Call For Papers: Korean Horror Cinema (Edinburgh University Press, 2012)
Edited by Alison Peirse and Daniel Martin
Abstracts are sought for a collection on Korean
Horror Cinema to be published by Edinburgh
University Press in 2012. Deadline for proposals: 1 December 2010.
South Korean cinema is of rapidly increasing
international importance, and this collection
offers an informative overview of its most
appealing, culturally significant and critically
fascinating genre: horror. Korean cinema was
virtually unknown among Western audiences and
academics until the release of cult hits like
'Oldboy' (Park Chan-wook, 2003) and 'The Isle'
(Kim Ki-duk, 2000). This book will be a timely
intervention, responsive to contemporary trends
in both the production and circulation of Korean
film. While this book will engage with
contemporary films, it also seeks to illuminate
the history of Korean horror, exploring a
variety of postcolonial texts from South Korean
cinema?s first ?Golden Age? in the 1960s.
One of the most valuable aspects of this book
will be its scope, considering Korean horror
beyond the limited canon constructed by European
and American distributors, critics and fans.
While the films covered will include some widely
seen and well known contemporary Korean horror
films (such as 'A Tale of Two Sisters' [Kim
Ji-woon, 2003], 'Phone' [Ahn Byung-ki, 2002],
and 'R-Point' [Kong Su-chang, 2004]), this
collection will also consider classic films
(such as 'A Devilish Homicide' [Lee Yong-min,
1965]), and some of the domestically significant
horror films which have never seen theatrical or
DVD release in the West (such as 'The
Nine-Tailed Fox' [Park Heon-su, 1994] and
'Shadows in the Palace' [Kim Mee-jeung, 2007]).
In collecting studies on a wide range of films,
this book will be informative and educational,
of value to researchers, teachers, students and cinephiles.
We have already obtained contributions from
academics in the UK, USA, Japan and Korea for a
significant number of the chapters in this
volume; we are issuing this general CFP in order
to obtain the best possible additional
contributors and a diverse, international,
collection of essays. We are therefore looking
for a select number of final chapters that
contribute new and original perspectives on Korean horror cinema.
Topics could include, but are not limited to:
? The place of Korean folklore in classic and/or contemporary horror
? The cyclical and seasonal nature of Korean horror releases
? The canonisation of Korean horror within different national contexts
? Korean monster movies
? North Korean horror films
? The relationship between horror and melodrama
? Flashbacks in Korean horror film
? Remakes of horror, in Korea (e.g. 'The
Housemaid') and/or in Hollywood (e.g. 'The Uninvited')
? The mother in law as a figure of horror
? The relationship between history and
horror, e.g. Park Chung-hee?s military coup of
1961 and its impact upon the cinema industry / film aesthetics
? War and horror
? The representation of schools and education in Korean horror film
? Gothic horror
Please send a 300 word abstract, working title,
one page CV and contact details to BOTH
(alison.peirse /at/ northumbria.ac.uk) AND
(d.martin /at/ qub.ac.uk) by 1 December 2010. We will
also be happy to answer any informal enquiries about the project.
You will be advised of a decision by 1 February
2011, and completed articles (5000 6000 words)
are due for submission on 1 July 2011.
Dr Alison Peirse, Lecturer in Film and Television Studies
Department of Arts
University of Northumbria
Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 8ST
UK
Dr Daniel Martin, Lecturer in Film Studies
School of Languages, Literatures and Performing Arts
Queen's University Belfast
Belfast BT7 1NN
Northern Ireland
