Submissions are sought for a collection of essays tentatively titled Queer Love in Film and Television.
Not so many years ago, a kiss between two men or two women on television or in a Hollywood movie was shocking, but images of two people of the same sex loving each other—in groundbreaking television shows such as Queer as Folk and The L Word and movies such as Brokeback Mountain and Milk—are gradually becoming a more visible part of the cinematic landscape. And with same-sex marriage now legal or being actively debated in many states within the U.S. and in many countries around the world, now seems a good moment to take a critical look at how gay and lesbian love is represented in film and television. This volume will investigate the idea of “queer love,” broadly speaking. How have representations of homosexual romantic and sexual relationships changed over the years? What is the relationship between representation of gay and lesbian romantic and sexual stories in popular film and television, and attitudes toward gay and lesbian individuals and the LGBT community in general? To what extent has the broader acceptance of gay and lesbian stories in all forms of media and society altered the nature of the love story more generally? In other words, what would it mean to say that the love story has been “queered”?
Proposals are welcomed for critical essays that approach the subject of Queer Love, potentially focusing on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) identities from a variety of methodological perspectives: aesthetic or textual, historical, philosophical, cultural, psychoanalytic, semiotic, post-structural, post-colonial, gender or—of course—queer. Topics might include, but are not limited to the following:
• The representation of same-sex love and romance in film and/or television history
• LGBT love in world cinema traditions
• Issues of literary adaptation, where queer love is modified, denied or reconstructed, within varying media texts
• Notions of celebrity, and the relationship of same sex desire
• Love, sex, and romance in television shows featuring gay or lesbian characters (e.g., Queer as Folk, The L Word, Will and Grace)
• Same-sex romantic subplots in television shows not primarily focused on gay or lesbian characters (e.g., Ugly Betty, Glee)
• Gay and lesbian love, sex, and romance in reality television
• Queer theory, love, and film
• Queer love, television, and politics
• Homoer0tic subtexts in heterosexual love stories
• Queer love and genre: comedy, drama, sci fi, and more
• Fan love – audience response to television and movie characters/actors
Abstracts of approximately 500 words are due February 15, 2011. Completed essays of 5000-7000 words will be due July 1, 2011.
Please send inquiries and completed abstracts to Pamela Demory (phdemory@ucdavis.edu) AND Christopher Pullen (CPullen@bournemouth.ac.uk).
Editor details:
Pamela Demory:
Pamela Demory, PhD, is Continuing Lecturer in the University Writing Program at the University of California, Davis, where she teaches courses in film adaptation and writing in film studies. She has published numerous articles on topics in film adaptation, including “Apocalypse Now Redux: Heart of Darkness Moves Into New Territory” (Literature/Film Quarterly, Jan 2007), “’It’s About Seeing...’—Representations of the Female Body in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts and Raymond Carver’s Stories” (Short Story Criticism, 2007), “Jane Austen and the Chick Flick in the 21st Century” (in Adaptation Studies: New Approaches, Fairleigh Dickinson Press, 2010), and “The Pleasures of Adapting: Reading, Viewing, Logging On” (in The Twilight Mystique: Critical Essays on the Novels and Films, McFarland, 2010).
Christopher Pullen:
Christopher Pullen, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at The Media School, Bournemouth University, in the UK. He is widely published in the area of sexuality and contemporary media, and is involved in public political agency regarding the representation of LGBTs within the media. He is the author of Documenting Gay Men: Identity and Performance in Reality Television and Documentary Film (McFarland, 2007), Gay Identity, New Storytelling and the Media (Palgrave, 2009), and co-editor of LGBT Identity and Online New Media (Routledge, 2010).
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