Fwd: CFP: Blockbuster

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

Japanese blockbusters, anyone?

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   From:
        "Mark Jancovich" <jancovichw at innotts.co.uk>
Call for Papers


Blockbusters


Recent work in film studies has taken as a central point of interest the

phenomenon of Blockbuster movies and Blockbuster culture. Seeking to
account for the defining characteristics of contemporary commercial
American cinema, scholars have considered the idea and significance of
Blockbuster movies in relation to a range of key factors, such as the
importance of structural changes within the US film industry, the
fragmentation of the mass audience, the changing role of film marketing,

and the impact of new technologies and aesthetic developments. Yet there

remains a pervasive sense that we do not always know what we mean when
we
talk about "Blockbusters." Where does the term itself come from? To what

kinds of films should it be applied? Are Blockbuster movies a product of

the New Hollywood, or did they originate in the classical period? What
conditions are necessary for their success or failure? What do non-US
Blockbusters look like?

Proposals are sought for a collection of original essays on the subject
of
The Blockbuster. Possible topics might include: issues of periodisation;

problems of naming and generic classification; the production and
marketing
of Blockbuster titles; questions of prestige and cultural distinction;
cinematic address and the workings of media intertexts; fan cultures,
reception practices and consumption; globalisation and indigenization;
non-American (especially non-Western) Blockbusters; textual analyses and

historical revaluation of individual titles.

Please send proposals of approximately 500 words to: Julian Stringer,
Institute of Film Studies, School of American and Canadian Studies,
University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, England.

Email: <Julian.Stringer at nottingham.ac.uk>. Telephone: 0115 951 4846;
Fax:
0115 951 4270. The deadline for receipt of proposals is 15 March 2000.


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