[Englecturers] Narnia Conference

[svonkco at netzero.net]

Dear Grad Students and Lecturers,

The planning for our "Through the Wardrobe: A Narnia Conference," to be held on Friday, May 5, is moving forward nicely.  We are now a highly co-sponsored one-day conference, with the Departments of English, Psychology, Religious Studies, Film and Visual Culture, as well as the Center for Ideas and Society and United Campus Ministry all acting as co-sponsors.  We wanted to invite all of you who are interested to join us on this day, whether as a presenter, a member of the conference planning committee, or an active audience member.  If you are interested in helping out, please let me know (email me at svonkco at netzero.com).  And if you have an idea for a paper dealing with any aspect of C.S. Lewis's Narnia books, or the films that have come out of those works, please submit a proposal.  I hope that a lot of UCR grad students and lecturers will end up participating!  The conference cfp is found below and as an attachment.  Please feel free to email me if you have any questions!

Best,  Craig Svonkin

Deadline: March 25, 2006
CFP: Through the Wardrobe: A Narnia Conference
Friday May 5, 2006
Co-sponsored by the University of California, Riverside's Department of English, Film and Visual Culture Program, Department of Psychology, Religious Studies Department, Center for Ideas and Society, and United Campus Ministry.
To be held at the University of California, Riverside.  UC Riverside is located one hour east of Los Angeles, conveniently accessible by train or car.

Call for Papers:

“Through the Wardrobe: A Narnia Conference” is a one-day conference for scholars and fans of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia novels and the visual and cultural productions that have resulted from Lewis’s series.  Given the perennial interest in children’s fantasy novels including Lewis’s series, the seeming rise in interest in fantasy following the enormous success of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the interesting cultural phenomenon of C. S. Lewis’s variable reputation among Christian communities in the United States, the curious differences between the reception of Lewis and the reception of Rowling, pertinent questions concerning the psychological impact on children of fantasy fiction, and the recent release of the enormously popular Disney/Walden film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, our aim is to create a forum for scholarly analysis of Lewis’s works that is at the same time welcoming to the general public.  We hope that the conference will be a forum for open discussion between scholars and fans of these works, and will also allow for a more general discussion of Lewis’s fantasy in relation to the current popularity of J.R.R. Tolkien’s and J.K. Rowling’s fantasy works, or other pertinent fantasy.  In order to accomplish this goal, we are asking for scholarly presentations of approximately 17 minutes, and we are encouraging the use of creative, engaging presentational methods.  We are also building in more time for open discussion than that found at many conferences.

Proposals are sought for papers on any topic relating to the Narnia novels, the film adaptations, the general C.S. Lewis/Narnia phenomenon, or the reaction to the film and books by various audiences.  Potential topics include but are not limited to:


The connection of Lewis’ Narnia books to other works of fantasy, including works by Tolkien and Rowling (may include theorizing about the works’ widely divergent receptions)
The translation of Narnian Fiction into a Spectacle of Film: Issues of Adaptation
Lewis’s Ideas of Fantasy, Story, and Myth
The impact of Lewis’s Christianity on the novels
Psychological Issues Involved in Reading the Novels, including the impact of reading fantasy on children
Philosophical, Political, and Ethical Issues: May include the depiction of evil or the issues of colonialism, imperialism, sexism, and racism
Narnia seen through the lens of ethnic or gender studies, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, psychology, folklore, etc. 
The impact of Lewis’s Friendships with Tolkien and the Inklings on the novels
Narnian Predecessors and Narnian Influences
Narnia and Genre Considerations
Narnia and Audience Expectations
Narnia and Educational Theory
Narnia in the Context of Children's Literature
Narnia and Its Reception: May explore the varied responses and controversies surrounding the books

Proposals should take the form of an approximately 500-word abstract, as well as a 50-100 word summary for the program book and a 50-100 word biography.  All proposals must be received by email by March 25, 2005.  Please send all abstracts and questions to Craig Svonkin at svonkco at netzero.com


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