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CALL FOR PAPERS

Submissions are invited for an edited collection on director, writer,
photographer, cultural commentator, and critic Ken Russell. Edited by
Kevin M. Flanagan and tentatively called KEN RUSSELL: RE-VIEWING BRITAIN'S
LAST MANNERIST (to be published by Scarecrow Press), this anthology will
focus on new interpretations of Russell's work. Once a sensational fixture
of the public sphere, Russell seemingly fell into obscurity, only recently
re-emerging as a prescient, respected voice of British film culture. Why
(and for what reasons) has Russell's work been marginalized? What emerging
methodological approaches could be brought to bear on his films, from the
traditionally celebrated (ELGAR, THE DEVILS, and ALTERED STATES) to the
generally maligned (MINDBENDER, THE FALL OF THE LOUSE OF USHER, and CRIMES
OF PASSION)?

Potential topics could include:

- The director as superstar: Russell's star persona since CELEBRITY BIG BROTHER
- Russell's films under Thatcher and Blair
- Aesthetic and cultural analysis of Russell's fashion photography
- Historical research on his varied short films for Huw Weldon's MONITOR
- A comparison between his prose fiction (MIKE AND GABY'S SPACE OPERA,
BRAHMS GETS LAID, DELIUS: A MOMENT WITH VENUS, etc) and his films
- Russell and genre. How do his films engage, define, or upturn contested
film genres (horror, the biopic, the costume drama)?
- Russell after auteurism. How can films by Ken Russell be understood in
light of post-structuralism, postmodernism, and the cultural turn?
- Russell's adaptations. Can Russell's celebrated Lawrence films be better
served by recent re-orientations in adaptation studies?
- Pieces on Russell's films which have been excluded from extant scholarly,
historical, and critical consideration (much of Russell's work for the
SOUTH BANK SHOW, his recent "amateur films," and on)

Submit submission proposals by April 30, 2008. Send 400-900 word abstracts
and a CV to

kmflanag at ncsu dot edu OR kevmflanagan at gmail dot com

Kevin M. Flanagan
North Carolina State University






-- 
Iain Robert Smith
Institute of Film and Television
School of American and Canadian Studies
University of Nottingham
University Park
NG7 2RD