CFP: Essays on Clown Horror in Film and Television
Abstracts or inquiries of up to 200 words may be submitted any time before June 28, 2019.
Rough draft chapters of roughly 3,000 to 8,000 words (with an ideal length of 5,000 words) will be due Dec 20, 2019. Final rewrites will be due Jan 15, 2020.
Essays on Clown Horror in Film and Television is an academic anthology, edited by Ron Riekki (co-editor of The Many Lives of The Evil Dead: Essays on the Cult Film Franchise, McFarland, 2019), examining the various clowns in the horror genre. With the success of American Horror Story: Freak Show, American Horror Story: Cult, and It (with the huge anticipation of It: Chapter Two), the clown horror genre has solidly proven its place in contemporary film and TV. Previous landmarks in the genre include the likes of Amusement, Blood Harvest, Clown, Clownhouse, Dead Silence, House of 1000 Corpses, The Houses October Built, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, The Last Circus, Poltergeist, Stitches, the opening of Halloween, and even, one might argue, certain aspects of The Dark Knight. Essays on Clown Horror in Film and Television will give a variety of theoretical perspectives, being open to Marxist film theory, queer film theory, psychoanalytic film theory, cultural studies, interdisciplinary studies, and much more.
With this call for papers, the editor seeks essays of 3,000 to 6,000 words on any aspect of clown horror films and television, including:
Film and television studies essays related to all of the above aforementioned film and TV, as well as Killjoy, Carnival of Souls, 31, Serial Killers: John Wayne Gacy, We All Scream for Ice Cream, Terrifier, Supernatural, The Phantom of the Big Tent, Koko the Clown in “Betty Boop in Snow-White,” Krusty the Clown in “Treehouse of Horror,” and any other fitting films/television, on topics such as horror theory, gender studies, queer theory, psychoanalysis, coulrophobia, the carnivalesque, horror aesthetics, the philosophy of horror, fear theory, and various theoretical lenses (Clover, Creed, Freud, Jung, Kristeva). Multiple and varied theoretical approaches are welcomed.
Essays related to frightening clowns in the history of theater (such as Chicago’s Soiree DADA or Halloween Horror Nights’ Jack the Clown) or in music culture (such as Insane Clown Posse, Twiztid) cross-compared with clown horror in film/television.
Essays related to filmic areas such as acting, screenwriting, sound, cinematography, special effects, or costuming in the clown horror genre.
Essays related to the various toys, miniatures, collectibles, tie-in paraphernalia, soundtracks/score/songs, and other material ephemera associated with the clown horror genre.
The editors are also open to any other television and film criticism related to the clown horror genre. [Note: as this essay collection will be paired with an upcoming anthology on the It franchise, we already have enough essays on the Stephen King book, miniseries, and 2017 film, but the one exception is that we are still open to essays on It: Chapter Two if anyone might be able to either attend an early screening or else view the film during its initial September 2019 release but then still be able to make the December deadline for the first drafts of essays.]
The anthology is under contract with McFarland.
Contact Info:
Please submit abstracts or inquiries of up to 200 words any time before June 28, 2019, to
ronriekki@hotmail.com. On December 20, 2019, completed essays will be sent to peers for review and then rewrites from that peer-review will be due January 15, 2020.
Contact Email:
ronriekki@hotmail.com
