[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: Queer Eurovision (12/1/06; journal issue)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Call for papers: “Queer Eurovision”
Editors: Mikko Tuhkanen and Annamari Vänskä
Special Fall 2007 Issue of SQS Journal
Abstract deadline December 1st, 2006

A special issue of the refereed online SQS Journal (Society of Queer
Studies in Finland), “Queer Eurovision” considers the enduring appealof
the European Song Contest for some of Europe’s (and the rest of the
world’s) gay audiences. We seek to answer the question, “What’s so queer
about Eurovision?”—an issue that, to our knowledge, has not been
extensively discussed or analyzed. Eurovision’s indubitable camp
sensibilities go some way in explaining its queer appeal, and Song
Contest performances throughout the decades have provided fodder for
innumerable drag queens across the continent. Yet, are there other ways
of approaching the Eurovision Song Contest’s gay fandom?

Contributors might consider the following questions:

* Why has the Eurovision Song Contest attracted a wide and devoted gay
(particularly male) fan base?

* How has the contest between nations and nationalities spoken to, or
affected, the communities in the “queer nation”? Can the theory of queer
nationality be explicated or elaborated through the example of Eurovision?

* How has the competition’s queer fandom changed with the expanding
Europe? How has the introduction of Eastern European countries to
Eurovision altered its character? What does it mean that Eastern
European countries seek cultural inclusion to Europe through this gay
tradition? How do Eastern European gay cultures see the Eurovision Song
Contest?

* Eurovision’s queer fandom seems to be articulated through affects,
including that of shame? Does the recent turn in queer theory to
questions of shame and shaming shed a light on Eurovision’s appeal to
queer audiences?

* How has the fragmentation of subcultural audiences affected the queer
reception of Eurovision? How is the Eurovision tradition mobilized
and/or critiqued in and by different gay/queer communities?

* Does Lordi’s 2006 victory in Athens either represent a break in or
require a reorientation of Eurovision as a queer tradition? Is Lordi’s
performance entirely inassimilable to queer conventions? How different
is its overblown style from the tradition exemplified by Dana
International’s drag aesthetics?

* If Mr. Lordi wants to see the band renewing the stagnant Eurovision
traditions, can the Song Contest’s queer fandom also be metamorphosed?
Is queer Eurovision a phenomenon of a generation who went through
adolescence in the 1970s and 1980s, or can it attract also a younger gay
audience? Is the event’s appeal different for different generations?
Would it be time to rethink the notion of camp as the form of gay
sensibility?


Deadlines:
Please email abstracts or proposals by December 1st, 2006. Those invited
to submit full-length papers will be informed by early January, 2007.
Finished papers are due by May 10th, 2007.

Contributors should note that an invitation to submit full-length papers
does not automatically guarantee inclusion in the issue. Final decisions
for publication will be made by the editorial board of SQS Journal,
based on reviewers’ recommendations.

SQS Journal is a tri-lingual publication. Submissions are accepted in
English, Finnish, and Swedish. The journal is available at
http://www.helsinki.fi/jarj/sqs/sqs_contents.htm

Email abstracts or proposals to
Mikko Tuhkanen (East Carolina University, U.S.A.; email: tuhkanenm at ecu.edu)
Annamari Vänskä (University of Helsinki, Finland; email:
annamari.vanska at helsinki.fi)

In case a snail address is required, please contact us via email.

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