CFP What's in a Name? (Ab)Use of Anglo-Saxon in English-speaking cultures and elsewhere (12/20/2021; conference in Padua 6/6-7/2022)

What's in a Name? (Ab)Use of Anglo-Saxon in English-speaking cultures and elsewhere

deadline for submissions: December 20, 2021

full name / name of organization: Alessandra Petrina / University of Padua, Italy

contact email: alessandra.petrina@unipd.it

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/11/10/whats-in-a-name-abuse-of-anglo-saxon-in-english-speaking-cultures-and-elsewhere

What’s in a Name?

(Ab)Use of Anglo-Saxon in English-speaking cultures and elsewhere

Padova 6-7 June 2022

Since the seventeenth century, the use of the term Anglo-Saxon has been characterised by a strong identity and ideological acceptation. The nationalistic sentiment grown after British imperialism obtained legitimation in the appropriation and remodelling of Britain’s own past, conferring on Anglo-Saxon meanings that were increasingly connected with national and racial identity (Horsman 1976, 1981; Greenberg 1982).

This fictitious idea of ancestry has exerted a special fascination on collective imagery also thanks to the cultural movement known as ‘medievalism’, a recurrent theme in British and American art which also characterises the contemporary political debate in those countries. In America, far-right (pseudo-)political groups make large use of medievalism, and, in particular, of their alleged ‘Anglo-Saxon’ origins in the attempt to back their xenophobic and racist claims, based on white supremacy.

A connection between Anglo-Saxon and whiteness has also emerged within Medieval Studies and this gave birth to firm and, sometimes, drastic reactions. In recent years, a movement formed of women researchers of non-Western origins voiced vibrant protests against the treatment they have been suffering in this academic field, which they consider racist, sexist and xenophobic.

In this regard, they have identified the terms Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Saxonist as the most obvious expressions of this attitude.

This debate concerns the specifically ideological and extremist uses of Anglo-Saxon, but little attention has been devoted to the use of this term in all forms of communication and the semantic values it has received in history, not only in English, but also in other languages and cultures. Beyond the ideological dimension that seems to prevail in some contexts, how and to what purposes has Anglo-Saxon been employed? And to what extent does this term eventually designate an exclusive and superior racial or cultural origin?

The purpose of this conference is to investigate this phenomenon across time, languages, and media. The topics include (but are not limited to) the use of Anglo-Saxon (and its corresponding forms in other languages) in:

• Literature
• Journalism
• Political discourse
• Performative arts (theatre, cinema, TV and web series, etc.)
• Gaming

Please send an abstract (roughly 500 words) and a short curriculum by 20 December to Omar Khalaf omar.khalaf@unipd.it

Last updated November 10, 2021

Coming Soon: Beowulf as Children’s Literature edited by Gilcrest and Mize

Beowulf as Children’s Literature

Edited by Bruce Gilchrist and Britt Mize

Available: November 2021

Full details at https://utorontopress.com/9781487502706/beowulf-as-children-and-x2019s-literature/.

PRODUCT DETAILS

Hardcover

$80.00

ISBN: 9781487502706

Not Yet Published

Pre-Order Now

Imprint: University of Toronto Press

Page Count: 328 Pages

Illustrations: 27 b&w illustrations

Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.00

World Rights

DESCRIPTION:

The single largest category of Beowulf representation and adaptation, outside of direct translation of the poem, is children’s literature. Over the past century and a half, more than 150 new versions of Beowulf directed to child and teen audiences have appeared, in English and in many other languages. In this collection of original essays, Bruce Gilchrist and Britt Mize examine the history and processes of remaking Beowulf for young readers.

Inventive in their manipulations of story, tone, and genre, these adaptations require their authors to make countless decisions about what to include, exclude, emphasize, de-emphasize, and adjust. This volume considers the many forms of children’s literature, focusing primarily on picture books, illustrated storybooks, and youth novels, but taking account also of curricular aids, illustrated full translations of the poem, and songs. Contributors address issues of gender, historical context, war and violence, techniques of narration, education, and nationalism, investigating both the historical and theoretical dimensions of bringing Beowulf to child audiences.

CONTENTS

Introduction: Beowulf in and near Children’s Literature

Britt Mize

1. “A Little Shared Homer for England and the North”: The First Beowulf for Young Readers

Mark Bradshaw Busbee

2. The Adaptational Character of the Earliest Beowulf for English Children: E.L. Hervey’s “The Fight with the Ogre”

Renée Ward

3. Visualizing Femininity in Children’s and Illustrated Versions of Beowulf

Bruce Gilchrist

4. Tolkien, Beowulf, and Faërie: Adaptations for Readers Aged “Six to Sixty”

Amber Dunai

5. Treatments of Beowulf as a Source in Mid-Twentieth-Century Children’s Literature

Carl Edlund Anderson

6. What We See in the Grendel Cave: Focalization in Beowulf for Children

Janet Schrunk Ericksen

7. Beowulf, Bèi’àowǔfǔ, and the Social Hero

Britt Mize

8. The Monsters and the Animals: Theriocentric Beowulfs

Robert Stanton

9. Children’s Beowulfs for the New Tolkien Generation

Yvette Kisor

10. The Practice of Adapting Beowulf for Younger Readers: A Conversation with Rebecca Barnhouse and James Rumford

Britt Mize

11. Children’s Versions of Beowulf: A Bibliography

Bruce Gilchrist

EDITORS

Bruce Gilchrist is a professor in the Department of English at John Abbot College.

