What, when & where
Edited Collection: Gender, Genre and the Body in Contemporary North American and European Film
Gender and the body are inextricably connected, and it could be argued that within any given filmic context, they are also closely related to genre and generic traditions. Moreover, genres often use genders, gender stereotypes and bodies in diverse and specific ways, and gender and its relationship to the body performs different functions in the context of a given genre. In horror, for example, the body is typically tortured, ruptured and made abject, as evidenced in films such as /Human Centipede II/ (dir. Tom Six, 2011), /Prevenge/ (dir.Alice Lowe, 2016) and /Raw/ (dir. Julia Ducournau, 2016). In action/adventure, for instance, the body and the performance of gender is usually spectacular, robust and is tested to the limit, in films like /The Expendables/ (dir. Sylvester Stallone, 2010), /White House Down/ (dir. Roland Emmerich, 2013), and /Atomic Blonde /(dir. David Leitch, 2017).
This collection, then, aims to critically examine and interrogate the representation of the body and its relationship to/both/ gender and genre in contemporary North American and European film. For the sake of clarity, contemporary strictly means post-2010, and the films included and under discussion should have been produced and circulated in any North American or European countries. Moreover, we are using the term ‘film’ instead of ‘cinema’, as we will accept chapters that not only examine and discuss theatrically-released films, but also underground and avant-garde films, as well as there being a section dedicated to (hard-core) pornography..
Furthermore, chapters may center on (but are obviously not limited to):
Masculinity, genre and the body
Femininity, genre and the body
Intersections of race, gender and the body
Intersections of sexuality, gender and the body
Intersections of class, gender and the body
Feminist approaches to gender, genre and the body
Embodiment
Queer bodies
Gender, genre and disability
Gender and/or bodily stereotypes
Labour, agency and the ‘working body’
Artificial bodies
‘Unreal’ and/or spectacular bodies
Deadline & how to apply
Please send abstracts of 250 – 300 words, with a supporting bio of no more than 100 words, to gendergenrebodies@gmail.com by Friday 6 September 2019.
Other info, Links & conditions
The editors have been in contact with Edinburgh University Press, for this to be included in their ‘Gender and the Body in Contemporary Literature and Culture’ series, to which the series editors are also keen. Once abstracts have been accepted, a formal proposal will be sent to EUP in December 2019, with publication hopefully being early-to-mid 2022.
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