CFP: Commies and Indians: The Political Western Beyond Cold War Frontiers (Frames Cinema Journal)

From: Heath Iverson <[email protected]>

*Commies and Indians: The Political Western Beyond Cold War Frontiers*

Frames Cinema Journal, a peer-reviewed publication of the Centre for Film
Studies at the University of St Andrews, invites contributions to its
forthcoming issue *Commies and Indians: The Western Beyond Cold War
Frontiers*.

A staple genre of classical Hollywood, the Western has offered powerful and
enduring popular understandings of American national identity and the
United States’ geo-political projects. Despite its American origins, the
Western spread to other national cinemas where it served new aesthetic and
ideological agendas. Though Italy's Spaghetti Westerns remain the most
familiar result of this transposition, the genre also crossed political
lines into Communist Eastern Europe and beyond.  State-socialist Westerns
emerged that twist the genre's familiar tropes in accord with local culture
and history, not to mention the ideological demands of the Cold War. These
'Red Westerns' are sometimes uproarious parodies of the genre and sometimes
sincere examples of it; they sometimes adapt Western narratives to local
histories and settings, and sometimes fabricate an American West with the
help of lookalike European locations. Frames Cinema Journal invites
contributions on ‘non-Western Westerns’ from the Eastern Bloc and other
ideologically diverse contexts, exploring comparative approaches to the
politics and iconography of this distinctly American genre and its
international iterations.

*The editors seek contributions in two forms:*

Shorter pieces including DVD and book reviews, reports on recent
retrospectives such as the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s recent
“Red Westerns” programme, and interviews or reminiscences relating to the
Western genre outside Hollywood.

Feature scholarly articles between 3500-5000 words.
*
Topics may include, but are not limited to:*

comparative readings of American political Westerns (the anti-,
revisionist, or Vietnam Western) and their contemporary international
counterparts;

transnational accounts of the production, distribution and reception of the
Western in Eastern-Bloc states;

considerations of specific national appropriations of Western forms—for
instance, East Germany’s Indianerfilme;

analyses of the Western and fan culture in Eastern Europe.

Please send 300-word proposals along with a brief biographical note to
guest editor Dr. Jonathan Owen ([email protected]) and publication
coordinator Heath Iverson.  ([email protected]) by September 30. Feature
articles should follow the Chicago Manual of Style and all submissions
should comply with the Frames Style Guide (
http://framescinemajournal.com/style-guide/). Final submissions due October
31, 2013.

http://framescinemajournal.com/

-- 
Heath Iverson
PhD Student, Film Studies
University of St Andrews
99 North Street
St. Andrews, KY16 9AD
Scotland, UK

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