Call for Chapters for an Edited Collection on The Female Hero in Modern Fantasy Deadline: May 10, 2013
I invite proposals for a collection of essays exploring the female hero as a distinct character type in modern fantasy, covering works published from the 1950s through the present. Although this study will focus on literature and film adaptations, interdisciplinary approaches are welcome and encouraged. The audience for this work includes scholars, students, and fans of fantasy genres.
This collection is under contract with McFarland and Company with publication scheduled for summer 2014.
This study aims to provide a multi-faceted and thorough look at an important character type in fantasy that only begins to demonstrate significant empowerment in the latter twentieth century. Authors will explore the nuances and implications of female heroism with a goal to contribute to the further evolution of the character type as well as to the critical study of fantasy. A major concern of this work will be the notion of power itself, as it is claimed or used by the female hero, as well as in how it is represented by and around her, and the ways in which her stories reflect contemporary notions of power/powerlessness for women, men, and society in general both within and outside the text.
This collection defines “modern fantasy” to include a variety of subcategories, including fairy tale, children’s fantasy, dark fantasy, science fantasy, high and low fantasy, and magical realism. Likewise, “hero” has myriad meanings; we will work from a broad understanding of one who is not simply a protagonist but who risks her own well-being to benefit the greater good.
The book will be divided into sections each focusing on a type of female hero, broadly defined: “Pathfinders: Empowered Women of Medieval Romance and Fairy Tale”; “Underestimated Overachievers: Unlikely Female Heroes”; “Show Stealers: Female Sidekicks”; “Unwilling Do-gooders: Female Villains and Villain-Heroes”. These topics may be adjusted depending upon the essays that are accepted for publication. Please let me know if you would like clarification on any of these subheadings.
Possible topics could cover texts by authors including but not limited to:
Suzanne Collins Susan Cooper Roald Dahl Diane Duane Neil Gaiman Robin Hobb Diana Wynne Jones Tanith Lee Ursula Le Guin Madeleine L’Engle George R.R. Martin Anne McCaffrey Robin McKinley Stephenie Meyer Tamora Pierce Terry Pratchett Philip Pullman Rick Riordan J.K. Rowling Jonathan Stroud Laini Taylor Scott Westerfield Jane Yolen
Submit a 2-page proposal (or a full-length essay if available) and a short biography as Word documents to Dr. Lori Campbell via email: camenglish@verizon.net or lmc5@pitt.edu Queries are welcome at either address.
The deadline for proposal submissions is May 10, 2013.
All submissions must be original and previously unpublished. Please note that being invited to submit a full-length essay based on the proposal does not guarantee inclusion in the final publication. Based on the proposals, selected contributor candidates will be requested to submit their full-length essays of 7,000-12,000 words in MLA format. The editor will make all final decisions regarding publication on the merit of the full-length essays.
If your proposal is selected, your first draft of the full-length essay will be due by August 1, 2013.
About the Editor: Lori M. Campbell, Ph.D.is a lecturer in the Department of English and Film Studies Program at University of Pittsburgh, specializing in fantasy, children's literature, myth and folktale, and the gothic. Her book, Portals of Power: Magical Agency and Transformation in Literary Fantasy, was published by McFarland and Company in 2010. Her other publications include articles on J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Frances Hodgson Burnett, J.M. Barrie, Thomas Hardy, and William Morris, as well as introductions to new Barnes and Noble editions of classics by J.M. Barrie, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and the Brothers Grimm.
Call for Papers Deadline: May 15, 2013
Roald Dahl has been the recipient of a slew of insults from anti-Semite to misogynist to general misanthrope. The controversies surrounding Dahl have focused primarily on these aspects of his work and his life, as well as the question of whether or not his texts, with their representations of violence, have been "appropriate" for young people. Yet, much of his work seems to possess the potential for radicalizing gender and sex--a subject that has remained remarkably overlooked by critics. This collection, in which a university press has expressed interest, seeks contributions that focus on any aspect of queerness in the Roald Dahl canon.
Send inquiries, 300-500 word abstracts with brief bibliography, and one-page CV to jennifermitchell6@weber.edu by May 15th, 2013. Accepted contributors will be notified by June 1, 2013. Complete submissions, subject to review, will be expected by December 1, 2013.
