[ecrea] Call for contributors : Volume entitled: ‘Bringing History to Life through Film’

CALL FOR PAPERS

*Abstract Deadline: October 31^st 2012*

*Call for contributors : Volume entitled: ‘Bringing History to Life 
through Film’ (Working title) to be included in the ’History and Film 
Series’**

*

*Please send a 500 word proposal, along with a brief CV or author bio, 
to Kathryn Anne Morey (k.morey2 /at/ lancaster.ac.uk) by September 30^th 2012. *

*Final essays must be 5,000-7,500 words (including endnotes), and will 
be due by mid-February, 2013.

*

*Book editor seeking chapter contributions to a compilation of essays to 
be published by Scarecrow Press in 2013.*

The question of history and film being a compatible source of education 
is one that has been readily discussed by historians and philosophers 
alike and is still being discussed and re-evaluated. In fact in February 
2006 there was a temporary ‘suspension of film reviews in the American 
historical review.’ It is widely thought that the film does not provide 
the ‘accurate’ view of history that historical texts and books do, but 
this collection of essays aims to challenge this idea introducing 
arguments about how storytelling within a film can help the viewer 
understand a historical situation better, and even empathise with 
individuals in a new way.

Cinematic history raises many important questions about the relationship 
between fact and fiction: When does history become myth, and when does 
myth become legend? Does a romanticized view of history distort the 
reality it is trying to convey, or in capturing the “spirit” of history, 
does it teach history in ways that mere fact cannot? What is the impact 
of motion pictures on our understandings of history, and on historical 
memory? And what of the lives of the individuals it portrays? Elizabeth 
I, Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette, and Cleopatra are just a few of the 
historical figures that have attained mythic status through 
their romanticization on the big screen. Does cinematic history promote 
a tendency toward mythologizing historical figures? This collection of 
essays will explore questions around whether, and it what ways, the 
storytelling method used by filmmakers may serve to distance audiences 
from their own history by making it simply a story. Using films such as 
‘Pearl Harbor’ (Bay, 2001) and ‘Elizabeth’ (Chadwich, 2008) which take 
well known histories and portray them in a storytelling fashion, making 
them more accessible to audiences who may not have known about these 
histories, as well as examining why history on film can be a successful 
method of learning, and why the storytelling method helps with this.

Essays wanted on:

I. Royalty as myth

II. Nostalgic Utopias

III. Understanding History on Film

IV. IV. The myth of Robin Hood

V. V. Film or literature?