CFP Out With the Old, In With the New: Changing Trajectories in David Lowery’s The Green Knight (7/30/2022; SAMLA Jacksonville, FL 11/11-13/2022)

This seemed worth cross-posting.

Out With the Old, In With the New: Changing Trajectories in David Lowery’s The Green Knight

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/06/06/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-changing-trajectories-in-david-lowery%E2%80%99s-the-green

deadline for submissions: July 30, 2022

full name / name of organization:
SAMLA: South Atlantic Modern Language Association

contact email:
mcrofton@fit.edu



For close to seven hundred years, Gawain has been a favorite hero in Arthurian myth, especially when it comes to his legendary accomplishments—and faults—in Gawain and the Green Knight. No matter how much readers may root for him in his quest with the Green Knight, many of us can’t help but wonder…what if? All of that changed with David Lowery’s 2021 film, The Green Knight, which presents viewers with an abundance of scenarios that many of us haven’t even anticipated. In doing so, Lowery has forever altered the way scholars approach the medieval poem. This panel seeks to explore some of the most powerful changes Lowery makes to the base text of Gawain and the Green Knight, and what we can learn about the importance—or dangers—of retelling popular stories in new and inventive ways. Please submit a 250 word abstract, a brief bio, and A/V requirements by July 30th to Melissa Crofton at mcrofton@fit.edu.



Last updated June 7, 2022

CFP The Green Knight (2021): Key Critical Perspectives (A Roundtable) (9/15/21; ICoMS Kalamazoo 5/9-14/2022)

From the ISSM listserv; posted on behalf of the organizers:

Dear All,

Please see below a CFP for K’zoo 2022 on David Lowery’s new film (which I understand is now out in the US but sadly is not opening in the UK for another fortnight!).

Cheers,

Renée & Valerie

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Green Knight (2021): Key Critical Perspectives (A Roundtable)

The International Society for the Study of Medievalism (ISSM) invites submissions for a sponsored roundtable on David Lowery’s film The Green Knight (2021) for the 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies, which will take place online from Monday 9 May to Saturday 14 May 2022.

This roundtable seeks participants to identify and discuss an element of Lowery’s long-anticipated film, starring Dev Patel. In short presentations (10 minutes), panelists are invited to consider an element of the film in light of a focal keyword inspired by Medievalism: Key Critical Terms (2014), including: archive, authenticity, authority, Christianity, co-disciplinarity, continuity, feast, gender, genealogy, gesture, gothic, heresy, humor, lingua, love, memory, middle, modernity, monument, myth, play, power, presentism, primitive, purity, race, reenactment, resonance, simulacrum, spectacle, transfer, trauma, and troubadour. 

Submissions of 250-300 WORDS should be made via the Confex Online System no later than Wednesday 15 September 2021. This session is listed under “Session Selection: Roundtables.”

Queries about the session can be sent to Valerie Johnson (vjohnso6@montevallo.edu) and/or Renée Ward (rward@lincoln.ac.uk).

 

CFP: ICMS 2019 - Arthurian Games Roundtable "All Manner of Knightly Games"

"All Manner of Knightly Games": Games In and Inspired by the Arthurian Tradition. Kalamazoo 2019 session:

Throughout Arthurian literature, there is an abundance of games and entertainments. Perhaps most famously, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is structured on two sets of games: the exchange of blows game and the exchange of winnings game. In Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, the hallmark of a happy court is “revels and games” or “all manner of games and plays.” And of course the tourneying so central to the Arthurian tradition is in essence a game. Often, these games and entertainments contribute to the main themes of the text, as when Queen Guinevere goes a-Maying (a type of “game),” protected by a handful of woefully unprepared “Queen’s Knights.” The devious Sir Meligrance kidnaps Guinevere, taking her back to his castle. While Lancelot eventually slays the evil knight, and rescues the Queen, the gaming and abduction highlight the decadence of Arthur’s court, which leaves Camelot vulnerable, unready to defend itself from the gathering shadows.

Perhaps because of the games and gaming inherent in the Arthurian tradition, these texts have recently inspired elements of modern games: video games, board games, card games, and more. Some games feature themes from the original medieval texts, such as Shadows Over Camelot, a board game that assigns players roles as loyal knights or as a traitor. As the players go on quests, safeguarding Arthur’s kingdom, tensions rise as each knight suspects the other of foul play. Other games simply appropriate Arthurian names and objects, such as the video game Persona 5 which features the Holy Grail as a boss for players to defeat near the end of the game.

The purpose of this Round Table will be two-fold: first, to discuss “courtly play” and “gaming” as they appear in medieval Arthurian texts, and second, to consider the ways contemporary games have utilized the Arthurian tradition as a world building function. The dual nature of this session seeks to gain a better understanding of Arthurian game and play in both medieval and contemporary Arthuriana.

