Dear All,

Following on my work on witchcraft accusations against children, I've  
teamed up with Simon Bacon to work on an anthology exploring the many  
issues surrounding children/childhood and conceptualisations of  
monstrosity and evil. We're particularly keen to open up a  
wide-ranging debate from cinema to the criminal courts. If you've got  
an idea, send it in!

CALL FOR CHAPTERS

Book Project. Title:

Little Horrors: Representations of the Monstrous Child

Gone is the Victorian innocence of childhood. We have entered the age  
of the monstrous child, the little horror.

Each historical period can be seen to have prioritised a different  
facet of the child, the Victorian era idolised the innocence of the  
pre-pubescent child, the twentieth century the disaffected teenager,  
whilst the early twenty-first sems to be that of the monstrous child.  
Whilst global organisations such as UNICEF and Save the Children  
promote the sanctity of childhood as a fundamental human right,  
popular culture and empirical, sociological data would intimate  
something else. Here children are not configured as the wealth of the  
family and the community, but are seen as an economic burden, a luxury  
or even a parasite. Far from being the repository of all society holds  
dear about itself, the child becomes something at once uncontrollable  
and monstrous, not to be loved and cherished but feared and expelled.  
Whether supernatural or just plain wicked, the child becomes a liminal  
being caught outside of normalised categorization; not mature, not  
socilaised, not under the rule of law and not conforming to adult  
nostagia over what they should be.

Is there a relationship between the declining birth rate in the West  
and the increasing representation of children as an alien other?  
However, as witchcraft accusations against children in Africa and  
representations in the Asian horror film genre show, this is not just  
a Western phenomenon. So just what are the underlying reasons, if any?  
This volume aims to assemble the evidence from history, psychology,  
sociology, literature and media studies to map the extent and meaning  
of this representational development.

Topics to include:

Witch children, witchcraft accusations against children, children  
using witchcraft accusations
Magical children: children with magical or superhuman powers, the wunderkind
Werewolves and other shapeshifters: children as animals
Fairies and changelings: the folklore of strange children
Undead children: vampires, zombies and others
Ghosts and demonic children: children possessed, children as demons
Child crime and culpability: moral evil and legal responsibility
Monstrous children through history: physical deformity and mental  
health issues
Children as embodiments of other aspects of supernatural horror
The monstrous as a new role model for children
Children as adults and adults as children
Society and children and public and private spaces Immigration,  
post-colonialism and foreign adoption
War children and child soldiers

A brief bio and abstract of circa 300 words should be sent to -

For literature and media studies: Simon Bacon (baconetti [at]  
googlemail [dot] com)
For history and social sciences: Leo Ruickbie (leo [at] ruickbie [dot] com)

Deadline for abstracts: 1st September 2013


There's no project page as yet, but you'll find these same details at  
http://kcl.academia.edu/LeoRuickbie/Posts

All the best,

Leo

-- 

Dr Leo Ruickbie, PhD, MA, BA(Hons), Associate of King's College

Member: European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism,  
Gesellschaft für Anomalistik, Parapsychological Association, Societas  
Magica, Society for Psychical Research, The Ghost Club

Author: Witchcraft Out of the Shadows (2004, 2011); Faustus: The Life  
and Times of a Renaissance Magician (2009); A Brief Guide to the  
Supernatural (2012); A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting (forthcoming)

Website: http://www.ruickbie.com