Britt Mize is an associate professor in the Department of English at Texas A&M University.

CFP Decentering the White Male Gaze: Inclusivity and Diverse Voices in Beowulf Studies (9/25/21; NeMLA 2022)

Decentering the White Male Gaze: Inclusivity and Diverse Voices in Beowulf Studies (NeMLA 2022)

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/06/16/decentering-the-white-male-gaze-inclusivity-and-diverse-voices-in-beowulf-studies

deadline for submissions: September 25, 2021

full name / name of organization: Richard Fahey - NeMLA 2022

contact email: rfahey@nd.edu

Beowulf studies has traditionally been the domain of white male scholars who have historically dominated both the scholarship and translations of the poem. This session seeks to decenter the white male gaze and invites novel perspectives from often marginalized voices in the field to contribute to the many ongoing academic conversations focused on Beowulf.

Although in the field of Beowulf studies, Beowulf has long been regarded as a poem about men and for men, this session rejects such notions and seeks to highlight the formative role women play both in the poem and in the scholarship. Moreover, this session intends to explore the role of race in both the poem and the scholarship, and scholars of color, who have even more underrepresented that women in the field, are especially encouraged to submit proposals. Some recommended topics might include discussion of the role of women in the poem or women’s contributions to scholarship and translations of Beowulf. Other recommended topics might include exploring the role of race and tribalism in the poem, examining the effects of ethno-nationalism and toxic masculinity on interpretations of Beowulf and its literary afterlives, highlighting scholars of color’s contributions to Beowulf studies or centering the perspectives of the monsters.

Please send paper proposals (along with your contact information and a brief academic biography) and/or questions directly to session organizer, Richard Fahey at rfahey@nd.edu. Unless otherwise directed, he will submit the panel details to the conference.

Last updated June 23, 2021

CFP Monsters of Beowulf (8/1/2021; NEPCA virtual 10/21-23/21)

 Our kick-off event:

Monsters of Beowulf: Past, Present, Future

Session Proposed for the 2021 Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association

Sponsored by the Monsters & the Monstrous Area

Virtual event, Thursday, 21 October, through Saturday, 23 October 2021.

Proposals due by 1 August 2021.

 

The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (a.k.a. NEPCA) prides itself on holding conferences that emphasize sharing ideas in a non-competitive and supportive environment. We welcome proposals for presentations of 15-20 minutes in length, from researchers at all levels, including undergraduate and graduate students, junior faculty, and senior scholars, as well as independent scholars. NEPCA conferences offer intimate and nurturing sessions in which new ideas and works-in-progress can be aired, as well as completed projects.

For this session, we’re looking for papers that explore and highlight the reception and representation of the monsters of Beowulf in popular culture.

 

If you are interested in joining this session, please submit the following information into NEPCA’s online form at http://bit.ly/PopCFP2021.

·         Proposal Type (Single Presentation or Panel)

·         Subject Area (select the “Monsters and the Monstrous” from the list)

·         Working Title

·         Abstract (250 words)

·         Short bio (50-200 words)

Address any inquiries to the area chairs: Michael A. Torregrossa at popular.preternaturaliana@gmail.com.

Presenters are also required to become members of NEPCA for the year.

 

Blog Launch

The Old English epic Beowulf remains familiar to readers through its editions and translations as well as its more varied transformations into other media. These three types of Beowulfiana represent a massive corpus of between 500 to 700 works according to entries in Hans Sauer’s 205 Years of Beowulf: Translations and Adaptations (2005-2010) and the Beowulf’s Afterlives Bibliographic Database; though, as medievalists, we tend to focus on the first two categories rather than the last. New versions of the story feature in all forms of modern mediævalisms, yet (as is true with most medieval texts) research continues to focus primarily on depictions of Beowulf on screen (about 40 examples according to the Internet Movie Database). We hope in this blog and through our outreach efforts to expand our view of Beowulf’s reception and (re)interpretation by creative artists and look more deeply at the text’s wider use. We are particularly interested in explorations of the adaptation and/or appropriation of the text, its characters, and its themes in less explored media. For instance, traditional literary texts (such as novels, short stories, and poems) include at least 200 works according to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database and much more are recorded by the Beowulf’s Afterlives Bibliographic Database. In addition, the comics include at least 300 examples according to the Grand Comics Database. Besides these, there remain many new and neglected works on film, television, entertainment consoles, and the Internet. Still other media (such as musical theater) remain largely uncataloged.