Archive for June 2012

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[ecrea] Conference Bestseller and Blockbuster Culture

Wed Jun 27 17:51:07 GMT 2012







Conference: Bestseller and Blockbuster Culture – Books, Cinema and Television

21-22 March 2013, Aalborg, Denmark

Call for Papers



www.bestseller-blockbuster.aau.dk

Bestsellers are on exclusive display in local supermarkets; in bookshops conspicuous screens and posters promote the weekly bestsellers, and in the digital world, a vast amount of websites, from encyclopaedias to newspapers and weblogs, are ranking their contributions according to their number of readers and/or responses. The bestseller and blockbuster lists and the TV ratings make up a barometer of shifting issues and attitudes of the surrounding society. Simultaneously, some popular genres appear to be constantly present, as is indeed the case for crime fiction and thrillers, but also biographies or biopics as well as historical fiction.



Considering the omnipresence of the bestseller concept in everyday life, the bestseller culture seems a valid label to describe our contemporary culture. In the area of feature films, the corresponding concept is the blockbuster. The scope of the term has broadened to include the entire culture surrounding movies with a broad public appeal. The motto of Yellow Bird Films (Millennium, Wallander) is illuminating: 'We turn bestsellers into blockbusters.' In television fiction, the bestseller and blockbuster culture has had its impact as well. Bestsellers are frequently adapted for television; film and TV adaptations are often the beginning of TV spin offs.



In spite of the influence of postmodernist theory and practice, the bestseller concept is often associated with literature of inferior quality, whereas the minority taste literature with its modest market shares is regarded a priori as ‘high literature’. In cinema, a similar contrast is found between blockbuster movies and art cinema. In television, the concepts of ‘quality television’ and ’art television’have developed in contrast to e.g. 'trash television'. However, the domains of literature, film and TV reveal a multitude of examples of works combining quality and popularity, thus confirming the inadequacy of the common polarization. This is why a close investigation into the mechanisms and functions of the bestseller and blockbuster culture is needed, including its relations to crucial aesthetic concepts such as classics, canon and quality.

We welcome papers within (but not restricted to) the following research areas:

1. Bestseller and Blockbuster in Historical and Conceptualizing Perspectives

Concepts of bestseller and/or blockbuster

Highbrow, lowbrow, and middlebrow: cultural hierarchies in history

Cultures of popular reading through history

Bestsellers in history

>From Hollywood to Bollywood and Hong Kong Movies

Corresponding concepts for television serials



2.            Present and Future of Bestsellers and Blockbusters

The book market today and in the future

Trends in bestsellers of the present

Cultural hierarchies of today

E-books, e-literature and audiobooks

Trends in current television serials or movies

Telling stories on several platforms in media convergent cultures

Bestsellers/blockbusters cross media

Multimedial storytelling



3.            The Quality Concept

Bestsellers/blockbusters as trash and/or quality culture?

Genre and style in bestsellers/blockbusters

How can “Art Cinema” and “Art Television” be popular television?

Bestsellers and standards of quality

Production values and reception qualities



4.            The production of bestsellers and blockbusters

Planning a bestseller and a blockbuster

International co-productions

Bestseller and blockbuster celebrities

The author as celebrity

Adaptations: from bestseller to blockbuster or popular TV serials

International, transcultural  adaptions

The tie in effect

Spin off and merchandise cultures: marketing, bestseller tourism, computer games and cross media productions



Confirmed keynote speakers

Jim Collins, University of Notre Dame: "Fifty Shades of Seriality and Ereader Games"

Margaret Mackey, University of Alberta: “Bestsellers, Blockbusters, and the Ever-Expanding Multiverse of Spin-Offs”

Constantine Verevis,  Monash University, Melbourne: ”Blockbuster Remakes."

Lothar Mikos, Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen, Babelsberg: “Transnational co-productions in film and television”



Ole Søndberg, Yellowbird: “Yellow Bird's ways of turning bestsellers into blockbusters – international co-operations and co-productions”



Confirmed papers by network members

Helle Kannik Haastrup:”The Blockbuster Auteur”

Rikke Schubart: “Game of Thrones (2011–): The Making of a Blockbuster Television Show as Fantasy for Adult Audiences”

Anne Gjelsvik: ”From text to title: Selling the book through the title sequence (from Sherlock Holmes to Game of Thrones)”

Palle Schantz Lauridsen: "I hear of Sherlock everywhere" - the contemporary revitalisation of Sherlock Holmes”

Ann Steiner: "Contemporary Book Trade and the International Bestseller Culture"

Maria Beville: “Lurking Fears: Mediating Otherness in Popular Horror Cinema”



Birgit Eriksson: ”New cultural hierarchies? Bestsellers, blockbusters and creative omnivores.”



Organizers

The conference is organized by an interdisciplinary, cross institutional committee of Danish researchers, specializing in this area: Gunhild Agger, D Phil, Professor, Department of Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University, Anne Marit Waade, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Aesthetics and Communication - Media Studies, Aarhus University, Rasmus Grøn, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Hans Jørn Nielsen, PhD, Associate Professor, The Royal School of Library and Information Science.

For further information, please contact Gunhild Agger: (gunhild /at/ cgs.aau.dk)

Plans for publications

The organizers have made an agreement with the academic online journal Academic Quarter. The title of Academic Quarter # 7, December 2013, will be Bestseller and Blockbuster Culture. Editors will be the organizers of the conference.

Deadlines

Submission of abstracts November 1, 2012

Acceptance of abstracts November 10, 2012

Early bird registration November 15, 2012

Standard registration December 15, 2012

Submission of paper February 15, 2013

The registration fee is EURO 210 (early bird) / EURO 243 (standard) , covering access to all sessions, two lunches, coffee breaks, one conference dinner, hotel accommodation for 1 night at Hotel Scheelsminde and conference material.

All participants – including participants without a paper – have to register at the conference website.





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Ms Marianne Høgsbro

Department of Culture and Global Studies

Aalborg University Kroghstræde 1, room 2. 007

DK- 9220 Aalborg East

Phone: +45 9940 9810

Fax: + 45 9815 7887

EAN: 5798000420793

Skype:marianne.hoegsbro

Whereabouts



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