Call for Papers
New Visits to Camelot: Reflecting on the Contemporary Matter of Britain on Screen (Roundtable)
Proposals no later than 29 June 2017
Session sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture
For inclusion under the Medieval & Renaissance Area at the 28th Annual Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 8-11 November 2017
Following the success of previous sessions at past meetings of the Popular Culture Association, past and present International Congresses on Medieval Studies, and last year’s meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association, the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture seeks proposals for a sponsored roundtable session on the topic of New Visits to Camelot: Reflecting on the Contemporary Matter of Britain on Screen for inclusion under the Medieval & Renaissance Area at the 28th Annual Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association to be held at the Pennsylvania Sonesta Philadelphia Downtown in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 8-11 November 2017.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Arthurian enthusiasts are great catalogers of the tradition, and scholars of the legend on screen have been especially devoted to their task, as attested by the filmographic work of Kevin J. Harty, Bert Olton, Michael N. Salda, and Michael A. Torregrossa and the wider-ranging catalogs by the bibliographing teams of Ann F. Howey and Stephen R. Reimer and of Daniel P. Nastali and Philip C. Boardman. However, the energies of these individuals remains largely limited to the last century, and, in the past seventeen years, the Matter of Britain has grown enormously on screen. The corpus has nearly doubled as the mediums of film, television, electronic games, and the Internet have presented fresh adventures of the familiar cast of characters from Camelot as well as granted Arthurian-themed escapades to new figures. Despite their popularity, this new Matter of Britain on Screen remains underexplored. Consequently, the purpose of this session is to investigate these recent representations of the legend and address their attempts at navigating what Norris J. Lacy has termed “the tyranny of tradition,” that “particular kind of filmic ‘anxiety of influence,’ whereby filmmakers must deal with two opposing impulses: on the one hand, the natural desire to innovate; on the other, the need to tell a story that corresponds at least in major respects to the audience’s understanding of orthodox Arthurian fact” (76). Succeed or fail in their efforts, these new Arthurian texts remain important artifacts in assessing the continued vitality of the millennium-and-half-old myth of Arthur and his world.
An ever-expanding list of potential works can be found at our website: https://MatterofBritainonScreen.blogspot.com/.
Please send abstracts of approximately 300 words, any audio-visual requests, and a brief biography narrative related to your scholarly career to the organizer, Michael A. Torregrossa, at MedievalStudiesonScreen@gmail.com, using “New Visits to Camelot” as your subject line.
All presenters must be or become members of Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association in order to participate. Upon acceptance of proposals, presenters must register with MAPACA and submit their information into their online system no later than 30 June 2017. Complete details will follow from the organizer.