Session presenters will be asked to give short papers or prepared remarks, followed by time for discussion. We are very interested in trans-temporal proposals, linking the themes, narratives, characters or concepts between medieval and medievalism. To emphasize this point, audience members will be given character cards from Camelot Legends, to encourage reflection of these moments. This tactile scholarship and specific use of cards produced lively discussion in BABEL’s 2017 Reno Meeting session “The Hand You’re Dealt: A Presentation of Exhibits and Roundtable on Creative Process.”

The session will serve as an excellent opportunity to introduce attendees to contemporary gaming culture and its pedagogical potential. The narratives of decadence and treachery serve as only a few examples for the approaches to this subject. The wealth of Arthurian “gaming” narratives found in medieval Arthurian texts along with the profusion of contemporary games creates fertile ground for a nuanced discussion of Camelot and its legacy.

Finally the session welcomes papers which discuss race (and whiteness), gender, LGBTQ, disability, poverty and education.

Please submit 200 word abstract to:
tnarayanan@mail.csuchico.edu by 9/15.

CFP Magic and Witchcraft on Stage and Screen Panel (6/27/2018; PAMLA 11/9-11/2018)

Extended deadline: Magic and Witchcraft on Stage and Screen
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/01/extended-deadline-magic-and-witchcraft-on-stage-and-screen

deadline for submissions: June 27, 2018

full name / name of organization: Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA)

contact email: lgreene@ewu.edu



Deadline extended to June 27, 2018


Proposals are invited for a Special Session of PAMLA (Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association) 2018, which will meet November 9-11, 2018, in Bellingham, Washington. The conference theme is “Acting, Roles, Stages,” and we will be contributing papers on ways in which magic and witchcraft have been represented dramatically over the centuries.


In the 400 years between Macbeth and Harry Potter, the image of the witch has become more appealing and less frightening, more popular culture and less cultural nightmare. Magic has lost its association with conjuring demons and is portrayed as an innate or acquired skill, more mysterious than playing the piano but maybe not essentially different. Witches are not wicked, and magic is not a tool of the devil. This is a huge cultural shift.


This panel invites speakers in the fields of history, anthropology, drama, film, literature, and religious studies, as well as practitioners of magic and witchcraft, to contribute to our understanding of these phenomena and their changing roles in contemporary culture. Topics from film, drama, and literature might include but are not limited to the following:

• Macbeth
• Bell, Book, and Candle
• Bewitched
• Harry Potter
• The Craft
• Practical Magic

Panel participants must join PAMLA BY July 1, 2018, and must register and pay for the conference by October 1, 2018. Please submit proposals through the PAMLA website at www.pamla.org.

CFP ISSM Roundtable on Ritchie's King Arthur (9/1/2017; Kalamazoo 2018)

Wishing them luck:

The International Society for the Study of Medievalism (ISSM) is now seeking papers for three sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 10-13, 2018. Please see our calls for papers below for details. For more information about the conference itself, please visit the Congress website.

http://medievalism.net/conference/issm-at-kalamazoo



King Arthur 2017: A Round Table

Reviews have poured in for Guy Ritchie’s 2017 King Arthur, and some of them are pretty scathing. Chief among audience complaints is the film’s lack of authenticity: the story deviates so radically from medieval literature that Arthurian legend is barely recognizable. However, authenticity has always been a problematic way to evaluate Arthurian retellings. Sometimes called the “original fan-fiction,” medieval Arthurian legend is always revised and recreated to fit the political or cultural needs of a given period. And in fact, Ritchie’s film has been much better received among scholars of the Middle Ages. Participants in this round table will discuss the 2017 cinematic King Arthur and might answer some of the following questions: How do Ritchie’s changes fit into the canon of Arthurian revisions? How does the 2017 film inform meta-theoretical questions of authenticity surrounding Arthur himself? What do Ritchie’s changes tell us about our own cultural moment? Please send abstracts for papers of no more than ten minutes to Amy S. Kaufman (skaufmana at gmail) by September 1, 2017.

CFP Arthurian Session at NeMLA 2018

Arthurian Legend in the 20th & 21st Centuries

Arthurian Legend in the 20th & 21st Centuries

deadline for submissions: 

September 29, 2017

full name / name of organization: 

