Wanna Talk About Bad Girls?
Papers needed for a panel on figures of female “evil”: witches, wicked
stepmothers, ugly step-sisters, bad fairies, ogresses– etc, in literature,
graphic novels, film, popular culture, TV.
Are these figures of female "evil" actually representations of sites of
cultural anxiety over real or imagined female power? Is their status as
"evil" really more a representation of their struggles with hierarchy? Does
the witch replace/ rewrite/challenge/augment the Feminist? (I use the proper
noun here purposefully). Does the “magic” of the witch/fairy or other
magical fantasy figure replace “real power” gained by societal change? Or
are these representations of female power codes for other, legitimate but
perhaps hidden powers? How do these “bad girls” differ from “good girls”:
princesses, fairy godmothers, queens, etc.? What does the “bad girl” do for
the culture she inhabits? Why do we have such a “love/hate” relationship
with bad girls? Why is one of the most popular Hallowe’en costumes the
witch? How does the witch subvert categories of “good/bad”; high/low? What
about figures that ARE essentially witches but aren't CALLED witches? Let's
explore these ideas!
Range of acceptable topics includes, but is not limited to:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Dark Angel; Films about witches; “Goth” girls;
Ghost Stories– La Llorona, Banshees, Succubi–; Lilith; Wicked Witch of the
West; Voodoo, Curanderas, Gypsy Fortune Tellers; Aes Sedai in Robert Jordan’
s _Wheel of Time_(not limited to the Black Ajah); Tituba of Salem; Piers
Anthony books; Octavia Butler's books; Edith Wharton's ghosts; Cassandra;
Samantha (of Bewitched); Jeannie (of I Dream of Jeannie); Sabrina the
Teenaged Witch; The Craft; The Gift; Witchblade; Witchburnings; Circe; Fairy
Tale Revisions; Snow White vs. the Wicked Queen; “Carnival”; Morganna; Hocus
Pocus; Baba Yaga; Stregas; Brujaría; Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe; Oz,
Tarot; Psychics; Etc.
Proposals that include multi-media (power point, film/video clips, etc) will
be particularly received.
This panel will be proposed to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of The
Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association
Conference,
which will take place
in Albuquerque, New Mexico
on February 13-17, 2002
DEADLINE: Please send abstracts or completed papers to Kim Wells, panel
organizer, on or before November 1, 2001. If sending an attachment to
email, be sure that the attachment has complete file extensions-- for
example: "paper.doc" or "paper.wpd" or "paper.rtf." NO ZIP FILES will be
accepted.
CONTACT INFO:
Include FULL contact information, including both an email address and a
phone number, a short bio, A/V needs and any important information to:
Kim Wells
panel organizer & presenter
Texas A&M University
(for more information on me, please write)
send mail to: kim@womenwriters.net
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This panel proposal will go to the official conference organizers by
November 15, with the added note that if the panel is not accepted, they
should consider each proposal as an individual proposal for a separate
panel. (In other words, the panel might not make it but your paper still
could).
The 2002 meeting of the SW-TX PCA/ACA will be at the Albuquerque Hilton near
the U of New Mexico campus. For details about the meeting, the site, and
travel, see the web site at http://www.swtexaspca.org
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From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
CFP@english.upenn.edu
Full Information at
http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/
or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu
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