Call for Papers Early African American Children’s Literature An anthology of original essays Deadline: July 1, 2013
African American childhood in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was a fraught proposition. On one hand, African Americans of all ages were infantilized by those in power. On the other hand, evolving constructions of childhood explicitly excluded African Americans: they were not cherubs dependent on motherly love, and they weren’t part of a private domestic sphere, and, the argument ran, they were never going to grow into self-sufficient adulthood. Perhaps it’s no surprise that we have not really thought about African American children’s literature in the years before 1900. Yet as scholars such as Caroline Lavender, Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Courtney Wiekle-Mills, Robin Bernstein and others have shown, literature about childhood and aimed at children were rich sites for conveying—and rejecting—vital concepts of personal and national development that would translate into ideologies of race, class, gender, sexuality and citizenship.
This collection of essays seeks to recover and reframe the largely untheorized body of literature aimed at one of the nineteenth century’s most thought-provoking, anxiety producing, and boundary-testing subjects: the black child. What were black children reading? How did that material represent race, ideology, and selfhood to a young audience? How did black children imagine themselves as creative agents?
We welcome abstracts for essays to be considered for inclusion in the collection. Although we welcome a wide range of perspectives and methodologies, the main focus of each essay should be on African American children as readers, students, or authors. We do not seek essays that address the figure of the child in work aimed at an adult audience or in work that did not have a black child readership.
Possible sources and topics include, but are not limited to:
Children’s novels, short stories, picture books. Schooling materials. Religious publications (Sunday school, newspapers). Poetry, pageantry, school plays. Newspaper texts featuring African American’s children’s work or voices. Conduct literature written for, or read by, African American children. Antislavery literature written for, or read by, African American children. Canonical African American writers’ engagement with children’s literature. Recovery of understudied black writers who addressed young people. Strategies of cross-reading and cross-writing:
What happens when African American children read literature not intended for them? How do we theorize the relationship between women’s literature and children’s literature in the nineteenth century? How does an awareness of early black children’s literature change our vision of the field or of particular authors?
Send a detailed abstract of your paper (750 – 1000 words) by July 1st to Anna Mae Duane (amduane1@gmail.com ) and Kate Capshaw Smith (Capshaw@uconn.edu). We will notify contributors by August 1st, and final papers of 5,000-8,000 words will be due November 1st 2013. Please use MLA format and send as Word documents.
But Mary Poppins‘s eyes were fixed upon him, and Michael suddenly discovered that you could not look at Mary Poppins and disobey her. There was something strange and extraordinary about her—something that was frightening and at the same time most exciting. (P. L. Travers, Mary Poppins, 1934) "When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what‘s the fist thing you say to yourself?" "What‘s for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?" "I say, I wonder what‘s going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It‘s the same thing," he said. (A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926) The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, he top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. (Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting, 1975) My cousin comes to visit and you know he‘s from the South ‘Cause every word he says just kind of slides out of his mouth I like the way he whistles and I like the way he walks But honey, let me tell you that I LOVE the way he talks (Eloise Greenfield, from "Honey, I Love," Honey, I love and other love poems, 1978) They tell you to do your thing but they don‘t mean it. They don‘t want you to do your thing, not unless it happens to be their thing, too. It‘s a laugh, Goober, a fake. Don‘t disturb the universe, Goober, no matter what the posters say. (Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War, 1974) There is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. (Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows 1908) "My darling child!... Where in the world did you come from?" "From the Land of Oz," said Dorothy gravely. "And here is Toto, too. And oh, Aunt Em! I‘m so glad to be at home again!" (L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 1900) It was a dark and stormy night. (Madeleine L‘Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, 1962) When Jamie saw him throw the baby, saw Van throw the little baby, saw Van throw his little sister Nin, when Jamie saw Van throw his baby sister Nin, then they moved. (Carolyn Coman, What Jamie Saw, 1995) Do you understand how amazing it is to hear that from an adult? Do you know how amazing it is to hear that from anybody? It‘s one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they‘re the four hugest words in the world when they‘re put together. You can do it. (Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, 2007) When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle‘s on a poodle and