International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

Paradoxa is seeking submissions of previously unpublished essays on subjects related to

AFRICAN SCIENCE FICTION

In 2010, Pumzi, the first Kenyan sf movie, won the best short film award at the Cannes Independent Film Festival, and the South African co-production District 9 was nominated for multiple Oscars. In 2011, Nigerian-American Nnedi Okorafor became the first author of African extraction to win the World Fantasy Award, with Who Fears Death, and South African Lauren Beukes became the first person from Africa to win the Arthur C. Clarke Award, with Zoo City.

Recent journal issues (African Identities 7.2, Science Fiction Studies 102, Social Text 20.2), edited collections (Barr’s Afro-Future Females) and monographs (Lavender’s Race in American Science Fiction, Nama’s Black Space and Super Black) have been devoted to afrofuturism, African-American sf and African Americans in sf. In addition, there have been numerous publications on the relationships among sf, imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism, globalization and Empire (cf. Science Fiction Studies 118, Hoagland/Sarwal’s Science Fiction, Imperialism and the Third World, Kerslake’s Science Fiction and Empire, Langer’s Postcolonialism and Science Fiction, Raja/Ellis/Nandi’s The Postnational Fantasy, Rieder’s Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction).

Yet sf from Africa, and the Africa(s) in sf, remain relatively unexplored. In order to address this lacuna, the “Africa SF” issue of Paradoxa is interested in essays that address:

1. Critical work on sf by Africans, including such novels as Mohammed Dib’s Who Remembers the Sea (1962), Sony Labou Tansi’s Life and a Half (1977), Kojo Laing’s Woman of the Aeroplanes (1988), Major Gentl and the Achimota Wars (1992) and Big Bishop Roko and the Altar Gangsters (2006), Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow (2006), Lauren Beukes’ Moxyland (2008) and Zoo City (2010), and Ahmed Khaled Towfik’s Utopia (2008), and such films as Sankofa (Gerima 1993), Les Saignantes (Bekolo 2005), Africa Paradis (Amoussou 2006), District 9 (Blomkamp 2009), Pumzi (Kahiu 2009), and Kajola (Akinmolayan 2010). Can such novels as Ousmane Sembene’s The Last of the Empire (1981) and Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come to You By Chance (2009) be productively read as sf? Is there African sf produced in other media?

2. Critical work on Afrodiasporic authors, filmmakers, musicians and artists, especially as they address Africa, imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism, globalization, Empire, and/or diaspora, such as Steven Barnes, Octavia Butler, Copperwire, Samuel R. Delany, Tananarive Due, Minister Faust, Andrea Hairston, Pauline Hopkins, Nalo Hopkinson, T. Shirby Hodge, Anthony Joseph, LaBelle, Nnedi Okorafor, Outkast, Parliament-Funkadelic, Charles Saunders, George S Schuyler, Nishi Shawl, Sun Ra, and John A. Williams.

3. Critical work on the representation of Africa in sf by non-African authors, such as JG Ballard, VF Calverton, George Alec Effinger, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Theodor Hertzka, Julian Huxley, AM Lightner, Ian MacDonald, Mike Resnick, Mack Reynolds, Jules Verne, as well as in comics (e.g., Marvel’s Black Panther, the British-authored Nigerian Powerman) and other media.

Prospective contributors may contact the guest editor with questions about a particular topic’s appropriateness. Double-spaced submissions should be between 6,000 and 10,000 words in length, not including “Works Cited,” and prepared in accordance with MLA style. Please forward manuscripts as MS Word attachments. Within the email itself include name, affiliation, 250-word abstract, and any other relevant information. Submissions should be directed to Paradoxa’s guest editor, Mark Bould at mark.bould@gmail.com by March 1, 2013. For more information about Paradoxa see www.paradoxa.com.

CFP: Tales After Tolkien: Medievalism and Twenty-First Century Fantasy Literature Panel at the International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo. May 9-12, 2013 http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/

For a work of contemporary fantasy literature to be compared with those of J. R. R. Tolkien can be either compliment or condemnation; the juxtaposition might suggest a major, original contribution to the genre or imply a work is merely derivative. Yet if Tolkien had one of the first words on fantasy and medievalism he did not have the last.

