CALL FOR PAPERS
CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT: The Vampire Across Popular Culture
INTERNATIONAL VAMPIRE FILM AND ARTS FESTIVAL
Transylvania, Romania May 25-28, 2017
http://www.ivfaf.com
The second annual International Vampire Film and Arts Festival will take place in Sighisoara in Transylvania, Romania, on May 25th ‐ 28th 2017.
[UPDATE: All paper presentations have been chosen for the academic symposium. For a list of selections see my event page for the IVFAF.]
Theme: CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT:
The Vampire Across Popular Culture
Curating University: SETON HILL UNIVERSITY
Keynote Speaker: JEFFREY WEINSTOCK (The Vampire Film: Undead Cinema, 2012)
This call for papers is for scholars interested in presenting their work in the academic symposium that runs alongside the Festival (in association with Seton Hill University). Two other academic themes are being solicited, as well: Kutztown University will host a day on (En)Gendering the Vampire, and Emerson College is running a theme on The Vampire on Screen: Life Death and Immortality. You can read their calls for papers at the IVFAF website. The following description is from Seton Hill University’s theme on “The Vampire Across Popular Culture”:
From horrific monsters to romantic heroes, on cereal boxes and in video games, the vampire is a figure that appears everywhere in popular culture today. What makes the vampire so appealing across so many media, and so many genres? How are creative writers and filmmakers employing the figure within popular genres, and how does it effect our conception of those genres? What accounts for this Gothic character’s undying popular appeal, even in today’s postmodern, digital, commercialized world? How does vampirism circulate within and comment upon mass culture?
This session invites papers in genre theory, transmedia, adaptation, folklore, the transformative arts and other areas of film, literary and cultural studies in order to explore the various appearances of vampires in pop culture, and to unfold the significance of this eternally vibrant character in diverse texts worldwide. Papers would be selected to broadly represent different examples, emphasizing the cultural significance of the vampire.
Proposals for single 20‐minute papers or pre‐constituted panels (of 3 x 20‐minute papers) on the conference theme are now welcomed from scholars. Possible topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Remakes and Remixes of Stoker’s Dracula or other conventional vampire texts
- The Impact of Popular Culture or Non‐Gothic Genres on Dracula, Varney, Carmilla and Other Classic Vampire Texts
- Vampire Fiction as Subgenre
- The Vampire Outside of Gothic/Horror Film and Literature
- Vampire Comedies
- Vampire Romances
- Urban Fantasy or other Genre Hybrids
- The Vampire in Young Adult literature
- The Vampire’s Role in Genre Evolution
- The Vampire as Metaphor in Journalism and New Media
- The Lessons of Failed Vampire Films/Books
- Unconventional Vampires as Signs of Cultural Change
- The Popular Vampire in the Literary Mainstream
- The Evolution of Sex and Religion in Vampire Literature
- The Influence of Cinema on Literary Vampires (and vice‐versa)
- Vampiric Tropes in Social Networking, Internet Memes and New Media Culture
- Popular Vampire Fiction/Film in the Non‐Western World
- Pedagogical Applications of Popular Vampire Texts
- Vampire Literature and Film for Young Readers vs. Adults
- Gender and the vampire and/or the vampire hunter
- Vampires and the depiction of alternative sexualities
- Women and the Vamp
- Other Cultural Studies Applications of the Vampire Icon
This conference theme is curated by Dr. Michael Arnzen and Dr. Nicole Peeler, sponsored by the MFA in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University. http://fiction.setonhill.edu/
Submit abstracts (500 words maximum) via email only to arnzen@setonhill.edu no later than February 1st, 2017. If submitting a full panel proposal, include all three proposals along with a summary (50 words maximum) of the panel’s central topic written by the moderator. Accepted submitters must confirm commitment to attend and present their own original work at the conference in Transylvania.
The three day Academic Conference will be staged within the historic citadel of Sighisoara, birthplace of Vlad Dracula. For information on conference registration and location, visit www.ivfaf.com