the poodle‘s eating noodles... (Dr. Seuss, Fox in Socks 1965) Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you‘d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn‘t hold with such nonsense. (J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‘s Stone, 1997) She knew they were all afraid. But love and disease are both like electricity, Weetzie thought. They are always there—you can‘t see or smell or hear, touch, or taste them, but you know they are there like a current in the air. We can choose, Weetzie thought, we can choose to plug into the love current instead. (Francesca Lia Block, Weetzie Bat 1989) "Tut, tut, child!" said the Duchess. "Everything‘s got a moral, if only you can find it." (Lewis Carroll, Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland 1865) "Yes, it‘s very wicked to lie," said Pippi even more sadly. "But I forget it now and then. And how can you expect a little child whose mother is an angel and whose father is king of a cannibal island and who herself has sailed on the ocean all her life—how can you expect her to tell the truth always?" (Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking, 1950) TWINKLE, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are ! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. (Ann and Jane Taylor, from "The Star," Rhymes from the Nursery, 1806) "Where‘s papa going with that ax?" (E. B. White, Charlotte‘s Web 1952) "You‘ve started quite a career for yourself, Nancy. I wonder if you‘ll have any more adventures?" Nancy gave a tired sigh. "Oh, I think I‘ve had enough to last me for the rest of my life!" But in heart heart, she knew she had not. The love for mystery would always be with her. (Carolyn Keene, The Bungalow Mystery 1930) HOW doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower! (Isaac Watts, from "Against Idleness and Mischief, Divine Songs for Children, 1715)Take some time daily to speak a little to your children one by one about their miserable condition by nature…. They are not too little to die… not too little to go to hell. — James Janeway, A Token for Children (1671-2) But Mary Poppins‘s eyes were fixed upon him, and Michael suddenly discovered that you could not look at Mary Poppins and disobey her. There was something strange and extraordinary about her—something that was frightening and at the same time most exciting. (P. L. Travers, Mary Poppins, 1934) "When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what‘s the fist thing you say to yourself?" "What‘s for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?" "I say, I wonder what‘s going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It‘s the same thing," he said. (A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926) The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, he top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. (Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting, 1975) My cousin comes to visit and you know he‘s from the South ‘Cause every word he says just kind of slides out of his mouth I like the way he whistles and I like the way he walks But honey, let me tell you that I LOVE the way he talks (Eloise Greenfield, from "Honey, I Love," Honey, I love and other love poems, 1978) They tell you to do your thing but they don‘t mean it. They don‘t want you to do your thing, not unless it happens to be their thing, too. It‘s a laugh, Goober, a fake. Don‘t disturb the universe, Goober, no matter what the posters say. (Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War, 1974) There is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. (Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows 1908) "My darling child!... Where in the world did you come from?" "From the Land of Oz," said Dorothy gravely. "And here is Toto, too. And oh, Aunt Em! I‘m so glad to be at home again!" (L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 1900) It was a dark and stormy night. (Madeleine L‘Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, 1962) When Jamie saw him throw the baby, saw Van throw the little baby, saw Van throw his little sister Nin, when Jamie saw Van throw his baby sister Nin, then they moved. (Carolyn Coman, What Jamie Saw, 1995) Do you understand how amazing it is to hear that from an adult? Do you know how amazing it is to hear that from anybody? It‘s one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they‘re the four hugest words in the world when they‘re put together. You can do it. (Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, 2007) When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle‘s on a poodle and the poodle‘s eating noodles... (Dr. Seuss, Fox in Socks 1965) Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you‘d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn‘t hold with such nonsense. (J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‘s Stone, 1997) She knew they were all afraid. But love and disease are both like electricity, Weetzie thought. They are always there—you can‘t see or smell or hear, touch, or taste them, but you know they are there like a current in the air. We can choose, Weetzie thought, we can choose to plug into the love current instead. (Francesca Lia Block, Weetzie Bat 1989) "Tut, tut, child!" said the Duchess. "Everything‘s got a moral, if only you can find it." (Lewis Carroll, Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland 1865) "Yes, it‘s very wicked to lie," said Pippi even more sadly. "But I forget it now and then. And how can you expect a little child whose mother is an angel and whose father is king of a cannibal island and who herself has sailed on the ocean all her life—how can you expect her to tell the truth always?" (Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking, 1950) TWINKLE, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are ! