[Commlist] cfp: Horror Outside of Film/TV: Special Ed of Journal of Entertainment Media

This is a CFP for a special issue of 'Refractory: A Journal of 
Entertainment Media' that will be themed around Nightmares, Nations and 
Innovations. This edition will focus on horror outside of film/TV and 
will be published on Halloween 2021.
Articles (3-8k words) will explore the ways in which the horror genre 
functions in all its multifarious forms outside of film/TV, to explore 
the synergies between the horror film and popular culture. By 
approaching horror away from the screen, it hopes to examine the 
interconnections between the complex forces at work on both sides of the 
horror equation: the economies of modern entertainment industries and 
production practice, cultural and political forums, spectators and fans.

Articles sought in and around the following areas:
- Appropriation and use of horror texts by fans
- Immersive horror & Hallowe’en experiences  - Dark rides & haunted 
attractions
- Horror in video games or horror themed DLC & modding
- Horror podcasts
- Synergies between the horror film and popular culture
- Horror-centric social & cultural internet phenomena (Images, Memes, GIFS)
- Horror and transmedia storytelling
- Cosplay, apocalypse-ready (pandemic) fashion, Halloween costumes - 
Monsters as pop culture heroes & monster merchandise

Please send a short abstract and author bio to Gerard Gibson 
<(Gibson-G8 /at/ ulster.ac.uk)> and John Kavanagh <(Kavanagh-J7 /at/ ulster.ac.uk)> by 
Dec 11. Articles will be selected in Dec and should be completed by May.

Here's a little more info on our special edition:

Ndalianis (2012) theorises that horror is about the crossing of 
boundaries, suggesting that horror manifests where order falls into 
chaos and meaning collapses. Jowett and Abbott (2013), persuasively 
assert that horror has long ago successfully entered the mainstream, 
permeating popular culture. If these are so, have scholarly distinctions 
in horror been outmoded by new technologies, experiences and audience 
practices? Are academic distinctions in horror supported, complicated or 
eroded by such developments?
If horror has transcended cultural boundaries can national ones be far 
behind? Horror films and literature are marketed internationally. 
Creations like Carpenter and Hill’s homicidal Michael Myers are 
international brands, almost global folk characters, and worth millions. 
Popular Halloween experiences, immersive horror and dark rides take the 
intellectual chills of the horror story and embody them for corporeal, 
haptic experience, transforming the narrative into the material, fright 
into flesh. Horror, Cherry (2009) reminds us, is highly adaptable, 
finding expression in a multitude of forms; nationally, internationally, 
globally and across a wide palette of media. The aesthetics of horror 
and cute culture collide/converge in merchandise, figures toys and GIFs. 
Monsters, serial killers, demons and ghosts are conventionalised on 
children’s clothing and as plushies. Do stories and characters remain in 
the hands of the creators and production companies or are they, as 
Jenkins (1992) argues, poached and appropriated by the fans? How does 
such poaching manifest in fan participation? Where do concepts of 
authorships sit in such a participatory culture? How have audiences 
taken horror and made it their own? Do narratives combine and 
storytelling practices intermingle? Does proliferation affect mainstream 
tastes and interests? Has it informed fashion? Has horror stepped off 
the screen and into our everyday lives? Might this erode the power of 
horror? If the transgressive is now the everyday, what remains taboo?

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