[ecrea] CFP - special issue 'TV and History'

Call for Papers

Special issue:  “Television and History. OR: The Past as a TV Series�


The role of ‘History’ in television has been burgeoning over the 
last decade. Historical subjects appear in all sorts of programmes, with 
historical subjects making their appearances in various forms of virtual 
history, alternate history, hybrid forms of docu-tainment and 
docu-fiction, from re-enacted authenticity to pure fantasy.

Famous historical figures and historical framings of a wide range of 
topics are more and more frequently used in order to produce television 
series and mini-series, which creates the impression that public 
broadcasters and private television producers are convinced that 
‘History sells’.

Indeed, the representation of historical subjects appears to establish 
itself as a universal genre next to that of crime in contemporary 
television. In other words, “all human and all too human� 
(Nietzsche) is placed in this genre. And in each distinctive historical 
framing, this contributes to entertaining and educating the viewers 
(delectare / prodesse).

For a special issue of the interdisciplinary and international journal 
SPIEL - New Series. A Journal on Media Culture we are looking for papers 
addressing the growing field of research on ‘Television and History’.

Papers may address a range of issues, including, but not limited to the 
following questions:

•	While there is hardly any doubt that the entertainment factor is 
what guarantees the success with audiences, it is less clear which role 
education plays in such television production, e.g. what kind of 
historical or even historiographical lessons are viewers exposed to 
through such series?
•	Whether, and to what extent, and through which filmographic and 
aesthetic means is the past staged or re-enacted?
•	Is there a recurring dramaturgy or a typical aesthetic?
•	Are there patterns of image design that distinguish ‘real 
history’ from fictional re-enactment?
•	Are we seeing the emergence of a distinctive aesthetic form of 
‘history on demand’?
•	On which conception of historiography are such series based? (e.g. 
history as a collection of examples for correct behaviour; history as a 
linear imagination with an open-ended future trajectory, etc.).
•	Is there any connection to any generally accepted historiographical 
context, i.e. can the represented past be recognized as a narrative 
(re-)construction or does it remain in a ‘closed’ imagery of the 
past (‘this is how it really happened’)?
•	Are these television programs more likely to contribute to the 
formation of a traditional, dual historical awareness, or specifically 
to a more ‘modern’ one that exists beyond this dichotomy?
•	Or do such programs actually tend to destroy any form and every 
acceptance of a critical historical access to ‘history’?

Contributing authors are invited to engage with these and related questions.

We welcome contributions that address such questions with reference to 
television series of national and international calibre, as well as 
publically-funded and private television productions, with a particular 
focus on TV productions dating from the last 15 years.

Some examples might include: Call the Midwife (Passion, D), Apocalypse. 
La 2ème guerre mondiale (France television, F), Mad Men (Lionsgate, 
USA), Tut (Amazon Prime, USA), Olympus (GB, Reunion Pictures), Spartacus 
(Starz, USA), Marco Polo (Netflix, USA), Wolf Hall (BBC, GB), Mit Dolch 
und Degen (Arte, D/F), Versailles (Canal +, F),  Downtown Abbey (ITV, UK 
und Irland), Weissensee (ARD, D),  Romanzo Criminale (Sky Italia, I), La 
Piovra ( RAI, I), etc.


To express your interest, please send your abstract of max. 500 words to 
both Edgar Lersch ((edgar.lersch /at/ medienkomm.uni-halle.de)) and Reinhold 
Viehoff ((viehoff /at/ medienkomm.uni)-halle) by 15 January 2016.

The deadline for submitting full-length papers of max 30,000 characters 
(incl. spaces and incl. references, bibliography, footnotes, etc.) will 
be the 1st July 2016. Papers may be submitted in English or German.

All papers will be subject to a full peer-review process.

The special issue is scheduled to appear in autumn 2016.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with the editors should you have 
any questions.


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