratexts and influences the series has inspired since has never been fully tabulated. As a central work of American surrealism, a universe of oddities continues to find Twin Peaks’s orbit.

Dear Colleagues,

Dr. Sarah Richards

Guest Editor

The intersection of childhood with multiple social and political institutions can provide insight into how childhood and children have historically been positioned and how such genealogical positioning continues to inform childhood and the lives of children today. We seek papers that highlight changed and changing ideas about children and childhood not only within formal and informal institutions where childhood is situated such as school and the family, but also in relation to certain themes such as technology, sexuality, migration and war.

The aim of the conference is to create a forum for the exchange of experience, to present research findings, and for discussion relating to widely conceived linguistic and cultural issues on local and global levels. Our invitation is especially directed towards modern language specialists, who are particularly concerned with the above-mentioned issues. Due to the wide scope of the conference, we will also be enthusiastically welcoming to our college representatives of other related academic disciplines.  Languages of the conference: English, German, French, Polish (possibly others, depending on the organized panel in a given language).

Call for Papers
Adaptation: Literature, Film, and Culture Area

Southwest Popular/American Culture Association 40th Annual Conference

February 20-23, 2019
Hyatt Regency Hotel & Conference Center
Albuquerque, New Mexico
http://southwestpca.org/

Journal of European Popular Culture (JEPC)

Intellect Publishers

Call for papers

This peer-reviewed journal seeks lively submissions for its latest issue on any aspect of European cultural and creative activity.

- Early submission is strongly encouraged -

The journal is interested in contemporary practices, but also in historical, contextual, biographical or theoretical analyses relating to past cultural activities in Europe.

Papers or exploratory critical or creative pieces relating to European media, literature and the writing arts, film, music, new media, art and design, architecture, drama and dance or fine art are all very welcome.

CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS IN HORROR STUDIES 

Series editor: Dawn Keetley

 Lehigh University Press is introducing a new series, Critical Conversations in Horror Studies, edited by Dawn Keetley, Professor of English at Lehigh University. We are seeking manuscripts in all areas of horror studies, broadly defined.

Apollon intends to publish superior examples of undergraduate humanities research from a variety of disciplines as well as intellectual approaches.

The “quality” and “post-quality” television moments of the early twenty-first century have resulted in a number of television shows that engage with gender in interesting ways, some advancing critiques of feminism or post-feminism (UnReal, The Handmaid’s Tale), others offering new ways of thinking about genderqueer and transitioning individuals (Transparent, RuPaul’s Drag Race), and still others thinking about gender at the intersections of race, education, and socioeconomic status (Insecure, Atlanta).

This session of the Comparative Drama Conference explores the ways in which this year’s conference locale—Orlando, Florida—crosses paths with the culture of medieval and early modern drama. Included among Central Florida’s most notable and popular theatrical productions are theme park stage adaptations of animated films and cinematic blockbusters (think Finding Nemo-The Musical etc.). How do medieval and early modern dramatic works similarly appropriate, convert and dramatize other types of scripted or choreographed performances (oral legends; religious rituals and practices; courtroom dramas; political spectacles etc.) —and to what practical and ideological ends?

We invite abstracts for chapters that explore protest and resistance in relation to Brexit Britain and the Trump-era United States. We are interested in media created in response to these seismic periods of political change, media created in the period leading up to them, and media that more broadly deals with themes related to populism, politics, and power. As well as discussing media that can be seen as protest or resistance, this collection will consider media forms that fail to resist, or those that merely hint at protest. In doing this we can also consider the responsibility of media creators to engage in and respond to political shifts and crises.

LGBTQ Comics Reader: Critical Challenges, Future Directions

CFP: LGBTQ Comics Studies Reader (University of Mississippi Press)

Call for Papers

Poetry & Poetics (Critical)

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

40th Annual Conference, February 20-23, 2019

Hyatt Regency Hotel & Conference Center

Albuquerque, New Mexico

http://www.southwestpca.org

Proposal submission deadline: November 1, 2018