Call For Proposals for NeMLA 2015 panel:

Shakespearean [Re]Visions:

Adapting the Bard in 21st-Century Visual Culture

How and why does Shakespeare matter in the 21st century? Belonging to both ‘high brow’ and ‘low brow’ culture, his plays have always functioned as an important site of cultural [re]production. Merely mentioning his name today signifies esoteric intellectualism and artistic excellence, despite a history of pop-cultural and commercial success that perennially ensures even illiterate audiences can enjoy Shapespearean products and performances. His popularity persists across centuries and media formats, as Shakespeare lives on today through frequent cinematic adaptations, contemporary theatrical stagings, even in digital comic-book form.

In what ways do twenty-first-century adaptations of the Bard’s works refashion, reinvent, and/or comment upon the original texts (’original,’ of course, being itself a vexed term in light of Shakespeare’s reputation for plagiarism)? In what ways are Shakespeare’s plays transformed through visual culture’s adaptation from one medium to another? What new insights are revealed about Shakespearean works through the art of adaptation in the digital age?

This panel seeks proposals that examine, interrogate, and assess interpretations, adaptations, and/or [re]visions of Shakespeare’s works in the 21st century.

Proposals may wish to address the question of what constitutes ‘reading’ in visual/popular/digital cultural contexts, especially in light of increasing collaboration between new and emerging media and more traditional logocentric modes of literary production.

Topics may include (but are not limited to):
• Cinematic adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays
• Digital works based on/allegorizing Shakespearean works
• Shakespearean influences in comic book culture and superhero lore
• Issues of adaptation, translation, appropriation and representation

Essays focusing on adaptations/reinterpretations by specific writers/directors are welcome, as are comparative essays investigating thematic connections throughout a selection of adaptations.

Chair: Mary Ellen Iatropoulos

Area: Culture & Media Studies

Cross: Interdisciplinary Humanities 

*Abstract Deadline: September 30, 2014* *

Please Note: This year, NeMLA has implemented a user-based system to accept and track abstract submissions. In order to submit an abstract using the button for a CFP entry, you must **sign up* <https://nemla.org/users/?operation=register>*with NeMLA and **log in* <https://nemla.org/users/>*. Using this new system, you can manage your personal information and review and update your abstract following submission. Signing up is free, and you only have to do it once. *   Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA session; however, panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar). Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable.

Questions may be directed to: maryiatrop@gmail.com