Call for Abstracts-The Joker-Collection

From: "Weiner, Rob" <[email protected]>

Call for Abstracts

The Joker: Critical Essays on the Clown Prince of Crime

Robert Moses Peaslee & Robert G. Weiner, Editors

"Nobody panics when things are going according to plan, even if the  
plan is horrifying."

-- The Joker (Heath Ledger), The Dark Knight (2008)

If one were to survey the global public about their favorite  
superheroes, the results would likely place Batman, Spider-Man, and  
perhapsSuperman in the top tier. If one were to ask about super  
villains, however,it's unlikely that any character would receive more  
attention than the Joker. To date, the character has appeared in  
thousands of comics, numerous animated series, and three major  
blockbuster feature films dating back to 1966.  One could make a  
strong argument that the Clown Prince of Crime is the most popular and  
well-known fictional villain in the history of popular culture. A  
superhero is only as interesting as the villains he or she faces, and  
the Joker stands out among hundreds of villains as one of the most  
complex, culturally resonant, and morally ambiguous characters to ever  
grace a comic book page or movie screen.  In 2006, Industry  
publication Wizard ranked the Joker as the number one comic villain of  
all time.

Academic studies and collections of Batman abound, both as a text and  
as an industry (DiPaolo, 2009; Eury, 2009; Schopp, 2009; Kuwata, 2008;  
O'Neil, 2008; Zehr, 2008; Brooker, 2007; Morris, 2005; Pearson &  
Uricchio, 1991). Despite the Joker's popularity, however, there has  
never appeared a serious scholarly monograph or edited collection  
based around the character. The editors hope to rectify this gap in  
the literature of sequential art, film, media, and cultural studies.  
Our aspiration is to compile the definitive volume on the character,  
encompassing historical, textual, institutional, and interpretational  
approaches from a wide variety of disciplines.

To this end, the editors seek abstracts of no more than 500 words  
outlining proposed essays of 6,000-8,000 words. Abstracts should  
makeclear the author's approach to the material in epistemological  
terms and indicate whether or not the piece has appeared in previous  
forms elsewhere.Abstracts should show potential as rigorous primary  
research, theory development or criticism.

A by-no-means-exhaustive list of possible topics includes:


*   Historical-textual examinations of the Joker's emergence and  
evolution
*   Comparative analyses of the Joker's various characterizations and  
adaptations
*   Socio-cultural approaches to the Joker's symbolic potential
*   The Joker and gender, race, sexuality, ability, etc.
*   Gaming environments and the Joker's manifestations in ludic  
narratives
*   Intercultural or international Joker forms
*   The Joker as an entertainment marketing tool
*   The Joker pre- and post-9/11
*   Relationships between the Joker and other heroes and/or villains
*   Author- or creator-driven analyses
*   Theoretical approaches to the Joker's visual composition
*   Narrative and rhetorical criticism
*   Archetypal explorations of Joker pre-cursors
*   Psychological or psychoanalytical analyses
*   Humor and/or clowning and their relationship to the sinister
*   The para-cinema of the Joker
*   Fan communities and performance
*   The Joker as a stabilizing or confounding force in sequential art  
taxonomies
*   Joker philosophy
*   Art historical or visual culture-driven analyses of the Joker
*   The Joker as a pedagogical tool
*   Digital manifestations of the Joker and/or the Joker "ethos"

Abstracts should be submitted no later than Dec. 15, 2011. Please send  
abstracts via email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]><mailto:[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]>>.

Those authors whose abstracts are accepted will be notified no later  
than February 1, 2012. Full essays will be required by April 1, 2012  
and will be reviewed by both the editors and guest reviewers.

Note that invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee  
inclusion in the volume. Selected authors will be notified over the  
summer of 2012