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Be Afraid of the Big Bad Werewolf: Fairy Tale Idealism in Horror Movies

By Brooke Jorden Film shares a closer artistic relationship with oral storytelling than with written literature. The medium of film allows for not only dramatic pauses and sound effects—which are, according to Maria Tatar, the tools of all history’s storytellers—but also mood music and changeable scenes and settings (287). Horror films, specifically, correspond closely with
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Call for Papers: Journal of Popular Romance Studies

Special Issue: Romancing the Long British 19th Century The long British nineteenth century (1789-1914) appears to have the long global twentieth century (including the first decades of the twenty-first) in its thrall. Regency and Victorian settings proliferate in popular romance fiction, ranging from scenes of domestic life within the United Kingdom to British espionage in
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Announcing Inaugural Issue of Television-focused Journal

This January saw the inaugural issue of the Journal of Popular Television. The is an international, peer-reviewed journal designed to promote and encourage scholarship on all aspects of popular television, whether fictional or non-fictional, from docudramas and sports to news and comedy. It is rooted in the belief that popular television continues to play a major cultural,
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Be Afraid of the Big Bad Werewolf: Fairy Tale Idealism in Horror Movies

April 24, 2013 in Critcism

By Brooke Jorden Film shares a closer artistic relationship with oral storytelling than with written literature. The medium of film allows for not only dramatic pauses and sound effects—which are, according to Maria Tatar, the tools of all history’s storytellers—but also mood music and changeable scenes and settings (287). Horror films, specifically, correspond closely with fairy tales in terms of intentionally weak characterization, an uncertain ending, an implicit “wonder tale” morality and logic, and, of course, violence. However, the most vital link is the fundamental idealism upon which both genres are built. Both genres create worlds where morality is black
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Call for Papers: Journal of Popular Romance Studies

April 15, 2013 in Call for Papers

Special Issue: Romancing the Long British 19th Century The long British nineteenth century (1789-1914) appears to have the long global twentieth century (including the first decades of the twenty-first) in its thrall. Regency and Victorian settings proliferate in popular romance fiction, ranging from scenes of domestic life within the United Kingdom to British espionage in Europe and British colonial settlements. Retellings and “sequels” of Jane Austen’s novels line our (digital) bookshelves and fill fan-fiction websites, spilling over most recently into the YouTube sensation The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Such adaptations of Austen’s novels, along with film and TV versions of the
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Announcing Inaugural Issue of Television-focused Journal

April 12, 2013 in News

This January saw the inaugural issue of the Journal of Popular Television. The is an international, peer-reviewed journal designed to promote and encourage scholarship on all aspects of popular television, whether fictional or non-fictional, from docudramas and sports to news and comedy. It is rooted in the belief that popular television continues to play a major cultural, political and social role despite the emergence of competing media. Television shows, genres, personalities and phenomena shall be explored through a combination of textual analysis and empirical research. The journal also offers reviews of contemporary programmes and scholarly publications. It will be of interest to
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Call for Papers: Adapting Frankenstein Anthology

April 9, 2013 in Book, Call for Papers

Adapting Frankenstein: The Monster’s Eternal Lives in Popular Culture We propose to edit a book of new essays on the general subject of the many ways Frankenstein has been adapted in popular culture, including films, television, radio, graphic novels, comic books, newspaper cartoons, music, the stage, novels, short stories, children’s and adolescent literatures, new media, and so forth. We are interested in what has made Frankenstein’s monster so indestructibly fascinating to the public mind through the many generations since his inception in 1818—almost 200 years ago! We are interested in essays that explore the creature’s versatile ability to appear as threatening
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Call for Papers: South Atlantic Modern Language Association

March 11, 2013 in Call for Papers

Crossing Borders, Building Worlds: Adaptation Today and Tomorrow South Atlantic Modern Language Association Marriott Atlanta Buckhead Hotel and Conference Center Atlanta, Georgia, USA 8-10 November 2013 The Association of Adaptation Studies is happy to announce a series of panels on adaptation it is sponsoring at the SAMLA conference this November and solicit inquiries and proposals for 20-minute papers on any aspects of adaptation. In keeping with the theme of the 2013 conference—“Cultures, Contexts, Images, Texts: Making Meaning in Print, Digital, and Networked Worlds”—the AAS especially invites proposals that consider the relations between adaptation and other kinds of border crossings—between different
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Adapt Repository of Open Educational Resources

March 8, 2013 in Uncategorized

Four universities in Australia are pooling resources to provide adaptation teaching materials under a Creative Commons license. From the Adapt Repository of Open Educational Resources project’s website: “Project partners share learning and teaching materials across the disciplines in the Arts and Humanities to encourage the identification of a community of scholars who engage with the study of textual adaptation in a variety of contexts. “The repository is now open for new registrations. Registration allows you to share your own learning and teaching resources related to Adaptations with the Adapt community of scholars. All resources are made available under a Creative Commons licence, which
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Film Literacy Terms Index

February 14, 2013 in Resources

If you want to talk about or write about film, then you need to speak the language.  Below is a table of various standard film terms dealing with elements of shot composition, sound, and editing.  There are even a few terms treating the history of film. For students, this table provides an quick way to learn the basic terms and concepts relevant to discussing film and film adaptations. For instructors, this provides a useful resource on which to base quizzes or test sections (using the table format makes it easy to erase the term or the definition for a fill-in-the-blank
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Call for Papers: PCA/ACA Conference [Deadline Extension]

November 27, 2012 in Call for Papers

The National Popular Culture & American Culture Associations Conference has extended its deadlines. This means the new deadline for papers will be Friday December 7th. The new Panel deadline will be December 22nd.  Please be sure to have panels done by that time so the associations can get the program assembled by their printing deadline, which is earlier than usual. See our original post for details about the conference.

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Call for Papers: 16th Annual C.S. Lewis and Inklings Conference

November 20, 2012 in Call for Papers

Fairytales in the Age of i-pads: Inklings, Imagination, and Technology March 21–23, 2013 LeTourneau University Longview, Texas Papers on the above theme related to the works of C.S. Lewis, the Inklings, George MacDonald, and Dorothy L. Sayers are invited.  However, papers on other subjects related to the above authors will also be accepted. There will be a competition for the best undergraduate and best faculty/scholar paper presented at this conference.  Monetary awards will be given as determined by a committee of three jurors from the Executive Board members of the CSLIS.  To be eligible, the presenter must be a member
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New Book: The Adaptation of History, eds. Laurence Raw and Defne Ersin Tutan

November 20, 2012 in Book

This new book contains significant media studies content. THE ADAPTATION OF HISTORY: ESSAYS ON WAYS OF TELLING THE PAST, eds. Laurence Raw and Defne Ersin Tutan. This collection of essays asks the question “What is history?” and considers how history is shaped in different socioeconomic contexts. The writers take a transdisciplinary approach, in the belief that everyone who deals with history—including professional historians, novelists, and poets—constructs narratives of the past to make sense of the present as well as to determine their future courses of action. With contributions from a variety of specialists in media studies, literature, history and anthropology,
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