The Handmaid’s Tale: Gender, Genre Adaptation – a one-day symposium Saturday, 30 September, 2017 Film Studies @ Worcester Jenny Lind Building, University of Worcester Despite being written over 35 years ago, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), set in a totalitarian New England where fertile women are kept prisoner in reproductive servitude, has been making […]

CSTonline

***The Handmaid's Tale*: Gender, Genre Adaptation -- a one-day
symposium**

Saturday, 30 September, 2017  
Film Studies @ Worcester  
Jenny Lind Building, University of Worcester

Despite being written over 35 years ago, Margaret Atwood's *The
Handmaid's Tale* (1985), set in a totalitarian New England where fertile
women are kept prisoner in reproductive servitude, has been making
headlines in 2017 due to the remarkable Hulu produced television series
(screened in the UK on Channel Four). This symposium seeks to bring
together diverse scholars for a day of discussion and debate.

Film Studies @ Worcester are soliciting proposals for 20-minutes paper
presentations on any aspect of the Hulu adaptation of Margaret Atwood's
dystopian (and frighteningly prescient) novel.

Areas of potential specialization include:

- Literary studies
- Adaptation studies
- Gender studies
- Television studies
- Science-Fiction studies

We particularly encourage multi- (cross-) discipline approaches. An
edited collection of papers may emerge from this symposium.

Please send abstract proposals (between 200-300 words) to Mikel Koven
([m.koven@worc.ac.uk](mailto:m.koven@worc.ac.uk){target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"}) **by 15 July, 2017**.

We are hoping to run this event with no-cost to participants, including
lunch.


The Handmaid’s Tale
 


 : Gender, Genre Adaptation – a one-day symposium

Saturday, 30 September, 2017 Film Studies @ Worcester Jenny Lind Building, University of Worcester Despite being written over 35 years ago, Margaret Atwood’s

 The Handmaid’s Tale

(1985), set in a totalitarian New England where fertile women are kept prisoner in reproductive servitude, has been making headlines in 2017 due to

CfP: &#8220;The Handmaid’s Tale: Gender, Genre Adaptation&#8221; Sept 30, 2017 @University of Worcester. Deadline: July 15, 2017

Call for chapters: Proposals submission deadline: 1st September 2017 Notification of acceptance: 30th September 2017 Full chapters due: 15th January 2018 Planned submission of manuscript: 1st March 2018 Overview: “Science fiction is the major non-realistic mode of imaginative creation of our epoch. Why? Because science and technology are continually changing the conditions of our existence.

***Call for chapters:***

- Proposals submission deadline: 1^st^ September 2017
- Notification of acceptance: 30^th^ September 2017
- Full chapters due: 15^th^ January 2018
- Planned submission of manuscript: 1^st^ March 2018

***Overview:***

"Science fiction is the major non-realistic mode of imaginative creation
of our epoch. Why? Because science and technology are continually
changing the conditions of our existence. And because science \[...\] is
the principal way modern culture locates us imaginatively in time and
space." (H. Bruce Franklin, 2007)

Over the past fifty years, science fiction has established itself as a
serious genre, one which invites formal academic inquiry, while
creatively underpinning our personal and social trajectories in an
ever-increasingly technoscientific world. Science fiction narratives,
whether in literary or cinematic registers, help us to understand
ourselves, our societies, our politics and our world, by experimenting
with alternatives, possibilities, and communing with the ever-present
(and variously embodied) Other. Furthermore, as the critical history of
science fiction in the Western tradition has clearly demonstrated,
science fiction texts are culturally revealing in that they often key
into and illuminate social concerns, anxieties, and the anticipated
shapes of futures yet to come.

While science fiction in the Western, English-speaking tradition
continues to dominate scholarship within the field, we are interested in
applying the same critical principles to science fiction outside of the
West. It is our intention to produce a high-quality introductory reader
to serve as a starting point to the genre in non-Western cultures,
nations and regions, with an emphasis on scholarship produced both on
and by non-Western writers and academics. We hope that by investigating
science fiction outside of the West, readers may gain insight into the
genre across a range of cultural traditions, while also developing new
and informed perspectives on these cultures themselves.

Outside of analyses concerned primarily with historical development or
generic conventions, questions to consider may include (but are not
limited to):

- What is the creative or critical function of science fiction?
- How does science fiction enable specific cultures to express or
  explore themselves?
- What alternatives does science fiction pose? To what? And why?
- How does science fiction intersect with issues of nationalism,
  language, religion, gender or cultural identity?
- What do science fictional futures reveal about the way a nation looks
  forward?
- How do science fiction texts communicate concerns or needs regarding
  technology, science, environment, evolution, progress, identity,
  politics, etc.?

We are interested in high-quality academic writing on science fiction
literature or film texts by authors or directors from anywhere outside
of the Anglophone West and Europe. We are also interested in historical
/ survey chapters that can provide an overview of science fiction
practice in a particular nation, culture or region.

**At this time, we are particularly seeking proposals on work produced
in Latin America, South-East Asia, and the Arab world.**

We hope to cover a wide range of historical periods, media, styles and
themes; we realise that science fiction outside of the West has evolved
differently in different cultures -- our ability to document these
differences will be one of our collection's strengths. As such, while we
hope to receive chapters on well-known names such as Liu Cixin, Nnedi
Okorafor, Lauren Beukes et al., we are also relying on our contributors
to bring to our readers' attention new and/or lesser-known texts that
may be considered generically and culturally relevant. We take a
flexible view of what constitutes a 'text': literature may be expanded
to include graphic novels, comics, manga, etc., while film may also
cover television and new media such as videogames.

***Submission procedure:***

Researchers are invited to submit a 350-500 word proposal outlining the
content and aims of their chapter, on or before 1^st^ September 2017.
Authors will be formally notified of their acceptance by 30^th^
September 2017. Full chapters will be expected before the 15^th^ January
2018. Chapters will be subjected to a double-blind peer review. Please
submit proposals as Word documents to both
[yomna.ismail@qu.edu.qa](mailto:yomna.ismail@qu.edu.qa){rel="nofollow"}
and [achristmas@qu.edu.qa](mailto:achristmas@qu.edu.qa){rel="nofollow"},
using the subject line "Science Fiction Beyond the Western Tradition".

***Publisher:***

This proposed collection is currently under consideration at Palgrave
Macmillan for their Global Science Fiction series.

***Inquiries:***

Inquiries may be directed to either
[yomna.ismail@qu.edu.qa](mailto:yomna.ismail@qu.edu.qa){rel="nofollow"}
or [achristmas@qu.edu.qa](mailto:achristmas@qu.edu.qa){rel="nofollow"}

***Editors:***

Dr Yomna Saber, Qatar University

Dr Amy Christmas, Qatar University

***Contact:***

[yomna.ismail@qu.edu.qa](mailto:yomna.ismail@qu.edu.qa){rel="nofollow"}

[achristmas@qu.edu.qa](mailto:achristmas@qu.edu.qa){rel="nofollow"}

 


Call for chapters:
 

Proposals submission deadline: 1

 st

September 2017 Notification of acceptance: 30

 th

September 2017 Full chapters due: 15

 th

January 2018 Planned submission of manuscript: 1

 st

March 2018

 
 Overview:
 

“Science fiction is the major non-realistic mode of imaginative creation of our epoch. Why?

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

CfP: “The Handmaid’s Tale: Gender, Genre Adaptation” Sept 30, 2017 @University of Worcester. Deadline: July 15, 2017

Call for Chapters: Science Fiction Beyond the Western Tradition (working title)