[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: The Transforming Body in Popular Culture (UK) (2/27/07; 4/25/07, 5/30/07, 10/07, 12/07)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

The Transforming Body in popular  culture

University of Southampton, UK, 2007

There has  recently been an intensification of interest in the changing
body in popular  culture, from films and writing focusing on the
makeover phenomenon or gender  reassignment, to reality TV programmes
detailing surgical alteration, to  health-, celebrity- and
horror-focused narratives presenting transformation  sentimentally or
monstrously. These contemporary perspectives are embedded in a  longer
history of transformation stories in classical/post-classical cinema,
literature, photography, art and performance.

In 2007 Southampton  University will be hosting a series of seminars
considering the unique position  of the transforming body within popular
culture in the twentieth and  twenty-first centuries. This series will
provide a forum at which these  sensational spectacles and cultural
artefacts can be addressed in the context of  a reassessment of
established theories of the body, providing new ways of  framing and
understanding body culture. Possible areas of interest might  include:

Make-over narratives and "cinderella stories"
Gender and  transgender
The transforming celebrity body
Medical/surgical narratives
The hybrid or obscene  body
Body art, performance art and fetish culture
Monstrosity, plasticity and body horror
The  body as sick/damaged or whole/perfected

We are open to proposals  focusing on any revealing or provocative
cultural phenomena and texts, from a  wide range of perspectives and
disciplines. Please email abstracts of 250 words to lrw1 at soton.ac.uk and
periart21 at aol.com by 23th February 2007. If your proposal is accepted,
you will be invited to present a paper of 30 minutes at  Southampton
University, UK, at one of our four themed seminars. These are  scheduled
for April 25th, May 30th, and in October and December (dates tbc).
Travel expenses will be paid for speakers, though we cannot cover
overnight accommodation or a fee. We expect to secure a publisher for an
edited collection  of selected papers from the series.

Travel bursaries for attendees: A limited number of small travel
bursaries will be available per event to help  towards the cost of
attending for those not giving papers. Please contact the  organisers at
the email address below if you are interested in this. We will  require
a 150 word statement outlining your research interests and indicating
how participation at the event will enhance your research.

Professor Linda Ruth Williams (lrw1 at soton.ac.uk)  & Peri  Bradley
(periart21 at aol.com)
School of Humanities, University of Southampton,  UK
http://www.english.soton.ac.uk/transformingbody.htm

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