Dear SCREEN-L Subscribers, Please find below a CFP for an upcoming conference in France that may interest some of you. Symposium: “Superheroes in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema: Aesthetic Inventions and Transmedia” May 23rd and 24th 2019 University of Lyon 2, France Since the early 2000s, superhero films, mainly featuring characters created in the 1940s and 1960s by Marvel and DC Comics, have been adapted for the screen. A few colloquia have focused on this "phenomenon" essentially from a historical and cultural perspective, revealing renewed interest in the original comics while leaving out the aesthetics of superhero movies. A first wave of these films (1999-2009) has often been linked (and sometimes reduced) to a post-9/11 aesthetic revisiting visual and narrative motifs, such as the attack on skyscrapers or the recurring motif of the ruins, and privileging the portrayal of helpless heroes battling an enemy from within. A second wave, starting in 2008-2009 with the official creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is sometimes seen as an attempt to create a cinematic mythology that redeploys aesthetic legacies and narrative topics from syncretic literary and pictorial traditions. Although prolific, these approaches tend to ignore part of the poetic engagement and aesthetic invention at work in what some now consider a genre. We argue, however, for the need to provide a study of images and their consistency as well as of characters and their relationships in superhero films. Superhero films, we posit, retain an aesthetic appeal that lies not only in the imaginary worlds of original comic strips, nor even in the mythologies or extraordinary characters they display, but rather in their uses of the cinematic image in television and film. Contemporary superhero films, whose universes and characters largely come to life thanks to digital special effects, seem to owe less and less to a realistic and figurative anchoring of the original cinematic image and paradoxically realize the ideal of an image created (almost?) without human intervention. Alternatively for us, plasticity of the image plays a crucial role in defining what we call the superheroes’s “cinégénie,” that is the expression of their narrative and aesthetic qualities. It is thus as much the powers of the bodies that are multiplied and transfigured by this figurative regime as the diegetic environment, and this in a creative gesture that allows itself all inventions and all forms, transforming the figurative properties of the film and developing the metaphorical capacities of images. Contributions may include the variations of the Hulk's body, from a green marble leaping in the Arizona desert in Ang Lee's film (2003) to various appearances where his strength and powerlessness are juxtaposed. Papers may also consider the geometric shapes that populate Dr. Strange's universes (Scott Derrickson, 2016) calling attention to an endless creation of new visual forms and deployment of a sensitive and visible dimension to mathematical and computer language. Another focus of this symposium questions a poetics of enchantment that constantly interweaves magic with reality, and applies both to the bodies of superheroes and the staging of films (particularly in the recurring use of sequence or over-the-shoulder shots). Representations of contemporary America (in particular New York) in films like Thor (Kenneth Branagh, 2011) or Avengers: Infinity War (brothers Russo, 2018) are combined with imaginary worlds such as Wakanda (seen in Black Panther, Ryan Coogler, 2018), Asgard (Thor) or the different planets explored by the Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014). Proposals may also develop a historical and aesthetic discussion around these imaginary worlds by questioning, for example, the ways in which superhero films have incorporated a number of film genres and aesthetic codes : the film noir with X-Men, codes of the romantic comedy in Iron Man, characters crafted with specific actors in mind such as Robert Redford revisiting 1970s spy films in Captain America: Winter Soldier (brothers Russo, 2014). Contributions could also reflect on the aesthetics and narrative characteristics of the DC and Marvel universes. While each universe might seem clearly identifiable and differentiable (on the one hand the Marvel universe is often considered diurnal, colorful, and comedic ; DC is, on the other hand, described as nocturnal, tragic and serious), borders between the two are, more often than not, blurred if not reversed. The mutual contagion of Marvel and DC universes is accentuated, for example, by the circulation of actors who, such as Michael Keaton (the Vulture in Spider-Man Homecoming) and Michelle Pfeiffer (the Wasp in Ant-Man and the Wasp), appeared in Tim Burton and DC superheroes of the 1990s (Batman and Catwoman), and have now become Guardians in a new Marvelian generation. The same goes for Ant-Man's connection to ants, which is not unlike Batman's relation to bats. A mutual exchange of tones also affects characters, such as DC's Wonder-Woman, who at times seems to borrow from a Marvel aesthetic, while the dark side of Marvel Jessica Jones might belong in the DC universe. This approach thus proposes to go beyond competitive logics to reveal and analyze movements of actorial, thematic and aesthetic transfers. We also encourage contributors to consider the characteristics specific to the creation of an extended universe, including the many connections across Marvel films, comics, television series (starting with the Marvel’s Agents of Shield TV show, Joss Whedon, ABC, 2013-), video games and various Internet contents (fan sites, dedicated sites). This suggests not to focus on adaptation of super hero adventures across different media, but rather to consider the many aspects characters and stories take on, not so much from one medium to another but with each other. Spider-Man can, for example, be analyzed from the perspective of actors having portrayed the character or that of the relationship between these cinematic incarnations and the graphic and narrative characteristics of the drawn hero (Tobey Maguire and Peter Parker/Spider-Man by Steve Ditko ; Andrew Garfield and John Romita Sr’s creation ; and more recently Tom Holland and Miles Morales/Spider-Man by Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli). Contributors can also reflect on Spider-Man’s transmediality : while in a scene from Spider-Man Homecoming (Jon Watts, 2017), Peter Parker’s aunt, May, scolds her nephew for having lost several backpacks, in the video game Spider-Man (Insomniac Games, Sony, 2018), one of the main quests is to collect the young man's bags and the objects they contain. The video game creates, we argue, a palimpsest hero by using an anecdotal element from the film and developing a narrative arc left aside in the film. The video game also aligns with Netflix series bringing back to life settings such as Iron Fist's Rand Industry facilities or Jessica Jones' Alias agency, as well as with contemporary comics staging some villains like Tombstone and Screwball. These fictional worlds and characters do not necessarily follow a strictly serial logic but answer each other, overlap, extend, sometimes contradict each other in unexpected ways. They not only expand visually from one medium to another, but also reactivate our curiosity and enchantment. Networks of interweaving stories thus shape aesthetics that confront and influence each other, abolishing media borders and promising an impossible closure of worlds and stories. This symposium will bring together a collection of case studies revealing the interconnection of different media and what it means for the characters themselves, how we relate to them, the stories we learn from them, and the "ways of saying the world" that emerge from them. These topics are not exhaustive. Proposals for papers of 800 words maximum and a short bio blurb should be sent by 31st December 2018 to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Scientific Committee: Martin Barnier (Université Lyon 2), Sébastien David (Université Lyon 2), David Pettersen (University of Pittsburgh), Dennis Tredy (Université Paris 3), Hélène Valmary (Université Caen Normandie). ---- 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]