CFP Medieval TV of the 21st Century

From: Michael Torregrossa [[email protected]]

CALL FOR PAPERS
STILL GETTING MEDIEVAL ON TELEVISION:
MEDIEVAL-THEMED TELEVISION OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AND ITS IMPACT ON
MEDIEVAL STUDIES
A ROUNDTABLE FOR THE 48TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES
(WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, KALAMAZOO, MI) FROM 9-12 MAY 2013
SPONSORED BY THE VIRTUAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR CULTURE AND THE
MIDDLE AGES
PROPOSALS BY 1 SEPTEMBER 2012 (EARLY SUBMISSION RECOMMENDED)

In the twentieth-century, film and later television were the primary media
for disseminating information about the Middle Ages to mass audiences.
However, in the twenty-first century, that paradigm has shifted—a fact we
had not yet realized in organizing our 2007 sessions at both the Popular
Culture Association Annual Meeting and the International Congress on
Medieval Studies—with the “reel Middle Ages” of film giving way almost
completely and the “televisual Middle Ages” becoming the dominant texts in
our contemporary (re)construction of the medieval. Consequently, thanks to
the healthy manufacturing of new works for distribution on television as
well as (in defiance of the hithertofore ephemeralness of television
programming) the preservation of older ones online and on DVD, we should
not discount their impact on us and our students, both now and in the
generations to come.

In apparent ignorance or (perhaps) denial of television’s usurpation of
film’s role as the major innovator of medieval-themed texts, the study of
medieval-themed film continues to expand, while research on televisual
medievalisms remains limited despite the growing number of high profile
programs both in the United States and abroad. Currently, television
produces an overabundance of one-offs, series, telefilms, miniseries,
commercials, and documentaries, all created in ever-increasing numbers for
an incredibly diverse audience across the globe and provides viewers,
starting with simple plots for young children and culminating in an
increased sophistication and content for older adults, with vivid,
informative and entertaining recreations of the medieval past (either as
they truly were or, more usually, as we wish they had been) and/or
transformations of that past in a vibrant medieval present. We can no
longer ignore television’s Middle Ages as a fertile ground for discussion
and debate—a fact addressed in the call for proposals for three recent
collections on the topic. In this roundtable session, designed to continue
the ongoing work of the Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture
and the Middle Ages, we hope to further alleviate some of the disparity
between filmic and televisual medievalisms and provide both a gateway into
accessing this material as well as to evaluate how these programs might be
profitably integrated into medievalist research and teaching.


Please note, all submissions will also becinsidered for inclusion in an
essay collection on medieval-themed TV.

PLEASE SUBMIT PROPOSALS OF 500 WORDS OR LESS, PARTICIPANT INFORMATION FORM
(AVAILABLE AT
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html), AND A COPY
OF YOUR CV TO THE ORGANIZERS AT

[email protected]

PLEASE INCLUDE “KALAMAZOO 2013 PROPOSAL” IN THE SUBJECT LINE


FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE VIRTUAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR
CULTURE AND THE MIDDLE AGES, PLEASE ACCESS OUR BLOG AT
http://PopularCultureandtheMiddleAges.blogspot.com/