Call for Papers: THE VELVET LIGHT TRAP A CRITICAL JOURNAL OF FILM AND TELEVISION STUDIES Issue #57: Authorship Almost since the earliest constructions of the moving image, notions of authorship have been developed and alternately contested. While such aspects as authors' roles, creative circumstances, and perceived autonomy change across cultures and across time, the idea of "authorship" has persistedeven in discourse that has proclaimed the very death of the author. Perhaps owing its greatest historical debt to auteur theory, authorship has, in cycles, both embraced this idea and attempted to disengage itself from that ideal. To date, authorship remains a complex aspect of media theory, possibly because no one theory of authorship can account for the range of authorship experiences and diversity of authored products thriving in contemporary societies. Issue #57 of the Velvet Light Trap will explore authorship as it relates to and is a product of historical and contemporary discourse. We are particularly interested in articles that highlight the changing discourse on authorship in media theory. The editors are also seeking submissions that address the historical evolution of product branding and promotion through authorship, in particular as it affects media distribution and consumption patterns. Submissions from a variety of analytical approaches are strongly encouraged, including reception, political economy, textual analysis, discourse theory, historiography, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, psychoanalysis and any other methods in cultural studies. Possible topics for this issue include, but are not limited to: *Challenges to and/or reaffirmation of auteur theory *Notions of authorship, mastery, and the canon *Cooperative authorship practices and other complications of "the master" filmmaker *Ideology and authorship *The resurgence of the documentary as privileged formincluding increased visibility of the documentarian as author, public figure, and/or political figure *Reality TV's treatment of authorship in its productions *Product branding via authorship, including trends towards the Producer/Author and Actor/Author *Authorship and representation of national identities, interests, dominant and alternative voices *Agenda-setting and authorship *Historical perspectives of authorship *Popular valorizations of authors *The valorization or devalorization of authorship in industry, including persisting "old guard" notions of authorship *De- or re-mythologizing the author through metatexts, e.g. DVD features, A&E Biography episodes, IFC programs, Behind the Scenes, Extra, etc., including the entertainment press or "gossip industries" *Alternative notions of authorship *Alternative outlets for authored materials *Censorship *Plagiarism, Intertextuality, Homage, Notions of "originality" *Methodologies and authorship, e.g. reception studies, audiences, and/or cultural studies approaches to fandom in relation to authorship *Pedagogy and theories of authorship *Fostering authorship in classroom settings, e.g. teaching screenwriting through editing and music composition, including practices that result in circumscribing authorship To be considered for publication, papers should include a 100-200 word abstract, be between 15 and 25 pages, double-spaced, in MLA style, with the author's name and contact information included only on the cover page. Authors are responsible for acquiring related visual images and the associated copyrights. Queries regarding potential submissions also are welcome. For more information or to submit a query, please contact Jean Lauer at [log in to unmask] All submissions are due February 1, 2005. Submit five copies of the paper to: The Velvet Light Trap C/o The Department of Radio-Television-Film University of Texas at Austin 1 University Station, A0800 Austin, TX, 78712-0108 The Velvet Light Trap is an academic, refereed journal of film and television studies published semi-annually by University of Texas Press. Issues are coordinated alternately by graduate students at the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After a prescreening, articles are anonymously refereed by specialist readers of the journal's Editorial Advisory Board, which includes such notable scholars as Charles Acland, Alexander Doty, David William Foster, Bambi Haggins, Heather Hendershot, Charlie Kiel, Michele Malach, Dan Marcus, Nina Martin, Walter Metz, Jason Mittle, James Morrison, Hamid Naficy, Karla Oeler, Lisa Parks, and Malcolm Turvey. ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]