[Commlist] Call for Papers: Edited Collection: Researching Horror Fans and Audiences in the Twenty-First Century

*Edited by: James Rendell and Kate Egan*

**

*Submission**deadline: 31^st July 2022.*

If ‘[w]e… want to think about horror as an umbrella term encompassing 
several different sub-categories’ (Cherry 2009: 3), frequently clustered 
as ‘cycles’ located on particular media at specific times and places 
(Mittell 2004: 8; Hutchings 2004: 15-16), then horror fans are even more 
nebula. From the individual illegally downloading rare banned cinema 
from other parts of the world to the parents taking their children to a 
kid-friendly /Stranger Things /Secret Cinema matinee event, horror 
fandom is a leviathan that is both shapeshifting and hydra-headed. There 
are those who love certain monsters, subgenres, and creatives, whilst 
others enjoy the genre via specific media such as novels, theatre, 
cinema, TV, and video games. Equally, the types of affective pleasure 
that come from consuming horror media are myriad: the thrills of being 
scared (Barker et al. 2016), to the emotional bond formed with 
characters (Rendell 2019), to valuing subcultural knowledge-over-effect 
(Hills 2005). Likewise, intersectional make-up such as gender, race, 
sexuality, and nationality inform audience responses to horror media and 
shape fan identity (e.g. Johnson 2015; Morales**2021). Conversely, 
horror fandom is often married with anti-fandom reacting to perceived 
misuses of the genre, such as cult fans’ disdain for Hollywood teen 
Gothic blockbusters, viewers who prefer aesthetic restraint over the 
shock and gore of depicted corporeal trauma, and those who find issues 
with onscreen representations or lack thereof. Moreover, the variety of 
fan practices further complicates horror fandoms as participatory 
cultures, oscillating between the textual and tactile, between the 
offline and online, and between affirmational and transformative works. 
We might also note that whilst devotees invest time, energy, and 
finances into consuming an array of genre paratexts (e.g. Sexton 2015), 
there are also audiences who casually or infrequently enjoy horror (e.g. 
Church 2021). Yet, despite the continual study of horror media, the 
industries producing it, and the cultures or nations from which it 
arises, comparatively the examination of horror fans have been left 
somewhat in the shadows (Hills**2014: 90; Barker et al. 2016: 66-67). 
Addressing this shortcoming, this edited collection seeks a diverse 
range of chapters on horror audiences, fans, and anti-fans. Topics could 
include (but are not limited to):

  * Horror fans and affect
  * Identity and horror fandom
  * Horror fandom of specific texts, monsters, subgenres, creatives, or
    media
  * Life cycles of horror fandom
  * Transmedia and horror audiences
  * Horror fans collecting, paratexts, and merchandise
  * Controversy surrounding horror audiences and intra-fandom conflict
  * Horror anti-fandom
  * Horror fandoms’ online cultures and digital media
  * Transformative horror fan works
  * Haptic fan experiences and tactile fan crafts
  * Horror fandom and the body – cosplay, clothing, tattoos
  * National, transcultural, and global horror fandom
  * Lay audiences and causal fandom
  * Genre nostalgia, memories of horrors past, and audiences’
    experiences of horror media
  * Horror fans and public events – conventions, festivals, themed
    events, and experiential cinema**

Please submit abstracts (maximum 350 words) and bios (maximum 150 
words), or any questions you have, to James Rendell 
((james.rendell /at/ southwales.ac.uk) <mailto:(james.rendell /at/ southwales.ac.uk)>) 
and Kate Egan ((kate.egan /at/ northumbria.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(kate.egan /at/ northumbria.ac.uk)>). There is an intention to submit 
the collection for the 21st Century Horror series at EUP who have 
expressed initial interest. *Submission* *deadline: 31^st July 2022.*

//

*/Work Cited/*

Barker, M., Egan, K., Phillips, T. and Ralph, S. 2016. /Alien Audiences: 
Remembering and Evaluating a Classic Movie/. Basingstoke: Palgrave 
Macmillan.

Cherry, B. 2009. /Horror/. London: Routledge.

Church, D. 2021. /Post-Horror: Art, Genre, and Cultural Elevation/. 
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Hills, M. 2005. /The Pleasures of Horror/. London: Continuum.*__*

Hills, M. 2014. ‘Horror Reception/Audiences.’ In Benshoff, H.M. (ed). /A 
Companion to the Horror Film/. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. pp:90-108

Hutchings, P. 2004. /The Horror Film. /Harlow://Pearson Longman.*__*

Johnson, D. D. 2015. ‘Misogynoir and Antiblack Racism: What /The Walking 
Dead/ Teaches us About the Limits of Speculative Fiction Fandom.’ 
/Journal of Fandom Studies/. 3(3). pp:259-275

Mittell, J. 2004. /Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in 
American Culture/. New York: Routledge.*__*

Morales, O. 2021. ‘The Visceral in Latinx Horror’. /Flow/ [online]. 
27^th April. Available at: 
http://www.flowjournal.org/2021/04/visceral-in-latinx-horror/ 
<http://www.flowjournal.org/2021/04/visceral-in-latinx-horror/>

Rendell, J. 2019. A picture is worth a thousand corpses: Audiences’ 
affective engagement with /In the Flesh/ and /The Walking Dead/ through 
online image practices. /Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception 
Studies/. 16(2). pp.88-117

Sexton, J. 2015. Creeping Decay: Cult Soundtracks, Residual Media, and 
Digital Technologies. /New Review of Film and Television Studies/. 
13(1). pp:12-30


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