Call for Chapters - ReFocus: The Films of Guy Ritchie
deadline for submissions:
September 30, 2024
full name / name of organization:
University of Edinburgh: ReFocus series
contact email:
refocusguyritchie@gmail.comsource:
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/06/14/call-for-chapters-refocus-the-films-of-guy-ritchieCall for Chapters - ReFocus: The Films of Guy Ritchie
Deadline for submissions:
September 30th 2024
Editors
Dr Pete Turner (Oxford Brookes University) and James Shelton (Buckinghamshire New University)
Contact Email
refocusguyritchie@gmail.comCall for Chapters - ReFocus: The Films of Guy Ritchie
The career of Guy Ritchie encompasses an eclectic selection of films across a number of genres. His most noted work is in the arena of the gangster film, spanning from 1995’s The Hard Case to 2019’s The Gentleman, and evidences a journey from genre-defining texts (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, 1998), through critical disappointments (Revolver, 2005)attempted returns to form (RockNRolla, 2008) and recent more successful reinventions of the British Gangster paradigm (The Gentlemen, 2019 and TV series, 2024).
Alongside this thread Ritchie has had successful forays into larger-budget studio films, including the Sherlock Holmes franchise and working for Disney on 2019’s live-action remake of Aladdin. Less critically successful studio films have also come out of this – 2015’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E and 2017’s King Arthur: The Legend of the Sword stand out as examples – and yet Ritchie has not revisited the critical dismantling received by 2002’s Swept Away. More recently forays into action films have become Ritchie’s standard output, including Wrath of Man (2021), Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023) and recently The Ministry for Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024).
This volume will be the first comprehensive study on Guy Richie’s work, and in the manner of previous ReFocus collections seeks to contextualise, problematise and theorise the entire canon of Ritchie’s films. Proposals are welcomed from a variety of theoretical, historical and methodological approaches. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- The specific contributions by Ritchie to genre film
- The cultural impact of his films
- Themes that are evidenced in his films, particularly in reference to their engagement – or potential lack thereof – with gender and race perspectives
- British identity in Ritchie’s films
- Stylistic trademarks and directorial techniques
- Representations of masculinity – including problematic, toxic or other forms of masculinity being represented
- Crime and underworld narratives, including Intertextuality and Inspired Works
- Collaborations with crew and actors
- Cultural influences and references
- Ritchie’s engagement with mainstream studio films and big budget productions, including Disney
- Suggestions for other topics are also welcomed as part of this call.
We are currently soliciting abstracts of approximately 350 words for essays to be included in a book-length anthology to be published in 2025. The Films of Guy Ritchie will be a scholarly volume published in the University of Edinburgh’s ReFocus series, examining European and International directors. ReFocus features a series of contemporary methodological and theoretical approaches to the interdisciplinary analyses and interpretations of the work of these international directors. The series editors are Robert Singer, Gary D Rhodes and Stefanie Van de Peer.
Essays accepted and included in the refereed anthology should be approximately 6,000 to 8,000 words in length and referenced in the Chicago endnote style by March 31st, 2025. Please send a 350-word proposal and short bio to the editorial team by September 30th 2024 at
refocusguyritchie@gmail.com.
About the Editors
Dr Pete Turner is a senior lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and the author of
Found Footage Horror Films: A Cognitive Approach and a monograph on
The Blair Witch Project as part of Auteur’s Devil’s Advocates series.
James Shelton is the Senior Research Administrator for Buckinghamshire New University. His research in film narrative investigates the social function of retribution and equilibrium, with previous research focusing this approach on a broad body of texts including the
Sicario films, the
James Bond film franchise and an upcoming text on
Cult Horror films.
Last updated June 24, 2024
