[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: British Heavy Metal (5/31/06; collection)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

British Heavy Metal


Essays are sought for a book project that takes a Cultural Studies
approach to British Heavy Metal.

Heavy Metal has developed from a British fringe genre of rock music in
the late 1960s to a global market consumer good in the early twenty-
first century. Early proponents of the musical style, like Black
Sabbath, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Saxon, Uriah Heep, and Iron Maiden,
were mostly seeking to reach a young male audience. Songs were often
filled with violent, sexist, and nationalistic themes but were also
speaking to the growing sense of deterioration in social and
professional life. At the same time, however, the genre was seriously
indebted both to the legacies of blues and classical music as well as to
larger literary and cultural themes. It also produced mythological
concept albums and rewritings of classical poems. In other words, Heavy
Metal tried from the beginning to locate itself in a liminal space
between pedestrian mass culture and a rather elitist adherence to
complexity and musical craftsmanship, speaking from a subaltern position
against the hegemonic discourse. While direct political involvement
remained the exception, it is precisely the hidden political and
ideological agenda of Heavy Metal culture that deserves closer attention.

This collection of essays will provide a comprehensive and
multi-disciplinary look at British Heavy Metal from its beginning
through The New Wave of British Heavy Metal up to the increasing
internationalisation and wide-spread acceptance in the late 1980s, with
the launch of MTV's Headbangers Ball (1987) and Metallica's winning of a
Grammy (1990). Essays are invited from all the various fields that make
up contemporary Cultural Studies. Individual sections of the book will
focus on such issues as gender, class, race, and the nation. Authors
should analyze British heavy metal from a textual perspective, providing
critical analyses of the politics and ideology behind the lyrics,
images, and performances of this highly successful genre of popular
music. Rather than write papers on individual bands or songs, authors
should strive to argue with the larger system of Heavy Metal music in
mind, providing comprehensive analyses of their particular focus (like
violence) that claim general validity and relate directly to the larger
context of British life and culture.


Topics may include (but are not necessarily limited to):

Nation and Tribalism
	* Englishness
	* Racism and Xenophobia
	* Celtic Metal

Class and Work
	* Angry Young Guitarists
	* High and Low Art
	* Work Ethics and Pride

Mythology, Fantasy and Literature
	* The Concept Album
	* On Knights, Gnomes, Satan, and Monsters
	* Metal Lyrics and English Poetry

Gender and Sexuality
	* Masculinities
	* Sexism
	* Love Songs & (Positive) Emotions

Violence and War
	* Excessive Brutality
	* Blood, Sweat, and No Fear
	* Battlegrounds and Heroism

Visual Spectacles
* Metal Movies & Video Clips
* Band DVDs
* Life Performances (Eddie and beyond)

Complete articles of 5-7,000 words will be due 15 January 2007.
Interested authors should send a 600-word abstract and a 1-2 page CV by
31 May 2006 to

gerd_bayer_AT_hotmail.com

or to

Dr. Gerd Bayer
Department of English
University of Erlangen
Bismarckstr 1
91054 Erlangen, Germany





 From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List