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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University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu