Just a reminder of an upcoming December 1st deadline...We welcome
inquiries or clarifying questions at any time.
Call for Contributors to the Anthology
FRAMING THE SELF:
The Autobiographical 'Turn' in Germanophone Documentary
Co-Editors:
Robin Curtis (FU-Berlin)
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Angelica Fenner (University of Toronto)
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Dec. 1, 2008: Max. 400 word abstract with brief bio blurb to both
editors.
Jan. 15, 2009: Response and feedback.
June 15, 2009: Completed manuscripts of between 6,000-9,000 words.
In recent years, some of the most compelling, engaging, and
innovative non-fiction film and video has been generated from a very
personal point of view. The first-person stance in filmmaking is
hardly new in the history of international documentary, nor is
reflexivity about the technological apparatus which often attends
such authorial endeavors. However, changing media (interactive, multi-
media, digital camera, mobile phones, etc.) have expanded the
possibilities for framing the self, and indeed, for pursuing diverse
agendas pertaining to personal identity –exploring intricacies of
family relations, retracing the individual’s interpellation by local
and national historical events, mapping alterities of sexuality,
ethnicity, race and culture, or abnegating the very possibility of a
delimited self. In many cases, such endeavors have resulted in the
merging or ‘nesting’ of older, obsolete, technologies within newer ones.
As the status of the individual witness behind and before the camera
gains global currency in both feature-length documentaries as well as
independent experimental work, it behooves us as scholars to take
stock of the cultural specificity of these autobiographical
engagements. Is the self and its representation in audio-visual form
truly so constant that interpretive models developed in particular
cultural contexts, such as the North American, can simply be mapped
onto films from other cultures? Existing scholarship to date has
seldom taken up this challenge. The German-speaking countries, in
particular, have developed nationally distinct memory cultures
addressing overarching legacies such as that of the Third Reich, the
post-war division of Germany, and distinct political and economic
regimes. They moreover trace a singular relationship to social and
political categories of ethnicity, and the discourse (or lack
thereof) of multiculturalism. From a production point of view, they
also boast unique institutional structures and traditions in support
of avant-garde and independent film, as well as commercial filmmaking.
The anthology Framing the Self is unique in establishing the central
European nexus of Germanophone languages, cultures, and national
histories, i.e. that of (East and West) Germany, Switzerland, and
Austria, as a point of departure and of possible territorial return.
We welcome rigorous and engaging scholarly essays that take stock of
the remarkable proliferation of autobiographical documentary within
these national arenas or spanning transnational pathways established
through migration, exile, travel, or tourism. In acknowledgement of
the increasing stylistic heterogeneity that characterizes
contemporary non-fiction filmmaking, we understand the term
‘documentary’ to encompass both narrative-driven filmmaking as well
as experimental modes that engage creatively with the lived world. We
encourage thoughtful engagement with existing discourses on
autobiography in the domain of literary theory (e.g. post-
structuralist, deconstructionist, materialist, or feminist
approaches) in combination with a recognition of the specific
constraints and opportunities the audiovisual medium (whether analog
or digital) poses for artists who ‘cross the frame’ to position
themselves within an interpersonal, familial, national, or
transnational tableau. While filmic autobiography has been taken up
by contemporary theorists such as Michael Renov, Jim McBride, and
Elisabeth Bruss, this volume emphasizes the need for cultural
contextualization when theorizing constructions of the self.
We recognize that, in some instances, there may be implicit
challenges to establishing a given audiovisual text as discernibly
autobiographical. The extensive documentary legacy of the GDR, for
example, evinces virtually no engagement with the autobiographical
self; alternately, within the avant-garde tradition, the self may
elude definition or strive towards discursive displacement. In
general, where is the authoring self to be located? And how has the
auto/biographical stance undercut inherited distinctions between
public and personal archival endeavors? What new understandings are
emerging regarding the relationship between public event and private
experience; canonical historiographies and subjective memories;
national character and personal identity; and the interrelation
between family and the self? Recent innovations in recording
technologies have also prompted experimentation with narrative form,
the terms of authorship, performativity, confessionality, narcissism,
and furthermore explore the political efficacy of inscribing the
self. Such analytical considerations naturally assume a very
different valence in the North American context than in the European;
North American scholarship should display a fluency in recognizing
and negotiating these differences.
This anthology will be published in English; however, some funds are
available for non-native English authors outside North America
requesting assistance with the translation or editing of original
work. Negotiations are in progress for publication with the Series
"Screen Cultures: German Film and the Visual," Camden House Press.
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Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu
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