CALL FOR PAPERS
Mythic Mother Nature: Storytelling and Myth-Building Through Moving Image Representations of Nature and the Environment
An area of multiple panels for the Film & History Conference on "Film and Myth"
September 26-30, 2012
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
www.filmandhistory.org
Deadline: June 1, 2012
Myth has been used for centuries to explain nature, and the face of nature has been used to create national and personal myths. Cinematic, televisual, and cybervisual representations of nature and the environment affect cultural assumptions about peoples and places, affecting how we interact with nature and each other. In some cases Mother Nature directs the action; in others she has the starring role.
• What does Kung Fu Panda teach us about nature and culture?
• Are there mythic lessons embedded in the lives of the “extreme fishermen” of The Deadliest Catch?
• Do new media like YouTube videos reinforce traditional natural myths or create new mythologies?
• How do genre conventions shape nature? How does nature affect genre? Westerns? Sci Fi? Noir? Screwball Comedy?
• How have film auteurs used or shaped nature? Hitchcock? Altman? Fellini?
This area, comprising multiple panels, welcomes papers and panel proposals that examine all forms and genres featuring nature and the environment as represented in film, television, and other moving image arts.
Possibilities include, but are not limited to, the following topics:
• Nature as creator and/or Nature as destroyer in film narratives
• Nature myth as nation-builder and cultural marker
• Nature and the environment as the locus for scientific and political debate
• Nature as mythic muse for filmmakers and the characters they create
• Natural disaster as media event
• Nature, Promotion, and Vacation Video on YouTube
Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2012:
Deborah Carmichael, Area Chair, 2012 Film & History Conference
Mythic Mother Nature: Storytelling and Myth-Building Through Moving Image Representations of Nature and the Environment
Michigan State University
Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures
235 Bessey Hall
East Lansing MI 48824
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