[Englecturers] FW: UPDATE: Edited Collection on The Pirates of the Caribbean (3/15/07; collection)

[Steven Axelrod]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-cfp at lists.sas.upenn.edu [mailto:owner-cfp at lists.sas.upenn.edu]
On Behalf Of Matthew Rohweder
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 5:52 PM
To: cfp at english.upenn.edu
Subject: UPDATE: Edited Collection on The Pirates of the Caribbean (3/15/07;
collection)


Updated Deadline for Edited Collection on The Pirates of the Caribbean.  Ne=
w deadline is MARCH 15, 2007.  Please send Abstracts to mrohweder at gmail.com

Updated CFP:

After nearly 50 years as one of the most popular rides at Disneyland, with
duplicated attractions at EuroDisney, DisneyWorld, and Tokyo Disney, Pirates
of the Caribbean has reentered our popular imagination in the form of two
phenomenally successful blockbuster films, with a third (expected to be just
as successful) due out next summer.  Each of the film versions has secured
box office totals nearing 400 million dollars in the US, further, Dead Man's
Chest has just reached the $1 billion mark in box office revenue, making it
the third film in history to reach this landmark; this figure indicates the
enormity of the franchise's popularity with fans.  In fact, after the first
film's opening, the amusement park ride became one of the most sought after
rides in the park's history.  Pirates of the Caribbean can be considered to
be, perhaps, one of the most unusual and innovative examples of remediation
and adaptation to date: taking an amusement park ride and constructing a
narrative out of a very non-narrative based source.

One of the most compelling issues, drawing attention in the popular media,
around Pirates is the question: how Pirates of the Caribbean works along
lines of gender? Sexuality?  Race?  Pirates has not only become a pop
culture phenomenon, but it appears to take issue with a variety of social
concerns =96 racism, sexism, war, the historical accuracy of colonial Europe
=96 all set within an fantastic and otherworldly universe, which only serves
to draw our attention to the issues being presented. (Or is it the other way
around?)  However, on the other hand, one could suggest that Pirates is a
problematic text =96 not fully aware of the manner in which it troubling
these ideas. Thus, I cannot help but raise the question: is Pirates of the
Caribbean a problematic text, or a problematizing text?

How do we read Pirates of the Caribbean critically?  Academically?
Popularly?  This collection will seek to answer these questions (and perhaps
those posed above) by examining the text(s) of Pirates in all its various
forms: the ride, the films, the novel adaptations, children's' books, action
figures and so on.  I anticipate papers that broach Pirates from a number of
critical perspectives, textual viewpoints, and cultural views (amongst other
avenue of approach). Graduate students are encouraged to submit.

Topic include (but are not limited to):

-Advertising and marketing
-Audiences (difference in audience reaction according to age)
- Pirate Culture
- The Pirate Code
- Gender
- Cross-dressing
- Drag
- Make-up (Depp's eye liner, Davy Jone's appearance, Keira Knightley's make
up =96 an attempt to over feminize her {comparison to Depp's
feminization})
- Johnny Depp celebrity status because of Pirates
- Performativity
- History of piracy
- Colonial history as depicted in the film
- Mediation and remediation
- Sexuality
- Sex as an act or an illusion
- Masculinity
- Race
- Racism
- The use of the amusement part attraction in the film
- Homoeroticism in Pirate culture and in the film
- The culture of pirates as it is depicted in the film, and is it depicted
in a truthful manner
- Violence
- Class
- Marxist reading of the text
- Jamaican culture in the film
- Voodoo and religion
- The fantastic
- Ghosts
- Food
- Humor
- The Disney Corporation and its role in creating Pirates (both the film and
the ride)

I currently have a publisher in mind, who I will approach in the coming
months; however, I believe that the immediacy of this topic and its current
relevancy in popular media and fan communities, there should be immense
interest in the project. Please send proposals of 500 words in Microsoft
Word format (.doc) to Matthew Rohweder mrohweder at gmail,com by March 15,
2007.  Please include your name, academic institution, and contact
information in the abstract.  Please also attach your CV.  As well, please
include your abstract in the body of your email submission.

Matthew Rohweder is currently a graduate student at Simon Fraser University=
.

Please send all enquiries to Matthew Rohweder mrohweder at gmail.com

--=20
Matt Rohweder
M.A. Candidate
Department of English
Simon Fraser University
email: mrohweder at gmail.com

"If you shoot and arrow and it flies real high...hooray for you."  Dorian
Corey, Paris is Burning

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