Call for Chapter Proposals:
Editor of a volume exploring modern (approx. post 1976) film representations of Southern history is seeking proposals for chapters from scholars of history, film studies, American studies, media studies, etc.
Film, with its ability to display iconic images to mass audiences, has been particularly powerful in creating the South in the American imagination and influencing both internal and external views of the South. Whether the Southern belle, dashing rogue, and enslaved people of Gone with the Wind, or the integrated football team embodying the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement in Remember the Titans, Hollywood has created indelible images that have become embedded in American culture and influenced public understanding of Southern history. Because the South has been such a frequent Hollywood subject, and feature films reach such large audiences, films have profoundly shaped public discourse about Southern history.
The popularity of recent films ranging from 12 Years a Slave, Selma, Django Unchained, andThe Help builds on a long history of Hollywood depicting the Southern past (both fictional and historical). Despite the subject’s importance, there have been relatively few book-length works focusing on film’s representation of the South, and a dearth focusing on modern films and the historical South. This project hopes to add to the existing scholarship of filmic representations of the South by focusing on modern films that depict Southern history. The volume is guided by the two related, overarching questions, what is the relationship between modern films, race, and Southern history? How are modern films portraying the historical South, especially around issues of race? Each chapter should focus on 1-3 films--of particular interest is analysis that connects race, class, and gender.
The volume is not under contract, but the editor has been in discussions with both university presses and trade presses and an initial proposal has been warmly received.
If interested, please send a 300-500 word chapter proposal. If selected, contributors will be asked to submit a draft chapter of 8,000-10,000 words.
Timeline:
Deadline for proposals is July 15, 2016.
Chapters selected for inclusion will be notified by August 1, 2016
Full chapter drafts due November 1, 2016.
Please send all proposals and direct any questions to: Dr. Bryan Jack bjack@siue.edu, Department of Historical Studies, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
https://www.siue.edu/artsandsciences/historicalstudies/jack.shtml