[Commlist] CFP: Supernatural Cities

*CFP Revenant Special Edition: Supernatural Cities*

**

*Guest Editors: Alicia Edwards (Manchester Metropolitan University), Dr 
Rachael Ironside (Robert Gordon University)*

Gothic and Dark Tourism are burgeoning fields of academic study but 
scholarship on their intersection with the urban supernatural, even in 
the field of Gothic studies, remains limited. The supernatural is a 
multifaceted and polysemic form of cultural expression and belief, 
providing fertile ground to explore themes of history, heritage, 
collective memory, and performativity. Historically, the supernatural 
has been used across varying cultures as an embodiment of their past, 
markers of landscape and its borders and boundaries, and forms of 
social, cultural, and creative expression, their stories serving as 
intangible heritage. Cities draw upon and commercialise supernatural 
stories as a form of placemaking and to provide opportunities for 
contemporary forms of legend-tripping and tourism. In doing so, scholars 
have recognised the value of the supernatural to place as an economic 
and cultural resource to promote heritage engagement and present 
difficult histories (Thomas, 2015; Thompson 2010). Supernatural stories 
can act as a form of social memory (Richardson, 2003), revealing hidden 
heritage and a glimpse behind the historical curtain of places and their 
layers of social and cultural past (Hanks, 2011). They can also 
reconfigure our relationship to physical spaces (Bell 2012). However, 
others have recognised the negative consequences of using folklore as a 
tool for placemaking leading to illegal activity (Waskul & Waskul, 
2016), the commodification of heritage, and the fragmentation of 
historical and personal narratives (Goldstein, Grider, and Thomas 2007).

In this issue, we are interested in documenting how the supernatural 
shapes various global cities and the cultural practices that inform how 
urban places are represented, identified, and transformed into spaces of 
supernatural engagement. This issue builds on Jeannie Banks Thomas’s 
‘weird space’ (2015). Drawing on Edward Soja’s notion of ‘Thirdspace’ 
(1996), in which the boundaries between the material realities and the 
imagined, supernatural space collapse; ‘it is both objective and 
subjective, concrete and abstract, real and imagined, of the moment and 
historical’ (2015: 20). The in-between spaces, those strange and uncanny 
irruptions, are where supernatural cities emerge; it is how we can 
practice supernatural place (Thomas, 2015). We are also interested in 
the role of digital technology in mediating these interactions. 
Advancements in mobile technology, augmented and virtual reality present 
new opportunities for engagement with urban environments, and the 
co-creation and construction of folklore and Gothic narratives in real 
and virtual supernatural spaces. This special edition will chart some of 
these spaces globally to investigate and draw comparisons between how 
the supernatural works, adapts, and resists urban development.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

  * Gothic tourism
  * Supernatural guidebooks and other tourism literature
  * Urban legend-tripping
  * Urban supernatural place-making and placemaking
  * The intersections of dark tourism and the supernatural
  * Urban armchair tourism in supernatural literature, film, drama,
    journalism, video games, television, graphic novels, radio plays,
    podcasts, the Internet, and comics
  * Social media and the urban supernatural
  * Digital tourism and the urban supernatural
  * Explorations on the function of the supernatural in heritage and
    historical memory
  * Postcolonial, Ethnogothic, or Global (re)readings of urban
    supernatural and place
  * Commercialisation of the supernatural in urban places
  * The opportunities and challenges of supernatural storytelling in
    urban environments

In addition to a general call for creative pieces on the urban 
supernatural we invite audio and written submissions of supernatural 
folktales from cities across the globe. These submissions will form a 
written and audio catalogue of supernatural stories informing an 
exploration of the connections and diversity of stories in international 
urban environments.

We also invite reviews of books, films, games, and art related to 
supernatural cities. Given the special issues focus, reviews of 
supernatural tourism activities and events from around the world are 
most welcome.

For articles and creative pieces (such as poetry, short stories, audio, 
and video submissions) please send a 200-300 word abstract and short 
biography (50 words) *by 14th January 2022*. If your abstract is 
accepted, the full article (maximum 6000 words, including Harvard 
referencing) or the full creative piece (maximum written piece 5000 
words, maximum audio/ visual piece 10 minutes) will be *due 30th June 
2022*. Reviews of supernatural tourism activities and events, books, 
films, games, and art related to supernatural cities will be considered 
(800-1000 words). Please send full details of the title and medium you 
would like to review *by 14th January 2022*.

Further information, including Submission Guidelines, are available at 
the journal website: www.revenantjournal.com.   Enquiries are welcome 
and, along with all submissions, should be directed to both Dr Rachael 
Ironside ((r.j.ironside /at/ rgu.ac.uk) <mailto:(r.j.ironside /at/ rgu.ac.uk)> ) and 
Alicia Edwards ((alicia.edwards /at/ stu.mmu.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(alicia.edwards /at/ stu.mmu.ac.uk)> ). If emailing the journal 
directly at (revenant /at/ falmouth.ac.uk) please quote ‘Supernatural Cities 
special issue’ in the subject box.


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