CFP: Werner Herzog’s Life as a Film Director: A Multidisciplinary Collection Proposals due October 1, 2025
CFP: Werner Herzog’s Life as a Film Director: A Multidisciplinary Collection
Proposals due October 1, 2025
OVERVIEW:
Werner Herzog (b. 1942) has long been a keen and powerful observer of life on this planet. Now in his 80s, he is still going strong as an acclaimed director, writer, and producer of dramas, documentaries, and the stage; he is a social and historical commentator, an actor (he recently played The Client in The Mandalorian, 2019), and a memoir writer (Every Man for Himself and God against All, 2023). As anyone interested in this CFP will know, Herzog is a titanic cultural force unto himself, and has been for decades now, having overlapping semi-popular and arthouse/cult-style careers. Through his endlessly curious and skeptical eye, he has touched, and touched on, myriad aspects of both our rapidly changing society and the history of how we got here.
For our CFP, then, rather than producing a long but ultimately limited list of possible topics, we’re casting a wide, multidisciplinary net (cultural studies, film studies, gender, philosophy, literary studies, etc.) on his life as a film director, from his fiction to his documentaries. While Herzog is much too prolific for this book to systematically cover each and every one of his directed films, we do hope to have essays that span his directorial oeuvre in its myriad forms.
Please note: do not send us a proposal on Stroszek (1977), as we, the editors, will be co-writing an essay on this film for the collection.
All essays should be in English, with translations of German (or other) quotes, as needed.
We hope to include our proposed collection in Bloomsbury’s excellent and growing “Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Directors” series (https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/series/critical-perspectives-on-contemporary-directors/). As such, we suggest that you consider some of the entries in this series before sending us your proposal, for doing so will provide you with a better idea of the kind of book we hope to publish.
In short, you may consider any part of Herzog’s extensive directorial career for your essay. We are seeking essays which, as a whole, will offer a breadth of coverage for his entire career as a director, even as each essay is a focused, erudite, interesting argument written about either a particular film or a theme found within and across his work. All essays should be written for an academic audience and should be between 6,000 and 7,000 words.
If interested, we would like to hear from you. Submission details below.
ABOUT US:
We are experienced academic writers and editors, and have co-edited multiple collections, including:
Significant Food: Critical Readings to Nourish American Literature,
https://www.ugapress.org/9780820366715/significant-food/;
American Writers in Exile,https://www.salempress.com/critical_insights_writers_exile;
Social Justice and American Literature, https://www.salempress.com/critical_insights_social_justice_american_lit;
European Writers in Exile,
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498560245/European-Writers-in-Exile;
and, Connections and Influence in the Russian and American Short Story,
To contribute to this volume, please submit a 350-500 word abstract and a CV (abbreviated is fine) by October 1, 2025. Email MS Word documents to both of us (Jeff Birkenstein jeff.birkenstein@centralia.edu & Robert Hauhart rhauhart@stmartin.edu). Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions you might have in advance of the deadline. We thank you for your interesting ideas and look forward to hearing from you.
You will receive prompt confirmation of receipt.
Jeff Birkenstein (Centralia College) & Robert Hauhart (Saint Martin’s University)