Author Steven Erikson recently described himself and other writers of epic fantasy as “post-Tolkien” in The New York Review of Science Fiction and lamented the tendency of some scholars to not realise that “we’ve moved on.” This panel seeks papers which explore the ways in which twenty-first century fantasy literature deploys ‘the medieval’ with all its relics, forms and incarnations. Papers may or may not directly contrast and compare with Tolkien’s practice. The panel asks, for example, how contemporary trends in technology, society, politics, and culture intersect with and influence contemporary writers, readers, and critics in their re-imaginings of medieval material. Are there shifts in the genre as a whole? Tolkien drew largely on the European Middle Ages as do his imitators; is this changing as Eurocentric views become increasingly problematic and the world is ever more globalised? How do technological developments and the explosion of multi-media fantasy products including film, television and video-gaming engage with literature? How do representations of race, gender, and class intersect with medievalism in contemporary fantasy? Is the idea of an ‘authentic’ Middle Ages important? How do writers research the past and approach their sources? Papers which address these or any other topic related to the theme of the panel are invited. They might address short stories, novels, comics and graphic novels, series, authors and/or their oeuvres, or the genre as a whole, as well as adaptations for or from film, tv, gaming, and fandoms including fan-fiction.

Please send a 250-300 word abstract for a 20 minute paper, and a brief biography, to the organizer, Dr Helen Young by 1st September 2012.

Abstracts are best emailed to Helen.young@sydney.edu.au but may also be posted to Helen Young, John Woolley Building A20, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

You are invited to submit a research paper for possible inclusion in an anthology of critical essays on YA fantasy, paranormal, and dystopian literature. YA literature has a significant influence on today’s teens; yet, only recently have critics begun to view it as more than a passing trend. This book aims to provide a better understanding of the appeal of YA fantasy, paranormal, and dystopian literature and offers a chance to present a critical review of contemporary YA literature thought the application of literary theory. You will need to indicate your intention to submit your full paper by email to the editor with the title of the paper, authors, and abstract. The full manuscript, as PDF file, should be emailed to the editor by the deadline indicated below. Authoring guidelines will be mailed to you after we receive your letter of intent. Please feel free to contact the editor, Symantha Reagor, if you have any questions/concerns.

Theme: YA fantasy, paranormal, and dystopian literature

IMPORTANT DATES:
Intent to Submit: August 1, 2012
Abstract: October 1, 2012
Full Version: February 1, 2013
Decision Date: April 1, 2013
Final Version: August 1, 2013

Editor: Symantha Reagor email: sy.reagor@gmail.com

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts Announces its 7th annual Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for a critical essay on the fantastic written in a language other than English. The IAFA defines the fantastic to include science fiction, folklore, and related genres in literature, drama, film, art and graphic design, and related disciplines. Essays should be of high scholarly quality, as for publication in an academic journal. For more information on the award and on past winners, please see http://fantastic-arts.org/awards/jamie-bishop-memorial-award/ (please note the updated submission criteria, below).

Submission criteria:

• We consider essays from 3,000-10,000 words in length (including notes and bibliography).
• Essays may be unpublished scholarship submitted by the author, or already published work nominated either by the author or another scholar (in which case the author’s permission should be obtained before submission).
• Essays must have been written and (when applicable) published in the original language within the last three years prior to submission.
• An abstract in English must accompany all submissions; an English translation of the title of the essay should also be included.
• Only one essay per person may be submitted each year.
• Submissions must be made electronically in Word or RTF format.

Deadline for submissions: September 1st

Prize: $250 U.S. and one year’s free membership in the IAFA to be awarded at the annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts held each March. Winning essays may be posted on the IAFA website in the original language and/or considered for publication in the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts (http://www.fantastic-arts.org/jfa/) should they be translated into English.

