[ecrea] cfp: Heroism as a Global Phenomenon in Popular Culture

Collaborative Research Centre 948: Heroes—Heroizations—Heroisms

www.sfb948.uni-freiburg.de/?page=1 
<http://www.sfb948.uni-freiburg.de/?page=1>

*Call for Papers:*

*International Conference "Heroism as a Global Phenomenon in Popular 
Culture"
Freiburg, Germany, September 28-30 2017*

Organized by Michael Butter (Tübingen), Nicole Falkenhayner, Wolfgang 
Hochbruck, Barbara Korte (Freiburg) and Simon Wendt (Frankfurt a. M.)

In an age of globalization and transnationalism, heroes transcend their 
cultural spheres of origin and are re-rooted, adapted and translated in 
new local contexts across the world. We understand (male and female) 
heroes as a phenomenon of exceptionality that has a positive 
significance in relation to the values, ideals and norms of the 
communities in which these figures are admired, followed, functionalized 
but also debated. In this process of “glocalization,” popular culture, 
with its world-wide markets and media, is a driving force. Such 
different media as films, comics, graphic novels, computer games, or 
internet blogs construct and disseminate narratives about heroes and 
heroisms across the globe and are consumed in the Global North as well 
as the Global South. At the same time, there are centres of 
dissemination – including Hollywood, Bollywood, or Hongkong – that 
continue to dominate processes of production and dissemination of hero 
narratives.

This multidisciplinary conference aims to highlight the complex and 
interrelated processes of creation, marketing, consumption, and impact, 
of globalized hero narratives, as well as the numerous cultural flows of 
exchange that have made them possible since the end of World War II. We 
are interested in contributions (case studies) which conceive of heroism 
as a transcultural and transnational phenomenon that may originate in 
one particular nation but ultimately transcends borders. Questions to be 
discussed would include how the meanings of heroic figures and 
narratives are changed in cultural translation, or what specific 
processes are active in the world-wide exchange of figures and concepts 
of the heroic. Case studies can focus on situations in Europe, North 
America, Africa and Asia.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

- culturally different notions of the heroic that come into contact when 
hero narratives cross borders and function globally

- superhero movies and the role that global markets play in the ways in 
which they are designed and narrated

- the ways in which hero narratives from one nation (e.g. the United 
States) are adopted and adapted in other nations or regions (e.g. 
Japan/Asia) and vice versa

- the processes of exchange between the fictional and the factual in 
relation to the heroic (e.g. the adoption of the /Hunger Games/ gesture 
by political protesters in Thailand)

Please submit abstracts of c. 200 words and a short CV to the organizers 
via *(sekretariat.korte /at/ anglistik.uni-freiburg.de) 
<mailto:(sekretariat.korte /at/ anglistik.uni-freiburg.de)>* by *December 31, 
2016*.

Selected speakers will be reimbursed for the travel and accommodation costs.



--
Dr. Nicole Falkenhayner
Projektleiterin DFG FA 1253/1-1 "CCTV Beyond Surveillance"
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Englisches Seminar
Rempartstr. 15
79085 Freiburg (Germany)

---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier and ECREA.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Chauss�de Waterloo 1151, 1180 Uccle, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------