Northeast Modern Language Association

contact email: 

saustin@landmark.edu

Imagining Arthurian Legend in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Nostalgia for an imagined and glorious past has influenced the evolution of stories about King Arthur and his court for centuries.  According to the moods and needs of the period, new characters were added to demonstrate or question the excellence of these paragons, or to replace those who had perhaps become too human or simply gone out of style.  New plot motifs, such as the search for the grail and Lancelot’s love for Guinevere became part of the legend.
The past hundred years has brought the legend of King Arthur to Broadway, television, comedy, and Disney; countless authors have appropriated or reimagined the legend and elements from it. How have films, television shows, games, comics, and books for all audiences and ages employed Arthurian characters, themes, motifs, and plots? How have these changes reflected shifting cultural attitudes and values?  What do recent retellings and appropriations of Arthurian legend tell us about ourselves and the generations immediately preceding us?  What do we want and need from King Arthur and his court?
 Please submit abstracts via the NeMLA website http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html

categories

film and television

medieval

popular culture

twentieth century and beyond

Last updated May 30, 2017

https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2017/05/27/arthurian-legend-in-the-20th-21st-centuries

Arthurian Legend in the 20th & 21st Centuries

deadline for submissions: 

September 29, 2017

full name / name of organization: 

Northeast Modern Language Association

contact email: 

saustin@landmark.edu

Imagining Arthurian Legend in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Nostalgia for an imagined and glorious past has influenced the evolution of stories about King Arthur and his court for centuries.  According to the moods and needs of the period, new characters were added to demonstrate or question the excellence of these paragons, or to replace those who had perhaps become too human or simply gone out of style.  New plot motifs, such as the search for the grail and Lancelot’s love for Guinevere became part of the legend.
The past hundred years has brought the legend of King Arthur to Broadway, television, comedy, and Disney; countless authors have appropriated or reimagined the legend and elements from it. How have films, television shows, games, comics, and books for all audiences and ages employed Arthurian characters, themes, motifs, and plots? How have these changes reflected shifting cultural attitudes and values?  What do recent retellings and appropriations of Arthurian legend tell us about ourselves and the generations immediately preceding us?  What do we want and need from King Arthur and his court?
 Please submit abstracts via the NeMLA website http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html

categories

film and television

medieval

popular culture

twentieth century and beyond

Last updated May 30, 2017 

deadline for submissions: September 29, 2017
full name / name of organization: Northeast Modern Language Association
contact email: saustin@landmark.edu

Imagining Arthurian Legend in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Nostalgia for an imagined and glorious past has influenced the evolution of stories about King Arthur and his court for centuries.  According to the moods and needs of the period, new characters were added to demonstrate or question the excellence of these paragons, or to replace those who had perhaps become too human or simply gone out of style.  New plot motifs, such as the search for the grail and Lancelot’s love for Guinevere became part of the legend.

The past hundred years has brought the legend of King Arthur to Broadway, television, comedy, and Disney; countless authors have appropriated or reimagined the legend and elements from it. How have films, television shows, games, comics, and books for all audiences and ages employed Arthurian characters, themes, motifs, and plots? How have these changes reflected shifting cultural attitudes and values?  What do recent retellings and appropriations of Arthurian legend tell us about ourselves and the generations immediately preceding us?  What do we want and need from King Arthur and his court?

 Please submit abstracts via the NeMLA website http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html



Last updated May 30, 2017

Kalamazoo 2018 Update

The Alliance proposed the following roundtable for the 2018 International Congress on Medieval Studies. I have just learned today that our proposal was rejected.

Michael A.Torregrossa
Founder

Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter?:

Reflections on the State of Arthurian Studies Today (A Roundtable)

            The Arthurian legend is now over a millennium and a half old and continues to inspire new creative works each year. However, texts with widespread distribution and/or lasting impact are rare. Consequently, the Matter of Britain now seems very distant from our daily lives.

            The purpose of this session is to explore the reasons for this separation of the stories of Arthur from the popular consciousness. In conceiving this session, we are interested in exploring the answers to several questions. First, why has the Matter of Britain—once an important part of what J. R. R. Tolkien has termed “the cauldron of story”—now become something that is sampled by few artists with the means to promote their work to the larger segment of the global population that once devoured such stories with enthusiasm? Continuing with this idea, do these works, when noticed, not receive acclaim simply because of their creators’ failure to overcome what Norris J. Lacy has termed the “tyranny of tradition” and produce something that is both recognizable and innovative, or has the legend truly become a niche brand, a fascination to a few cognoscenti but something totally off the radar of most individuals? Similarly, when versions of the legend are produced by individuals with the means to create something that transcends the financial and distributive restrictions that hold back other works (and that might thus have the potential to shape how the current generation perceives the Arthurian story), why do they so often not succeed? Have these creators also simply failed to negotiate the tyranny of tradition, or are audiences at large just not interested in Arthur and all that he represents anymore? Lastly, if the legend no longer appeals, what is the future of Arthurian Studies (and Arthurian scholars) in the remainder of the twenty-first century? Should we entrench ourselves and hope for the best, or can we fight for our field and the glory that was Camelot?

The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain is dedicated to study and debate of the representations of the Arthurian legends in all their forms as produced from the Middle Ages through tomorrow. In various incarnations, our organization has been in existence since 2000.