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. (Ann and Jane Taylor, from "The Star," Rhymes from the Nursery, 1806) "Where‘s papa going with that ax?" (E. B. White, Charlotte‘s Web 1952) "You‘ve started quite a career for yourself, Nancy. I wonder if you‘ll have any more adventures?" Nancy gave a tired sigh. "Oh, I think I‘ve had enough to last me for the rest of my life!" But in heart heart, she knew she had not. The love for mystery would always be with her. (Carolyn Keene, The Bungalow Mystery 1930) HOW doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower! (Isaac Watts, from "Against Idleness and Mischief, Divine Songs for Children, 1715)Take some time daily to speak a little to your children one by one about their miserable condition by nature…. They are not too little to die… not too little to go to hell. — James Janeway, A Token for Children (1671-2) But Mary Poppins‘s eyes were fixed upon him, and Michael suddenly discovered that you could not look at Mary Poppins and disobey her. There was something strange and extraordinary about her—something that was frightening and at the same time most exciting. (P. L. Travers, Mary Poppins, 1934) "When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what‘s the fist thing you say to yourself?" "What‘s for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?" "I say, I wonder what‘s going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It‘s the same thing," he said. (A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926) The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, he top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. (Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting, 1975) My cousin comes to visit and you know he‘s from the South ‘Cause every word he says just kind of slides out of his mouth I like the way he whistles and I like the way he walks But honey, let me tell you that I LOVE the way he talks (Eloise Greenfield, from "Honey, I Love," Honey, I love and other love poems, 1978) They tell you to do your thing but they don‘t mean it. They don‘t want you to do your thing, not unless it happens to be their thing, too. It‘s a laugh, Goober, a fake. Don‘t disturb the universe, Goober, no matter what the posters say. (Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War, 1974) There is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. (Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows 1908) "My darling child!... Where in the world did you come from?" "From the Land of Oz," said Dorothy gravely. "And here is Toto, too. And oh, Aunt Em! I‘m so glad to be at home again!" (L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 1900) It was a dark and stormy night. (Madeleine L‘Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, 1962) When Jamie saw him throw the baby, saw Van throw the little baby, saw Van throw his little sister Nin, when Jamie saw Van throw his baby sister Nin, then they moved. (Carolyn Coman, What Jamie Saw, 1995) Do you understand how amazing it is to hear that from an adult? Do you know how amazing it is to hear that from anybody? It‘s one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they‘re the four hugest words in the world when they‘re put together. You can do it. (Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, 2007) When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle‘s on a poodle and the poodle‘s eating noodles... (Dr. Seuss, Fox in Socks 1965) Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you‘d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn‘t hold with such nonsense. (J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‘s Stone, 1997) She knew they were all afraid. But love and disease are both like electricity, Weetzie thought. They are always there—you can‘t see or smell or hear, touch, or taste them, but you know they are there like a current in the air. We can choose, Weetzie thought, we can choose to plug into the love current instead. (Francesca Lia Block, Weetzie Bat 1989) "Tut, tut, child!" said the Duchess. "Everything‘s got a moral, if only you can find it." (Lewis Carroll, Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland 1865) "Yes, it‘s very wicked to lie," said Pippi even more sadly. "But I forget it now and then. And how can you expect a little child whose mother is an angel and whose father is king of a cannibal island and who herself has sailed on the ocean all her life—how can you expect her to tell the truth always?" (Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking, 1950) TWINKLE, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are ! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. (Ann and Jane Taylor, from "The Star," Rhymes from the Nursery, 1806) "Where‘s papa going with that ax?" (E. B. White, Charlotte‘s Web 1952) "You‘ve started quite a career for yourself, Nancy. I wonder if you‘ll have any more adventures?" Nancy gave a tired sigh. "Oh, I think I‘ve had enough to last me for the rest of my life!" But in heart heart, she knew she had not. The love for mystery would always be with her. (Carolyn Keene, The Bungalow Mystery 1930) HOW doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower! (Isaac Watts, from "Against Idleness and Mischief, Divine Songs for Children, 1715)Take some time daily to speak a little to your children one by one about their miserable condition by nature…. They are not too little to die… not too little to go to hell. — James Janeway, A Token for Children (1671-2)