[ecrea] CFP - The Wizard of Oz and the Western Cultural Imagination

To encourage as broad a disicplinary base as possible, we have decided 
to extend the deadline for the below conference for a short period of 
time. We welcome proposals from all disciplines to create a unique, 
interdisicplinary event. Please get in touch if you have any queries.

The Wizard of Oz and the Western Cultural Imagination: A Conference 
celebrating and interrogating 75 years of the MGM Musical

Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton

November 21-22, 2014

CFP Deadline: 31 March 2014

Christmas 2013 saw the annual quest for best television advert, with 
firms such as John Lewis, Waitrose, and M&S all participating. Drawing 
on themes from Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, Red Riding Hood and The 
Wizard of Oz, the M&S advert is, in the words of the company's business 
development director Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne, ‘a modern epic where 
fashion meets fantasy’, bringing to life ‘much loved fairy tales with 
more than a sprinkle of high glamour’. This advert comes out months 
before the 75th anniversary of MGM’s telling of The Wizard of Oz and 
demonstrates the lasting legacy this film has had within western culture.

The Wizard of Oz has received sustained interest from audiences, 
sparking numerous spinoff films (Return to Oz; Oz: The Great and 
Powerful, Yellowbrickroad), musicals (Wicked; The Wiz), and TV 
Programmes and documentaries (The Tin Man; The Secret of Oz). Baum’s 
original tale has been reanimated and illustrated numerous times (most 
recently by Graham Rawle) and the book and film has inspired and 
featured in pop music albums by the likes of Elton John (Yellow Brick 
Road) and Robbie Williams (Swings Both Ways). The music to MGM’s Wizard 
of Oz also contributed to the public responses to the death of Margaret 
Thatcher in 2013.

Despite being firmly embedded in the Western cultural imagination, the 
legacy of The Wizard of Oz has received rather sparse critical 
reception. Taking place in the same month that saw the release of the 
film in the UK, this conference seeks to fill this void and explore the 
film and its legacy through a series of innovative presentations that 
explores ideas such as:

·       the Wizard of Oz within American and UK television programming;

·       young women’s agency;

·       the philosophy of technology;

·       representations of twisters, tornados, and hurricanes;

·       the politics of Oz;

·       Technicolor and the emergence of colour film;

·       the Hollywood musical;

·       stardom and fandom;

·       intermedial history and the story’s migration to other media;

·       paratexts, advertising, memorabilia, and tourism;

·       music, magic, witches and myth;

·       representations of the American rural landscape and the Depression;

·       gender and sexuality;

·       the Wizard of Oz and cultural capital;

·       carnivals, travelling shows, and fairgrounds;

·       costume and the iconography of shoes.

·       creative explorations of myth.

Proposals are welcomed from all academic disciplines and can take the 
form of a paper, performance, artwork or poster presentation. Innovative 
presentation formats are encouraged. The conference will include a fancy 
dress, sing-along screening of the film.

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Please submit a 300 word abstract to (ozat75 /at/ gmail.com) 
by 31 March, 2014. Papers should be 15-20 minutes in length.

Dr Frank Gray (University of Brighton), Dr Louise Fitzgerald (University 
of Brighton), Dr Kieran Fenby-Hulse (Bath Spa University)

Conference Twitter Account: @Ozat75  Hashtag: #ozat75
www.arts.brighton.ac.uk/ozat75

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