[Commlist] Call for Papers: Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook

Call for Papers: Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook

For more information, click here >> 
https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/MediaManager/File/NL/Northern%20Lights%20(CFP)jan2019(1).pdf

Special issue: ‘Horrific bodies: Surveillance, screens and screams’

Edited by Susan Flynn, University of the Arts, London and Antonia 
Mackay, Oxford Brookes University

Body horror concerns narratives in which the corporeal uncanny is 
produced through the destruction or annihilation of the natural human 
body. The contemporary screen contains countless examples of horrified 
and terrified bodies; watched, tracked, analysed, transformed and 
degenerated, these ‘horrific’ bodies speak to the angst of the current 
social, cultural, political and technological world in which we reside. 
The practices of surveillance, both diegetic and non-diegetic, offer new 
versions of modern horror; while the horror genre itself has been 
generously theorized and analysed, its intersection with practices of 
surveillance opens up new avenues for discussion and the possibility for 
radical critique of representational systems. Surveillance, of and 
within horror narratives, offers a particular nuance to our readings of 
the genre, and the critique of surveillance itself may help us to 
excavate how we construct notions of gender, race and power, as well as 
the psychological terror and fear of surveillance itself. The focus of 
this special edition of Northern Lights, therefore, is the intersection 
between the horror genre and practices of surveillance, and this edition 
seeks to promote emergent approaches to screen analysis.

Notions of surveillance have long captivated the creative imagination 
and been envisioned at multiple sites, through narratives, images and 
performances. Whilst surveillance studies as a field of enquiry 
ostensibly concerns the production of new theoretical and empirical 
understandings of human behaviour vis-à-vis a burgeoning field of 
technological development, the project of this issue of Northern Lights 
is to employ cultural surveillance studies to better understand the 
human, psychic and bodily affects/effects and manifestations of the 
practices of surveillance. Operating within the paradigm of cultural 
studies, we seek to delve into the realm of surveillance as it is 
portrayed on screen so that we may explore the critical juncture at 
which surveillance renders bodies ‘horrified’.

The ubiquity of surveillance within horror narratives, one might argue, 
is perfectly placed to draw attention to cinematic processes, while at 
the same time, de- naturalizing the human body. The editors are 
particularly interested in transgressive visions of surveillance from 
within the horror genre that also consider the ways in which the 
surveillant field emerges from beyond the lens.

Areas of exploration may include architecture and horror (haunted houses 
for instance) as sites of surveillance; the body as a corporeal 
manifestation of visibility from within the discourse of slasher and 
gore narratives; the use of omnipotent watching as a dystopian motif in 
contemporary cinema (and its links to political and cultural change); 
and the manifestation of surveillant practices in horror that stem from 
geographical or topographical positions (prisons, schools, suburbia, 
cities, etc). Recognition of the prevalence of surveillance not only in 
our past but also in our future requires that we acknowledge the 
ubiquity of surveillance in our cultural products and psyche and attest 
to the manipulation of the gaze present in on-screen horror.

We seek new and original approaches that move beyond traditional 
theories of surveillance, and of horror. Potential topics may include, 
but are not limited to:

Radical readings of horror through surveillance
Feminist horror criticism for the digital age
The new horror of digital interference
The corporeal, biotechnology and the digital
Slasher films and surveillance
Contemporary psychological terror
The abject and the corporeal
Architectural constructions of the ‘horrific’
The watching of othered bodies from within a transgressive surveillant lens
Television series and use of the nostalgic as a lens by which to 
critique the contemporary
Postcolonial readings of film that speak of the viewing of racial bodies 
and their ‘use’ and ‘appropriation’ within the horror genre
Spoof horror and B-movies and their application of surveillant lenses 
from within the skewed and comedic
Transitional spaces and the borders and territories of the horrific 
(motels for instance)
Movement and the supernatural as a means by which to transgress the lens

Abstracts of 400–500 words, together with a brief biographical note, 
should be submitted by 10 February 2019. Please email these directly to 
(s.flynn /at/ lcc.arts.ac.uk) <mailto:(s.flynn /at/ lcc.arts.ac.uk)>. Complete papers 
of 6500–7000 words are due on 1 July 2019.

Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook is published by 
Intellect. Please refer to the style guide here: 
https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/ 
MediaManager/File/intellectstyleguide2016v1.pdf
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