[ecrea] CFP Apocalypse and TV

Call for contributions: Small Screen Revelations: 
apocalypse and prophecy in contemporary television

Editor: Marcus ODonnell
Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press
Series: Apocalypse and Popular Culture
Series Editor: Dr John Walliss
Publication date: late 2009

Contributions are required for a new collection 
of essays that explores the apocalyptic and 
prophetic in contemporary television drama and 
news reportage. It will form part of the 
Sheffield Phoenix Apocalypse and Popular Culture 
Series which is being produced in association 
with the Hope Centre for Millennialism Studies at Liverpool Hope University.

The volume will explore the intersection of 
apocalyptic and prophetic archetypes, story 
patterns, motifs and characters in contemporary 
televisual storytelling and reportage. Although 
the volume is specifically focused on essays 
which analyse the manifestations of these 
biblical genres in contemporary popular form we 
are interested in a wide variety of 
interdisciplinary perspectives that draw upon the 
resources of cultural studies, screen studies, 
journalism and media studies, sociology, 
political science, religious studies, 
anthropology, theology and biblical studies.

While a number of collections have explored 
cinematic representations of the apocalyptic, 
comparatively little work has been produced on 
the specifically televisual dimensions of 
contemporary apocalyptics. This volume aims to 
begin to map this area. One of the unique 
approaches of this volume is the decision to 
survey both television drama as well as news and 
current affairs. Raymond Williams famously 
described television production and consumption 
as flow which incorporates a collage of 
televisual experience ranging through drama, news 
and advertising. One of the underlying 
assumptions of this volume is that there are a 
range of important connections that deserve 
sustained analysis in the flow between 
apocalyptic images of the nightly news and 
apocalyptic scenarios of contemporary TV drama. 
We are interested in contributions which treat 
either of these domains separately but 
particularly welcome essays which seek to draw 
connections between the dramatic and the 
documentary. In either case authors should 
address the current cultural and political 
context as well as the aesthetic and biblical 
dimensions of contemporary television productions.

The volume will focus on post 2000 productions 
although space will be given to important 1990s 
precursors to the current crop of apocalyptic 
television series. Consideration will be given to 
essays which focus on earlier works if the 
proposal is particularly strong and includes an 
analysis which draws out connections/contrasts 
with contemporary productions or issues. Essays 
which focus on a single series or moment of 
reportage as well as essays which follow a 
particular theme across a number of different 
programs or television genres are both welcome.

The following general areas have been identified 
as a possible structure for the volume but at 
this stage it is only indicative and should not 
be read as precluding other concerns:
1.      The monstrous and strange: revelations, visions and supernatural signs
2.      The final conflict: good versus evil and apocalyptic violence
3.      Remnant communities in apocalyptic times
4.      Comings and goings at the end: the raptured and the returned
5.      Fate and fatalism in contemporary televisual apocalyptics
6.      Prophets and preachers of the end: contemporary jeremiads

Essays dealing with one or more of the following 
television series are particularly welcome but 
again it is an indicative rather than a prescriptive list:
"       24
"       Angel
"       Babylon Five
"       Battlestar Galactica
"       Buffy
"       Carnivale
"       Jericho
"       Lost
"       Millennium
"       Revelations
"       Supernatural
"       Star Trek
"       The 4400
"       The Second Coming
"       Twin Peaks
"       X Files

Essays dealing with one or more or of the 
following aspects of contemporary television news 
reportage are also particularly welcome but again the list is indicative only:
"       News of wars and rumours of wars: apocalyptic nightly news
"       The fate of the earth: science and nature documentaries
"       Journalistic jeremiads
"       Reporting of Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters
"       Reporting environmental crisis
"       Televising terror: live broadcast journalism after September 11
"       Routine television news values and the apocalyptic
"       Reporting from the developing world: othering the apocalypse

Timeline

Email proposals should be sent to the editor 
((marcuso /at/ uow.edu.au)) by 5 May 2008. Proposals 
should include a chapter abstract of up to 500 
words and a brief biographical note that details 
the authors academic affiliations and relevant 
publication history. Where possible copies of 
previously published articles in the area or 
thesis chapters should also be included. 
Confirmation of acceptance should be finalised by 
early August 2008 and initial drafts of chapters 
will be expected by March 2009 with a publication 
date of late 2009. Final contributions should 
range between 6,000 - 10,000 words with more 
space applying to those who take a broad comparative approach.

Preliminary email enquiries and/or early 
proposals to the editor are welcome and encouraged.

Marcus ODonnell
School of Journalism and Creative Writing
University of Wollongong
(marcuso /at/ uow.edu.au)


Apocalypse and Popular Culture Series is a 
sub-series of the Sheffield Phoenix Bible and 
Society series. As such, the focus of each volume 
is on the ways in which Biblical apocalyptic 
texts, themes and dramatis personae are drawn 
upon, transformed and consumed within aspects of 
popular culture. Five volumes are currently under 
development dealing with film, television, 
cyberculture, music and literary/graphic texts. 
The series is being produced in association with 
the Hope Centre for Millennialism Studies at 
Liverpool Hope University under the general 
editorship of the centres director Dr John Walliss.

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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Studies on Media and Culture (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
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