Call for Papers : Ghost Riders : The (Cowboy) Western and World Cinema
The western is one of Hollywood’s most recognizable genres. It was also, during its peak production years, one of the most profitable. It was widely exported throughout the world, and the icons of the western, the gun, the train, cowboy hats, and many of its most famous stars—John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Clint Eastwood—are everywhere associated with the United States. The narrative of the western has also been closely tied to US political and economic ambitions. It has been seen to legitimize the concept of manifest destiny, to glorify US expansion and domination of other cultures and to valorize neo-liberal economic policies often associated with the US.
No doubt as a result of its wide distribution as well as its often problematic ideology, the western has haunted world cinema. It has been appropriated, challenged, and or re-worked by a number of filmmakers from around the globe, including Josef Mach of Czechoslovakia, Ramash Sippy of India, Djibril Diop Mambety of Senegal, and Takashi Miike of Japan. Despite this, the impact of the western outside of the United States has received little critical attention.
We invite original contributions for a book exploring the impact of the western on world cinema to be published in 2012. We are interested in receiving proposals for articles in English exploring any of the following:
• Audience reception of the western
• Re-appropriation of the tropes of the western
• Use of the iconography of the western
• Transplantation of the western to other spaces and historical contexts
• References to specific westerns in films
• Exploration of the ideological implications of the western in film
• Use of the music, costumes or settings associated with the western
• Use of the settings or cinematography of the western
• Other uses of or engagement with the western
Please send 1 page proposals to Dayna Oscherwitz (oscherwi.smu.edu) AND Mary Ellen Higgins (mxh68@psu.edu) by May 30, 2010. Please include a brief CV with your proposal. Notifications will be sent out by July 30, 2010. Essays should be submitted by November 30, 2010.
Dayna Oscherwitz, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of French
Southern Methodist University
Dallas TX 75275
214.768.4335
oscherwi@smu.edu
Email: oscherwi@smu.edu
Object of Fashion 