[Commlist] CFP "Transmediality and interactivity in the fantastic"

*CFP. /BRUMAL. REVISTA DE INVESTIGACIÓN SOBRE LO FANTÁSTICO/*

The call for papers for articles for the sections “Monograph” and 
“Miscellaneous” for the /Brumal. Revista de Investigación sobre lo 
Fantástico/ //Brumal. //Research Journal on the Fantastic /is now open.

Scholars who wish to contribute to either of these two sections should 
send us their articles registering 
<https://revistes.uab.cat/brumal/user/register> as authors on our web 
page. The Guidelines for Submissions may be found on the Submissions 
<https://revistes.uab.cat/brumal/about/submissions#authorGuidelines> section 
of the web page.

*Monographic Issue: "*Transmediality and interactivity in the fantastic" 
(coord. Miguel Carrera)

*Deadline: june 15, 2020*

One of the characteristics that define fictional production in the 21^st 
  century is its tendency to distribute itself among numerous media of 
expression: television, cinema, literature, comic-books, theater, video 
games, role-playing games, etc. Far from leading to dispersion or to the 
proliferation of watertight compartments, such inclination – also 
present in other communicative practices – has led to the convergence of 
all these areas. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult, 
even inappropriate, to limit the focus of attention to a single medium 
and ignore the rest: stories expand to two, three or more of these 
environments, aspiring to preserve the unity of sense in heterogeneity. 
Thus, to get to a thorough and complete understanding of the message, 
the recipient – and, therefore, the critic – has to consider different 
creative domains and apply several reading codes. This agent is 
simultaneously endowed, in contemporary creation, with a much more 
active and decisive role than he/she used to possess. Expected to 
interact with fictional products, as a member of a participatory and 
empowered culture, his/her intervention – often essential – oscillates 
between the interpellation and analysis from various discussion forums – 
especially the Internet and social networks – and direct participation 
in the imaginary universes, either expanding them in media different 
from than the one where they originated, or immersing themselves 
effectively in those worlds and influencing – either as an avatar, or 
playing a character – the course of the action.

These two complementary trends point to the terms on which the proposed 
monograph is based: transmedia(lity) and interactivity. Its goal: to 
trace the importance of these realities in the fantastic genre or mode, 
both in theoretical formulations and practical realizations.

Widely addressed in akin modalities such as science fiction or medieval 
fantasy (think, for example, of successful franchises, and recurring 
objects of analysis, such as /Star Wars/, /A Song of Ice and Fire/ or 
/Lord of the Rings/, which transcended their original medium long ago, 
and where the interference of fans has become the norm), the concept of 
/transmedial/, or /transmedia/, has not had, to date, much repercussion 
in studies on the fantastic, at least as /Brumal/ conceives it (that is, 
as the irruption of the impossible into a world in appearance similar to 
ours, in tune with Caillois’s and Roas’s theories). As for 
interactivity, it also has not received the due attention yet, despite 
the interest raised in recent years by expressions rarely considered 
artistic in the past, like video games, haunted attractions, fan 
fiction, “choose your own adventure” novels, etc. That is why it is 
urgent to undertake a project like the current one, in which we analyze, 
among other things, how speeches and stories have migrated from one 
medium to another – if that was not designed like that from the 
beginning –, to what extent inter-dependence between the different media 
has been promoted, and how, in this process, the community of readers, 
spectators, players or, in general, fans has played an increasingly 
active and crucial role. It is at this junction, or convergence, between 
the transmedia(l) and the interactive towards which we want the 
participants of the issue to look.

*Main themes*:

  * Originally, or strategic, transmedia(l) narratives of the fantastic.
  * Expanded universes of the fantastic (or /tactical transmedia/).
  * Appropriation, reworking and expansion of figures, motives and other
    references of the fantastic at the hands of fans.
  * Theoretical relations between the concepts of transmedia(lity),
    intermedia(lity) and multimedia(lity) in the fantastic.
  * Reflections on the concept of authorship in the fantastic
    transmedia(lity).
  * New interactive modes of the fantastic (video games, haunted
    attractions, role-playing games, escape rooms, etc.) and their
    relationship with other media.
  * Interactions, in social networks and in other forums, between
    fictional productions and fans of the fantastic.
/Brumal/ will only consider works of a fantastic nature as defined by 
the journal <https://revistes.uab.cat/brumal/index>, hereby only 
accepting papers on other non-mimetic genres such as the marvellous or 
science fiction if and when they are related to fantastic narrative.

*Miscellaneous Section*

This Miscellaneous section is open all year to receive any type of 
article on any of the diverse artistic manifestations of the fantastic 
(narrative, theater, film, comics, painting, photography, video games), 
whether theoretical, critical, historical or comparative in nature, 
concerning the fantastic in any language or from any country, from the 
nineteenth century to the present.

URL: https://revistes.uab.cat/brumal/pages/view/callforpaper

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