The Popular Culture and American Culture Association’s discussion lists recently included two items relevant to the focus of TheoFantastique and its readers. The items are calls for papers.

“Love and Sex in the Films and Graphic Novels of Alan Moore”
2010 Film & History Conference: Representations of Love in Film and
Television
November 11-14, 2010
Hyatt Regency Milwaukee
www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory
Second Round Deadline: November 1, 2009

AREA: Love and Sex in the Films and Graphic Novels of Alan Moore

Alan Moore has a love-hate relationship with the film industry, yet films based on his work proliferate: From Hell (2001), V for Vendetta (2005), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), and Watchmen (2009). Sex and (possibly) love abound in Moore’s novels and in the films grounded, to some extent, in his writing. In V for Vendetta, Moore juxtaposes the love of the computerized state with the more transient love of men and women. In V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Watchmen, he poses difficult questions about the nature of (super)heroic love for others, and for democracy, nation, and empire. Throughout his work, Moore is attuned to issues of representation, and to how representation demarcates the reality of those who are “loved.”

Moore may be the exemplary postmodern graphic novelist, and “his” films are well worth considering for what they say about our particular historical moment, and in *this* particular moment, what they say about various manifestations of love.

This area is open to any paper or panel proposal which examines the representation of love, sex, and ethical relations in any work influenced by, or authored by Moore. Possible topics might include:

Anarchy as love
Love, sex, and postcoloniality
Victorian love
Postmodern pastiche as a form of love-making
Love in (loving) the state–fascist love
Love and the body
Love in adaptation
Representing love in film versus sequential art
Representation and the limits of love
Loving one another: Thomas Pynchon and Alan Moore
Freedom as love
God and (as?) love
Exposure as love
Inoperative communities and love

Please send your 200-word proposal by email to the area chair:

Todd Comer, Area Chair
Defiance College
701 North Clinton Street
Defiance OH 43512
Email: tcomer@defiance.edu (email submissions preferred)

Panel proposals for up to four presenters are also welcome, but each presenter must submit his or her own paper proposal. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website (www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory).

The second item relates to a call for contributions to an anthology related to the Twilight series. Although many horror fans bristle at the idea that this should in any way be considered horror, it is an important facet of the fantastic in pop culture at the moment, and its take on the vampire mythology with a strong emphasis on romance has precedence elsewhere in the evolution of this monstrous icon:

For an anthology on the series and related films, I am seeking papers of approximately 6,000 words on Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. Any methodological approach is welcome. In particular, papers may
consider the reception of the novels by fan groups, especially in generational terms or in light of significant differences among various fan communities; papers may also consider the novels in relation to the film (shortly to be films), reading strategies, generic aspects, authorship issues, problems in adaptation, etc.

Abstracts of 600 words with short bibliography and brief author biography are needed by 1 November 2009. Send them as Word files to Anne Morey at amorey@tamu.edu.