ReFocus: The International Directors Series: David Cronenberg

Edinburgh University Press

Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg is widely regarded as one of the finest proprietors of the body-horror genre. Cronenberg’s filmography traverses the realm of the corporeal beyond its bare form, testing the limits of what a body can do. His films explore the intricate relations between the market, science, and desire. Cronenberg also examines disease and illness, situating their grotesque ramifications in the soma and the psyche, while many other later film narratives diverge from Cronenberg’s earlier focus on body horror to exhibit a wide spectrum of directorial capabilities.

We are seeking chapters of approximately 6000-8000 words for a scholarly anthology on the films of David Cronenberg. We are proposing a volume that examines the range of Cronenberg’s films from an open-ended methodological approach. This volume will focus on Cronenberg’s cinematic art and philosophy, evident in various critical and cultural engagements located in his full-length films, short films and television productions. We propose to explore the development of his craft over the duration of his career, from Shivers (1975) to The Shrouds (2024).

ReFocus: The Films of David Cronenberg is to be published by Edinburgh University Press in the ReFocus series on international directors. Series editors are Robert Singer, Gary D. Rhodes, and Stefanie Van de Peer. The proposed volume will serve as an exhaustive resource-book for critical and theoretical study of Cronenberg’s films and will appeal to students of cinema, film studies, interdisciplinary humanities, as well as aficionados of his films. We are looking for chapters on the following topics:

- Cronenberg’s Film-Philosophy: Materiality, Identity, Style, Gender
- The Cinematic Grotesque/Obscure/Surreal/Absurd
- Psychoanalysis, Biology (Evolution/Anatomy/Physiology)
- Memory and Trauma, Desire
- Politics, Dystopia, Society, Religion, Environment
- Your suggestions

We already have entries on the following: Crimes of the Future, Crash, The Shrouds, The Fly, Spider, Dead Ringers, Videodrome, Rabid.

We anticipate chapters that may consider some of the following films: A History of Violence, A Dangerous Method, Eastern Promises, Scanners, The Brood, M. Butterfly, eXistenZ, and The Dead Zone.

Please send your 250-500 word proposal and CV to Subashish Bhattacharjee and Anik Sarkar: davidcronenberghorror@gmail.com by April 20, 2025.
After the acceptance of the initial proposal, the final submissions should be between 6000 to 8000 words, in English, referenced in the Press’ preferred formatting style.