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Call for papers Adapting the Canon a Legenda conference supported by the IMLR, MHRA & Maney Publishing 10 October 2014 at the Institute for Modern Languages Research, Senate House, London Keynote speakers: Prof. Dudley Andrew (Yale); Dr. Kamilla Elliott (Lancaster) & Prof. Clive Scott (UEA) The emergence of 'adaptation' as a distinct and dynamic field of research in recent years is amply evidenced by the rapidly increasing number of monographs appearing in this area, together with the establishment of several dedicated journals and websites, especially since 2006. At the interface between a range of disciplines (Modern Languages, English studies, Comparative Literature, Film and Media studies and Digital Humanities, Performance and Reception History, History of the Book, and others), the study of adaptation foregrounds a range of key methodological questions, regarding the status of the 'text', the 'author' and the 'consumer' of literary and cultural artefacts. In the move away from 'fidelity studies', broadly conceived, new approaches to adaptation have emphasized its creative and subversive potential. This conference aims to bring together a range of perspectives on adaptation - representing the most recent work in the field in different national and critical contexts (including French-, Hispanic-, Germanic-, Slavonic- and English-speaking cultures), and covering a range of periods (from the medieval and early-modern to the twenty-first century). We hope to attract theorists, practitioners, and literary and film scholars across the disciplines to explore a range of different types of adaptation of canonical texts/authors, and the particular analytical, theoretical and practical problems that the study of such adaptations suggest. Topics could include but are not limited to: * What is the relation between 'canonical' status and the 'survival' of texts through the processes of adaptation; * Case studies exploring different modes and models of adaptation of canonical texts/authors (e.g. within a national culture/across different cultures and languages; within the same period/through time; between genres within the same medium (for example, epic to novel) and/or between media (for example, novel, theatre, film, cartoon/animations, illustration and graphic novels, etc.); * Notions of 'authorship' and authority vs collective and collaborative practices; * The cultural uses of adaptation: ideological transformation, critical commentary, etc; * Adaptations within new or less studied genres and media: TV, tele-series, animation, radio, intermedial and transmedial practices; * Neglected aspects of film adaptation: character and archetype, music, setting, etc; * New modes of production and consumption in the adaptation process: the role of changing forms of textual transmission and print culture in different periods, the role of the new (social/interactive) media; * The relation between adaptation and reception: the effect of reading a canonical text after encountering its adaptations; the reception of specific adaptations; * Changing attitudes towards notions of 'adaptation' over time; connections between 'theory' and 'practice' in different periods; * Broader questions of methodology and theoretical perspectives (what is 'adaptation'? new approaches; relation to reception theory, translation theory, narratology). We invite proposals for 20-minute papers. Please send your abstract - of no more than 250 words - accompanied by a short CV, to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> by 1 February 2014. The organisers intend to publish a selection of the papers as an edited volume within the Legenda imprint (http://www.legendabooks.com/).