Annual Conference Berlin 2019

10th Annual Meeting of the Society for Fantasy Research

The Romantic-Fantastic – The Romantic Fantastic

18-21 September 2019 at the Free University of Berlin

college research group Cinepoetics – poetologies of audiovisual images and seminar for film studies

Program:
https://www.conftool.org/gff2019/sessions.php

Registration:
https://www.gff2019.cinepoetics.fu-berlin.de/Anmeldung/index.html

Always romance! In the fall of 1979, Michael Endes became a novel the never ending Story published in the Federal Republic of Germany. Even Ende's contemporaries saw Bastian's journey to Phantásia and back as the beginning of a revival of romantic longings and ideas within popular culture. Almost at the same time, US cinema discovered the genre of fantasy films. The motif of Campbell's heroic journey, the world to be healed and the interconnectedness of all things becomes a constitutive feature of the poetics of these films.

On the one hand, the corresponding novels and films appear as a response to the insecurity of a bipolar world - the fear of the atomic bomb and nuclear fallout as Ultima Ratio of the Cold War - and the emerging awareness of the vulnerability of the environment. On the other hand, like their famous predecessors, they were accused of escapism and misunderstood inwardness.

A similar field of tension can be observed today in relation to the fantastic. Again, both the potential of, and the criticism of, modern fantasy seems to point to a core of romantic ideas. As was the case towards the end of the 18th century, romanticism/fantasy offers a corrective to the cool, mercantile, thoroughly rationalized world that no longer knows any secrets. In light of contemporary political, economic and ecological upheavals, the fantasy looks for ways to rethink the world – and people's place in it. And once again the allegations are repeated that the fantastic is turning away from hard facts and necessities and taking refuge in kitschy other worlds.

Based on this finding, the conference pursues two goals: First, it wants to critically trace the relationship between romantic ideas, poetics and images to possible genealogies of the fantastic. What is gained by locating works of the fantastic in a romantic tradition? Does this dialogue open up possibilities for a deeper understanding of the aftermath of romanticism or the poetics of the fantastic? Second, the inherently critical potential of the fantastic - with reference to its romantic origins - is to be examined for its resilience. Can the relationship between everyday reality and the worlds of the fantastic be thought of in any other way than in the dichotomy of critical realism and ahistorical escapism? Could their stories, images and audiovisual productions show that the accusation of being politically reactionary and aesthetically conservative is simply untenable – or do the subversive aspects of their poetry remain marginal?

Contributions are welcome that examine the complex relationship between romanticism and specific forms of the fantastic, their genres, protagonists and media, theoretically, historically and analytically

Possible topics:

• Universal poetry and world-making (atmosphere, synaesthesia, science/art as forms of knowledge and experience)
• Media of the supernatural: Romantic media concepts and their influence on the mediality of the fantastic
• The romantic view of history and the historical imagination as driving forces of the fantastic (medieval appeal)
• Fairy tales, sagas, legends as genres and modalities of fantastic storytelling
• Traditions of Gothic novels and Gothic romances in modern fantasy
• The actualization of eerie romantic topoi in contemporary horror films (e.g. ghosts, living dolls and possessed clerics in Conjuring-Franchise or witches and religious insanity im folk horror)
• The beautiful and the sublime, horror and the grotesque as affect-poetological models for horror and fantasy
• The imagery of romanticism and its influence on visual forms of the fantastic (art, comics, film, series, computer games, etc.)
• Forms, practices and theories of the fantastic in the Romantic era (ghosts and witchcraft, demonology, phantasmagoria, etc.)
• Sound worlds that open up a natural point of view beyond the human (e.g. in Dark Ambient or drone metal)
• Poetics of Fantasy as Forms of Magical Thinking
• Romantic poetics and the everyday becoming fantastic
• Forms of romantic love in fantasy
• Fantasy as a form of political romanticism

As usual at GfF conferences, there will be one OpenTrack give for all presentations that are not directly related to the topic of the conference. So we are open to more far-reaching suggestions.

The GfF awards two scholarships of 250 euros each to students to cover travel expenses caused by attending a conference. If you are interested, please let us know when submitting your abstract.

Submission deadline for contributions – abstract (max. 2000 characters) plus short bio: January 1-28 February 2019. New date: March 15.

The link to the submission form and all other information at: www.gff2019.cinepoetics.fu-berlin.de

The submission of Panels (3-4 speakers) is expressly desired.

All other inquiries by email to: gff2019@fu-berlin.de.

Conference board: Jun.-Prof. dr Jan-Hendrik Bakels, Regina Brückner, Jun.-Prof. dr Matthias Grotkopp, Dr. Tobias Haupts, Dr. Daniel Illger, Cilli Pogodda, Prof. Dr. Michael Wedel