CALL FOR PAPERS
"It Has Happened Before, It Will Happen Again: The "Third" Golden Age
of Television Fiction
Istanbul, Turkey
8-10 October 2008
In 1996 Robert J. Thompson wrote the vastly influential Television's
Second Golden Age: From Hill Street Blues to ER defining the
controversial term 'quality television'. As Thompson himself has
stated, a decade after this publication, what was then exceptional and
innovative has now become the norm, which suggest we might have
entered yet another golden age. However instead of trying to demarcate
each and every new wave of golden age, it might be best to claim, like
the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica, that 'it has happened before and
it will happen again'.
Despite the spreading of 'quality' across the board, however, textual
analysis in television studies is still in its infancy. This
conference aims to contribute to the growing field of the textual
analysis of television series and solicits papers that analyse any
aspect of the texts of such shows as Battlestar Galactica, Lost,
Heroes, Desperate Housewives, Nip/Tuck, The L Word, Veronica Mars,
Dexter, Torchwood, etc. This list of shows is meant to be
inspirational rather than conclusive and papers on television series
not listed above will also be welcome.
This is an interdisciplinary conference therefore papers are welcome
from disciplines that include but are not limited to television
studies, film studies, cultural studies, woman's studies, queer
studies, media studies, philosophy, sociology, political science,
international relations, literature, psychoanalysis etc.
Proposals are invited for 20-minute presentations. Panel proposals for
up to three speakers are also welcome.
Please submit abstracts, no longer than 350 words, by using the
'submission' button on the website: www.independentscholars.org
Deadline for abstracts: 6th of June
--
Iain Robert Smith
Institute of Film and Television
School of American and Canadian Studies
University of Nottingham
University Park
NG7 2RD
Head of Communications,
MeCCSA Post-Graduate Network
website: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/pgn/
Articles Editor,
Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies
website: http://www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk/
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