THE VELVET LIGHT TRAP ****New Masculinities: Constructions, Performance and Transformation**** One recent product of feminist and queer scholarship has been new attention to cultural representations of masculinity. Film and television theory which addresses representations of masculinity acknowledges that men do not represent a universal norm and begins the project of enunciating maleness as difference. It is therefore scholarship which contributes to the discussion of sexual difference begun by feminists in that it distinguishes male identities created in the media and posits masculinity as a complex set of codes which allow for multiple constructions, limitations and interventions. THE VELVET LIGHT TRAP currently seeks papers which address questions related to the representation of men such as, but not limited to, the following: How do representations of men distinguish and historicize cultural codes used to represent masculinity and male identity? How are those codes being re-written and revised? In what ways is masculinity performance? What viewing or textual strategies might be useful for denaturalizing those performances? How do considerations of representations of masculinity extend or change the insights of feminist film and television theory? Does feminist theory's current interest in representations of masculinity relate to what some cultural critics label "post-feminist?" Do current trends in film and television reflect/create a change in male introspection about child abuse, alcoholism, war, gay-bashing and other experiences which may be traumatic to men? If so, what social and historical factors are influencing these textual concerns? How does attention to race, class and sexual orientation intersect with representations of masculinity? How have cultural shifts in notions of masculinity affected various genres? (ex. male melodramas, buddy pictures or film noir) How do television shows which feature the "new father" (ex. "Full House," "My Two Dads") operate as "masculinity texts?" Send three copies of manuscripts in MLA style and publishable form by September 30, 1995 to: The Velvet Light Trap Dept. of Radio-Television-Film CMA 6.118 University of Texas Austin, TX 78712 ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]