3rd Mechademia Conference on Anime, Manga and Media Theory from Japan:
“World Renewal – Counterfactual Histories, Parallel Universes, and Possible Worlds”
November 29-December 2, 2012
Dongguk University, Seoul
Deadline for submissions: May 15
School Girls and Mobile Suits (SGMS) presents the Second Annual Mechademia Conference: Intertexts and Intersections
September 28-30, 2012
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
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CFP for Mechademia 9: Origins
For volume 9 of the Mechademia series, the editors seek submissions linked to the broad theme of “origins.”
The search for origins is as controversial as it is persistent. Many critics staunchly reject efforts to locate singular origins or answers in relation to meaning or interpretation, while others struggle to recover an original historical or cultural context for their texts. Some writing on anime and manga has tried to see Japanese popular culture as the reflection of a putatively traditional culture in which it originates, while academic criticism has frequently regarded these media as opportunities to uncover the recent or constructed quality of Japanese tradition, or to radically reconceive what contemporary Japan is or could be. Finally like film and newer media, anime has attracted the attention of scholars from a wide range of disciplines who have applied their own perspectives and methodologies to it, even as other critics argue that anime requires a radically different and radically original new approach.
With volume 9 we seek to shed some new light on these debates with articles that address the concept of origin in a sophisticated, original way. We are interested in submissions covering a wide range of different texts, approaches, and disciplines, particularly those underrepresented in Japanese popular culture criticism now. Possible topics include (but are definitely not limited to) the following:
• Popular culture texts whose stories turn on the theme of origins or denial of origins: character origin tales; stories of birth, rebirth, and creation; metaphysics; history and prehistory; nationalism or cosmopolitanism; homecoming or diaspora.
• The origins of manga or anime: the question of their premodern antecedents; auteurism and canonicity; national origins of manga and anime, and their non-Japanese versions.
• Adaptations, and reproductions of “original” works: parody, pastiche, and dôjinshi; remediation; uniqueness vs. mass production; anime or film adaptations of manga, or manga adaptions of prose; franchises and media mixes in which a single story crosses multiple media and products.
• Work that treats the notion of origin from the perspective of visual composition: visual hierarchies, reading order, page layout, flipping, flattening, etc.
We also encourage metacritical work that discusses the history or fortunes of manga and anime criticism inside and outside Japan. With the ninth volume of the series, we wish to open a space for a self-critical evaluation of Mechademia’s own role in anime and manga studies. To this end, some of these topics overlap deliberately with previous volumes ofMechademia, and authors are encouraged to engage with articles in earlier volumes and continue or redirect discussions that originated there.
Submissions should address the notions of origins explicitly, but as the list above suggests, contributors can come at this theme from a wide range of different directions. In order to represent a wide range of approaches and methodologies in this volume, we encourage scholars from various disciplines to relate their own ongoing work to this broad theme.
Submissions for Mechademia 9 are due January 4, 2013 to submissions(at)Mechademia.org
See the General Submission Guidelines at the bottom of this page.
CFP: Mechademia 10
World Renewal – Counterfactual Histories, Parallel Universes, and Possible Worlds
In the wake of the disasters and tragedies of 3.11, the cry “Another world is possible” becomes all the more urgent. And so, we ask: How can counterfactual histories, parallel universes, and possible worlds of Japanese popular culture and media formations contribute to recognizing and ending the class warfare that underlies the maintenance of nuclear energy and entrenched forms of socio-historical inequality, and thus contribute to the formation of another world?
From the 1980s to the present, critique of popular culture in Japan has consistently emphasized a problem with narrative. Recent attention has shifted to other forms and practices, such as character (kyara), worlds, and fan repurposing. Narrative has been largely ruled out or dismissed, and often history as well. Nonetheless, our goal here is not a return to narrative analysis, but rather to call attention to the implications of the rise of modalities such as characters and worlds for storytelling and history. As such, we invite contributions that deal with this specific question:
Japanese popular culture — manga, anime, games, and SF — abound in scenarios in which our contemporary reality appears to be but one possible outcome within an open situation. What are the implications of such an understanding of our reality?
We envision some of the following lines of inquiry.
—Counterfactual Histories. Science fictions often encourage us to approach history in terms of ‘what if’ scenarios — what if there were aliens behind the emperor-system, or what if there were a battle between superheroes during WWII? Such scenarios invite us to understand history through counterfactual situations. But rather than dismiss such scenarios as non-factual, we ask: What are the social and political implications of understanding our historical reality in such terms?
—Parallel Universes. Popular culture frequently juxtaposes different realities in the form of alternative timelines or bifurcating temporalities. Here narrative does not hinge on teleological movement (grand or petty) but opens questions of temporality and temporal experience. Thus, instead of assuming that such scenarios destroy story-telling or historical movement, we ask: What kinds of storytelling practices and forms of communication emerge across bifurcating temporalities?
—Possible Worlds. Attention to the role of character in media mix and fan practices has highlighted the importance of media and technologies in the formation of “worlds” and “worldviews.” And so, we call for submissions that explore the mediatic and technological dimension of these possible worlds, with an eye to the construction of value within circulation as well as socio-political possibilities or potentiality of Japanese popular culture.
Submissions for Mechademia 10 are due January 6, 2014
to submissions(at)Mechademia.org
General Submission Guidelines
Essays may be up to 5,000 words in length, with shorter pieces also welcome, and we will consider submissions in creative, non-traditional formats as well.
STYLE GUIDE
Download the Mechademia Style Guide (vers. 4.0, July 2011) – pdf format
FOR QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SUBMISSIONS PROCESS
Please contact Wendy Goldberg, Submissions Editor
submissions AT mechademia.org
FOR OTHER INQUIRIES
Frenchy Lunning, Editor-in-Chief, Mechademia
frenchy AT mechademia.org