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September 2005, Week 5

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Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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Deborah Jermyn <[log in to unmask]>
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Thu, 29 Sep 2005 13:05:50 -0500
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Falling in Love Again – Romantic Comedy in Post-Classical Cinema

Edited by Stacey Abbott & Deborah Jermyn (Roehampton University UK)

Proposals are sought for a new edited collection on romantic comedy and
post-classical cinema.

Romantic comedy has long been a stalwart of the movies but in recent years
it has been increasingly gaining momentum as one of the cornerstones of
contemporary popular cinema. More than three decades into the post–
classical period, then, this is an opportune moment in which to revisit
and reflect on the industrial/economic/aesthetic practices, social
meanings and textual pleasures of this most enduring of genres. This
collection will re-examine early post-classical rom-com from the 1970s and
80s (e.g. Woody Allen, Neil Simon, and Rob Reiner), while equally making a
major intervention into existing analyses of the genre by examining its
more contemporary guises and ideologies. While much has been written on
the genre in its classical period, as well as its transition to post-
classical cinema, little consideration has been given to recent
developments within the genre. Given, for example, that the rom-com has
played a major role in the recent fortunes of British cinema; that it has
demonstrated the power to transform the careers of actors such as Hugh
Grant, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz to render them global stars; and
given that we are seeing the genre undergoing a period of shifting
(gendered) inflections, from Farrelly Brothers’ style ‘rom com for boys’
to the ‘post-feminist’ Bridget Jones, the time is ripe for this
publication. Investigating the ideological implications of the genre while
examining and celebrating its pleasures, Falling in Love Again will
provide a timely and necessary contribution to the study of genre, gender
and popular cinema.

Proposals are welcomed on, but not limited to, the following topics and
areas-
-relationship(s) between Classical Hollywood/screwball comedy and post-
classical romantic comedy
-sub-genres of rom-com (eg teen-pics; ‘rom-com for boys’; animation)
-gender identities and gender politics; feminism and post-feminism
-issues around race/ethnicity/national identities
-theories and methodologies of the analysis of comedy
-space and place (eg the urban v rural; use of domestic settings)
-New York as quintessential rom-com city
-fashion
-nostalgia
-generic hybridity and intertextuality
-the crossover rom-com (e.g. television, stand-up)
-music/soundtracks/scoring
-sexuality/queer readings/camp
-national, historical and social contexts of production and consumption
(eg Bollywood cinema; changing representations of marriage etc)
-stars/star power/star personas (eg Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock, Meg Ryan)
-the new comedian-comedy (eg Jim Carey, Ben Stiller, Will Smith)
-issues relating to authorship (eg Nora Ephron, Woody Allen, Richard
Curtis)
-institutional/economic/production case studies (eg Working Title)
-impact of new media technologies on circulation and reception (digital
technologies, internet, cyberspace)
-audiences and fandom/fan cultures/subcultures
-promotion of ‘chick-flicks’ and relationship with chick-lit

Proposals are required by January 2 2006, should be approximately 500
words and accompanied by a brief biog. Please submit to both
[log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask]

Stacey Abbott and Deborah Jermyn are both Senior Lecturers in Film and TV
Studies at Roehampton University, UK. Abbott is the editor of Reading
Angel: The TV Spin-Off with a Soul (IB Tauris, 2005) and the author of
Celluloid Vampires (forthcoming University of Texas Press, 2007). Jermyn
is the co-editor of Hollywood Transgressor: The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow
(Wallflower Press, 2003) and the author of Crime Watching: Investigating
Real Crime TV (forthcoming IB Tauris, 2006).

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Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
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