[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: Attention Shoppers! Theorizing the Mall (grad) (3/31/06; journal issue)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: Adam Lawrence <ad_lawrence76@yahoo.ca>


postscript: a journal of graduate criticism and theory is a peer-reviewed,
multi-disciplinary journal published annually by graduate students in the
Department of English Language and Literature at Memorial University of
Newfoundland. Students either currently enrolled in a post-graduate 
program or
having recently graduated from one are invited to submit papers for a 
special
issue exploring the mall and its itinerant shoppers.

The current trend of constructing "giant" malls indicates that shopping 
today is
based not on necessity but on the excessive availability of space, 
products, and
entertainment. The very size of the mall now encourages the shopper to spend
much more time exploring its complex geography, its meandering alleys and
distant trajectories that may lead towards some hopeful bargain. While 
the shops
of old may have been designed to fulfil needs, today's malls seem to create
them. The promise of multiple products (hair gel that will hold for hours,
deodorant that will last for days, and furniture that will last for 
years) and
assorted entertainment (playgrounds for children, pubs for adults) 
necessitates
further shopping. Such is th experience of Jack Gladney, the narrator of Don
DeLillo&#65533;s White Noise (1985), who embarks on a shopping frenzy as 
a form
of therapy: "I shopped with reckless abandon. I shopped for immediate 
needs and
distant contingencies. I shopped for its own sake, looking and touching,
inspecting merchandise I had no intention of buying, then buying it." The
function of the mall, DeLillo suggests, is to "fill out" the customer, 
to find
the gaps in the consumer's life--why three sweaters when you can have 
several?
Why one TV when you can have two? While this passage may strike some as a
satirical comment on compulsive and mindless shopping, it also 
underscores the
role of consumption as art form, a more recent understanding of the 
"shopper" as
active agent or as bricoleur--someone who manipulates and converts the 
products
s/he consumes.

For this special issue, postscript seeks submissions that explore the 
dynamics
of the mall space and the role of the shopper, and that engage or 
interrogate
current notions of consumption, use, and creativity as they relate to 
the mall.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
- "Field Work": the Ethnography of a Shopper
- Mall Shopping v. Urban ("street") Shopping
- Bricolage: Collecting and Re-shaping Consumer Products
- The Mall of Mirrors: Postmodern Consumerism
- Virtual Shopping: Mass Consumption and Mass Media
- The Semiotics of Shopping: Mall Architecture and Geography
- Everybody in Khakis: Advertising and the Manufacturing of Consent
- Shopping for Religion: Holidays and the Consumer Industry
- Lonely Downtown:  Malls, Box Stores, and the Reorganization of the City
- The Mall and the Mirror Stage: Consumption and the (Dis)Integration of the
Modern Self
- Lost in the Funhouse: Dolphins, Rollercoasters, and Human Amusements 
at the
Mall
- I've been Malled: Blowouts, Breakdowns, and Consumer Violence
- Mystic Wok: "Multicultural" Foods and the Mall as Exotic Space
- Ye Olde Shoppe: Revitalizing and/or Appropriating "Authentic" Crafts
- Boutique de la Corps: Beautifying the Body

Papers should be 3000-5000 words, unpublished, and in MLA format. Submitted
essays are subjected to blind review by either graduate students or faculty
members, depending on the area of specialization. For purposes of anonymity,
your name should not appear anywhere on the paper. Please enclose a 
cover page
with the title of your paper, your name, address, telephone number,
email address, institutional affiliation, and a brief biographical note.
Submissions must include three hard copies and a disk copy of the paper in
Wordperfect format only. Papers will only be returned if a 
document-sized SASE
is included (international submissions must include a postal coupon).

postscript also welcomes original cover art submissions designed for a 
7" x 10"
space. Please include a cover letter with the title of the work, your 
contact
information, and a brief biographical note. We strongly encourage that 
cover art
submissions include either a disk or CD with the image or images 
submitted for
consideration. All submissions must include a signed letter or release form,
giving the artist's permission for the piece to be used by postscript. 
Again,
submissions will only be returned to those who include the appropriate SASE.

Send submissions and/or queries to:
Co-ordinating Editor, postscript
Department of English Language and Literature
P.O. Box 58, Arts Building
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NF	A1C 5S7
Canada

You can also contact the Co-ordinating Editor through
email: postscript.mun@gmail.com




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