I just finished a four-day stint at the biennial conference of the Reception Study Society, where I gave a keynote talk on the need for a more precisely comparative account of enthusiastic audiences in history. I argued that new research on pre-1900 fan-like subcultures (from kranks to matinee girls), as well as on the wider discourses of monomania, enthusiasm, and agency in the mid- to late-19th century, will help scholars to better understand how exactly fandom became a explanatory discourse for certain kinds of audiencing in modern society.
I saw lots of great presentations, from Emily Satterwhite’s discussion of fan mail about Christy (based on research from her new book) and Gillian Silverman’s analysis of 19th century reading as a “technology of intimacy” to Melissa Click’s study of adult and teen Twilight fans and Pedro Curi’s outline of the various ways in which Brazilian fans ‘Brazilianize’ American TV shows they see on the internet. Jonathan Gray also gave an amusing and provocative overview of this theory of “paratexts,” arguing that packaging, marketing, merchandising, and spinoffs of books and television shows must always be part of the “texts” that we study, since, for some people, paratexts are the texts with which they engage most. In all, a very satisfying weekend, sharing ideas with people who think similarly about culture and its meaning.
Next up: the fall semester.
Showing posts with label Jonathan Gray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jonathan Gray. Show all posts
Monday, September 12, 2011
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Reception Study Society Conference
In case any academics out there might be interested, the deadline for paper proposals for the 2011 Reception Study Society Conference has been extended to June 1, 2011.
CALL FOR PAPERS
RECEPTION STUDY SOCIETY CONFERENCE
Northwest Missouri State University, in Maryville, MO, about 80 miles from the Kansas City International Airport.
Thursday through Saturday, Sept. 8-10.
Keynote Speakers:
Shirley Samuels, Flora Rose House Professor and Dean
Cornell University
“Reading the American Novel, 1780-1850”
Daniel Cavicchi, Professor of American Studies
Rhode Island School of Design
"Fandom Before 'Fan': Shaping the History of Enthusiastic Audiences."
Jonathan Gray, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison
“The Audience of the Rest of the Text: Hype, Spinoffs, Extratexts, Paratexts, and Reception”
The Reception Study Society promotes informal and formal exchanges between scholars in several related fields: reader-response criticism and pedagogy, reception history, history of reading and the book, audience and communication studies, institutional studies, and gender, race, ethnic, sexuality, postcolonial, religious, and other studies. Suggestions for panels and papers in any of these areas are welcome. Please submit proposals of 250 words or less to Philip Goldstein at pgold@udel.edu or University of Delaware, 333 Shipley St., Wilmington, DE 19801, or visit the website: http://www.English.udel.edu/RSSsite The deadline is JUNE 1.
CALL FOR PAPERS
RECEPTION STUDY SOCIETY CONFERENCE
Northwest Missouri State University, in Maryville, MO, about 80 miles from the Kansas City International Airport.
Thursday through Saturday, Sept. 8-10.
Keynote Speakers:
Shirley Samuels, Flora Rose House Professor and Dean
Cornell University
“Reading the American Novel, 1780-1850”
Daniel Cavicchi, Professor of American Studies
Rhode Island School of Design
"Fandom Before 'Fan': Shaping the History of Enthusiastic Audiences."
Jonathan Gray, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison
“The Audience of the Rest of the Text: Hype, Spinoffs, Extratexts, Paratexts, and Reception”
The Reception Study Society promotes informal and formal exchanges between scholars in several related fields: reader-response criticism and pedagogy, reception history, history of reading and the book, audience and communication studies, institutional studies, and gender, race, ethnic, sexuality, postcolonial, religious, and other studies. Suggestions for panels and papers in any of these areas are welcome. Please submit proposals of 250 words or less to Philip Goldstein at pgold@udel.edu or University of Delaware, 333 Shipley St., Wilmington, DE 19801, or visit the website: http://www.English.udel.edu/RSSsite The deadline is JUNE 1.
Selected conference papers will be published in the RSS journal Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History, an on-line, refereed journal focusing mainly but not exclusively on the literature, culture, and media of England and the United States. Submissions to RSS are welcome at any time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)