Annual Conference Munster 2016

THE FANTASTIC NOW: TRENDS IN FANTASTIC RESEARCH IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Seventh Annual Meeting of the Society for Fantasy Research eV

Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster September 22 – 24, 2016

Hardly any other subject of contemporary literary, cultural and media studies is researched as actively and controversially as the fantastic. As a theoretical debate initiated by Tzvetan Todorov and Roger Callois in the second half of the 20th century, fantastic research is today a globally operated, interdisciplinary and red-hot field of research that is directly meaningful for various scientific journals, societies, associations, research projects and institutions .

Last but not least, it is due to the breadth and diversity of the research landscape that there has been a lively disagreement since the beginning of the modern debate as to how the research object should be defined and analyzed. The central question – “What is fantasy?” – evokes a spectrum of responses that range from negation and accusation of triviality, to minimalist definitions in the tradition of Todorov, to extremely broad and inclusive concepts of the fantastic, which conceptualize the fantastic as any kind of cultural product that can be empirically tested World view contrasted with another, fantastic one and thus has a genre-defining effect on (art) fairy tales, legends, science fiction and gothic, among other things. Current and ongoing developments in cultural and literary theory (e.g. the subjectification of the concept of reality, transnational, transcultural and transmedial tendencies) further heterogeneize the field and show with impressive clarity how formative the fantastic (as a structure, group of motifs, reception attitude or aesthetics) for contemporary culture is worldwide. At the same time, it becomes clear how necessary it has become to take stock of contemporary research into the fantastic, its approaches, epistemological interests, focuses and results.

The seventh annual conference of the society for fantasy research wants under the title The Fantastic Now: Trends in Fantastic Research in the 21st Century do exactly this inventory. Including the greatest possible variety of voices and perspectives, the breadth and interdisciplinary nature of fantastic research is to be presented and discussed in terms of its social and cultural implications. Possible humanities and social sciences questions and topics (of literature, culture and arts as well as sociology, philosophy or political science) can be:

• What is "fantastic"?
• What can/should fantastic research achieve today?
• Fantastic genres (individual considerations or theoretical considerations): horror and gothic, utopias and dystopias, science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, speculative fiction, (art) fairy tales, fables, myths, etc.
• Fantastic media (individual considerations or theoretical considerations): Fantastic in literature, art, theatre, film, comics, computer games, Web 2.0, etc.
• Transmedia Fantastic
• neo-fantastic
• Fantastic and Gender/Class/Race/Disability etc.
• Fantastic aesthetic
• Individual motifs, motif groups and/or motif stories
• etc

We are very pleased that Professor Fred Botting, one of the luminaries in the fields of Gothic Fiction and Cultural Theory, has already agreed to be a keynote speaker. In addition to other high-profile research voices, we would also like to seek and promote an exchange with young scientists, authors and artists.

Interested researchers please send an abstract for a 20-minute presentation in German or English of max. 350 words, contact details and a short biography by February 15, 2016 an gff2016@wwu.de. Submissions from pre-structured panels are also explicitly encouraged.

The GFF awards two scholarships for lectures by students (BA, MA, MEd) and doctoral candidates that are particularly worthy of support. Please indicate any interest in funding in your submission.

In addition to the traditional exchange in panels and panel discussions, a round table on the topic "What can/should fantastic research achieve in the 21st century?" is planned, for which you are welcome to apply as an active discussant with an abstract.

Creative contributions (readings, performances, exhibitions, etc.) are also very welcome to be presented by February 15, 2016 and in a short description suitable for the respective format by email (gff2016@wwu.de) are submitted.

Conference location:
Westphalian Wilhelms University
English seminar
Johannisstr. 12-20
48143 Munster

Contact with the conference team:
Email: gff2016@wwu.de
Home Page: https://www.uni-muenster.de/anglistik/gff2016
Phone: + 49 251 83 24592

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