Please direct all inquiries and submissions to:
Rachel Haywood Ferreira
Department of World Languages and Cultures
3102 Pearson Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011 USA
Email: rachelhf@iastate.edu

• Mainstream Hollywood vs. Global SF Cinema
• SF Comics and Manga
• SF Anime and Animation
• SF on the Internet and the World Wide Web
• Multimedia “dispersed” SF narratives
• Fandom, Cosplay, Mashups, and Remixing
• Broadcast and Cable SF Television
• SF Videogames
• World’s Fairs, Theme Parks, and other “Material” SF Media
• Short-form SF film
• Afrofuturism
• SF and/in Music
• SF Idiom and Imagery in Advertising
• Webisodes and TV Games
• SF Art and Illustration

The conference will also feature the fourth Science Fiction Studies Symposium on the topic of “SF Media(tions),” with speakers Mark Bould, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., and Vivian Sobchack. Keynote speakers and special guests will be announced as they are confirmed; see the conference website at <http://eaton.ucr.edu> for periodic updates.

Conference sessions will be held at the newly remodeled and centrally located Riverside Marriott Hotel, with rooms at a reduced conference rate ($109). For more about the hotel, see their website at <http://www.marriott.com/hotels/ hotel-information/travel/ralmc-riverside-marriott>. A block of rooms will also be available at a discount ($139) at the historic Mission Inn Hotel and Spa two blocks from the Marriott: <http://missioninn.com>. Rooms in both hotels are limited and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Abstracts of 500 words (for papers of 20-minutes in length) should be submitted by September 14, 2012. We also welcome panel proposals gathering three papers on a cohesive topic. Send electronic submissions to conference co-chair Melissa Conway at <Melissa.Conway@ucr.edu> with the subject heading: EATON/SFRA CONFERENCE PROPOSAL. Please include a brief bio with your abstract and indicate whether your presentation would require A/V. Participants will be informed by December 1 if their proposals have been accepted.

Gothic Technologies/Gothic Techniques

Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association, 2013 August 5 – 8, 2013: University of Surrey, United Kingdom

Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Professor Roger Luckhurst (Birkbeck College, University of London), Professor Fred Botting (Kingston University), other Keynotes TBA

Recent Gothic studies have foregrounded a plethora of technologies associated with Gothic literary and cultural production. Its presence is witnessed in how techno-science has contributed to the proliferation of the Gothic: the publishing and print culture disseminating Gothic texts, eighteenth-century architectural innovations, the on-line gaming and virtual Goth communities, the special effects of Gothic-horror cinema.

One question raised by these new developments concerns the extent to which they generate new Gothic techniques. How does technology generate a new Gothic aesthetic? We are particularly interested in addressing how Gothic technologies have, in a general sense, produced and perpetuated ideologies and influenced the politics of cultural practice. However, we also want to reconsider the whole idea of what we mean by a Gothic ‘technique’ which arguably underpins these new formations of the Gothic. To that end we invite papers that question not only what we might constitute a Gothic aesthetic from the eighteenth century to the present day, but how that is witnessed in various forms such as the Female Gothic, models of the sublime, sensation fiction, cyberpunk as well as the various non-text based media that the Gothic has infiltrated. We also invite proposals which address how various critical theories help us to evaluate either these new technological trends or critically transform our understanding of the intellectual space occupied by earlier Gothic forms. Papers which explore the place of science, writing, and the subject are thus very welcome.

We thus seek to explore how Gothic technologies/Gothic techniques textualize identities and construct communities within a complex network of power relations in local, national, transnational and global contexts.

Papers exploring any aspect of Gothic technologies/Gothic techniques in writing, film and other media are welcome. Topics could include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Gothic Architecture and Technology
• Printing, Publishing and Gothic Disseminations
• Terror, Terrorism, Technology
• The techniques of philosophy – the sublime
• Colonizing Technology and Postcolonial Gothics
• Technology of Monsters
• Gothic Art
• Enlightenment Gothic and Science
• War, Violence, Technology
• (Neo)Victorian Gothic
• Gothic poetry
• Gothic Bodies: Modifications, Mutations, Transformations
• Weird Science, Mad Scientists
• Staging the Gothic
• B-movies, Laughter and Comic Gothic
• Demonic Technologies / Demonizing Technology
• Theorising the Gothic
• Gothic Geography – mapping the Gothic
• Cloning, Duplicating, Doubling
• Hybrids, Cyborgs and Transgression
• Digital Gothics and Uncanny Media

Abstracts (350 words max.) for 20 minute papers may be submitted to IGA2013@surrey.ac.uk<mailto:IGA2013@surrey.ac.uk> . The submission deadline is February 1, 2013. We also welcome submissions for panels (consisting of three papers) that address specific topics.