[ecrea] CFP: Representations of Horror in the 21st Century

*CFP: Don’t Look: Representations of Horror in the 21^st  Century*

*One Day Symposium*

**

28^th  April 2018

University of Edinburgh

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn (Manchester Metropolitan 
University)**

We live in scary, uncertain times. In recent years, we have witnessed 
the rise of hard-line nationalism, the ascendency of racist alt-right 
politics and attacks on the increasingly fragile-looking institution of 
democracy. We contend, daily, with the threat of seemingly inevitable 
ecological catastrophe. The Horror genre has always been understood as a 
potent mirror and bellwether, able to digest the socio-cultural and 
political currents of a given moment and feed them back to us in 
uncompromising and disturbing ways. This conference seeks to consider 
how representations of horror are changing in our own contemporary 
moment, where the line between fiction and reality, truth and lies 
appears to be fraying beyond recognition.

Recent academic scholarship on horror has diverged towards topics such 
as: fear and the appearance of reality within found footage horror; the 
multisensory perception of horror in video games, television and theme 
parks; and the rise of concepts such as 'The Horror of Philosophy'. 
There has also been a focus towards contemporary studies of Queer Horror 
and appropriation, audience participation, and changing tastes in horror 
fandom. This one-day multidisciplinary conference seeks to analyse 
representations of horror since 2000, with particular emphasis on 
current trends and cycles, and the ways in which horror can be said to 
reflect contemporary anxieties and fears.  We are specifically 
interested in determining some of the ways in which these aesthetics 
have changed and why. We would especially welcome research that 
addresses the causes of some of these changes in representations of 
horror across media and academic disciplines.

PAPERS

(for 20-minute presentations)

Topics might include (but are not limited to):

Contemporary Representations of Body Horror

Generic Mutations

New Horror Television (/American Horror Story/, /The Walking Dead, 
Stranger Things/, /Hannibal/, etc.)

Abjection and Transgression

Horror and Trauma

Experimental/Avant-Garde/Underground Horror: Film, Art and Literature

Horror and Nostalgia

Transmutation/Metamorphosis

News Media Representations of Horror

Virtual Reality (VR) horror

Horror and Disability

Contemporary Cult Horror

New Genres, Subgenres and Hybrids

Horror and the Senses

Queer Horror and Performance

Horror Fandom and Audiences

Literary Horror Adaptations

Shudder, Chiller and Contemporary Horror Networks and Viewing Platforms

WORK IN PROGRESS

As a postgraduate led conference, we also welcome submissions from 
Masters and PhD students to present work-in-progress papers, which will 
be 15 minutes in length (as opposed to the usual 20 minutes). We believe 
these work-in-progress panels will be useful for gaining helpful 
feedback from peers on ongoing research.

SUBMITTING ABSTRACTS

Please submit proposals of 200-250 words, along with a short 
biographical note (100 words) to (dontlookconference /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(dontlookconference /at/ gmail.com)> by *Wednesday 7^th  February 
2018*. Accepted presentations should be 20 minutes in length (15 min for 
work in progress).

We also welcome video essay proposals. Contributors should upload their 
video to Vimeo, preferably to a password protected page, then email the 
relevant URL and password, along with a 200-word proposal and a short 
biographical note (100 words) to (dontlookconference /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(dontlookconference /at/ gmail.com)> by* Wednesday 7^th  February 
2018*. PLEASE NOTE: We ask that video essays be no longer than 10 
minutes in length, to allow sufficient time to make a formal 
presentation after the video is screened.

Applicants will be notified of the outcome by *Monday 19^th  February 
2018. *Updates on the symposium will be made available on our Word Press 
site:

http://www.dontlook.llc.ed.ac.uk/ <http://www.dontlook.llc.ed.ac.uk/>



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