Bad Objects: The Velvet Light Trap Issue #85 CFP

Hello, all!

The Velvet Light Trap is proud to present the CFP for our 85th issue: Bad
Objects!

The concept of a “bad object” has long been a moving target in media
studies. Although the term is rarely defined with any specificity, a “bad
object” is typically a text that is used in critical analysis with the
implicit or explicit acknowledgement of its perceived violations of “good”
taste. Excess, camp, escapism, the abject, and negotiations of the margins
of mainstream culture often mark these objects. The concept is important in
feminist and psychoanalytic theories, as well as in genre studies, in which
it is mobilized to justify the examination of B-horror, exploitation film,
or pornography, for example. The term has helped challenge hierarchies of
medium specificity. For example, Michele Hilmes has written that television
was treated as a “bad object” of media studies, a sentiment echoed by many
other scholars. These uses of the term reflect the fact that age, class,
gender, and race have often been motivating factors in the construction of
evaluative canons.

Yet the applications of this term have rapidly diversified in the past
decade. With the increase in scholarship on new media, social media, video
games, and global flows, together with greater attention to diverse
identities behind/on/in front of the screen, the conversation on taste
cultures has shifted significantly. This issue seeks to expand or question
the boundaries and applications of the “bad object” as an analytical
framework. We welcome pieces that challenge the foundations of this divide.
How can we re-calibrate these and other approaches to address purported bad
objects within our contemporary media landscape? Can we approach bad
objects beyond the text itself in issues of production cultures,
distribution, and consumption?

This issue welcomes submissions that push beyond the binaries of "good" and
"bad," "serious" and "ephemeral," and “high” and “low” culture, exploring
some of the following themes:

   - Malleability of cultural hierarchies through time and place
   - Consumption of bad objects (hate-watching, “so bad it’s good,”
   cringe-pop, etc.)
   - Teaching with bad objects
   - Discourse as bad objects (trade press, fake news, toxic fandoms, etc.)
   - Perceptions of formats and genres as bad objects
   - Diversity of reception contexts (mainstream, cult, fan, subversive,
   revolutionary, and so on)
   - Definitions of “bad” in relation to queer media, gender, race, class,
   and ability
   - Distribution, exhibition, and transnational flow of bad objects
   - New takes on paracinema, trash, kitsch, and camp
   - Afterlife of bad objects (recirculation, remixing, preservation)

Submission Guidelines
Submissions should be between 6,000 and 7,500 words, formatted in Chicago
Style. Please submit an electronic copy of the paper, along with a separate
one-page abstract, both saved as a Microsoft Word file. Remove any
identifying information so that the submission is suitable for anonymous
review. Quotations not in English should be accompanied by translations.
Send electronic manuscripts and/or any questions to [email protected] by January
25.

About the Journal
TVLT is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal of film, television, and new
media. The journal draws on a variety of theoretical and historiographical
approaches from the humanities and social sciences and welcomes any effort
that will help foster the ongoing processes of evaluation and negotiation
in media history and criticism. While TVLT maintains its traditional
commitment to the study of American film, it also expands its scope to
television and other media, to adjacent institutions, and to other nations'
media. The journal encourages both approaches and objects of study that
have been neglected or excluded in past scholarship.

Graduate students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the
University of Texas at Austin coordinate issues in alternation, and each
issue is devoted to a particular theme. TVLT's Editorial Advisory Board
includes such notable scholars as Hector Amaya, Ben Aslinger, Caetlin
Benson-Allott, Aymar Jean Christian, Lisa Dombrowski, Dan Herbert, Lucas
Hildebrand, Deborah Jaramillo, Roberta Pearson, Debra Ramsay, Bob Rehak,
and Avi Santo. TVLT's graduate student editors are assisted by their local
faculty advisors: Mary Beltrán, Ben Brewster, Jonathan Gray, Lea Jacobs,
Derek Johnson, Shanti Kumar, Charles Ramírez Berg, Thomas Schatz, and Janet
Staiger.

Thank you for your time, and we look forward to your contributions!

Sincerely,

The UT Austin Velvet Light Trap Editorial Board

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