CfP: The Biographical Narrative in 21st Century Film and Television Postgraduate Seminar Series

The Biographical Narrative in 21st Century Film and Television

POSTGRADUATE SEMINAR SERIES

THURSDAY 27TH MAY & THURSDAY 3RD JUNE 2010

This seminar series welcomes proposals for papers from postgraduate students that
consider the biographical narrative, the ‘Biopic’, in cinema and television of the last
decade.

Despite its status as one of the most commercially and critically successful film and
television genres of the 21st Century the Biopic, and its recent resurgence, has
received relatively little scholarly attention; Carolyn Anderson and John Lupo in the
introduction to the 'Journal of Popular Film and Television’s special issue on Biopics
describe the form as an ‘overlooked, underappreciated genre whose [...] manifestations
deserve new and rigorous scrutiny.’ This seminar series aims address the need for a
reconsideration of the Biopic and its place in contemporary popular culture.

Submissions of abstracts of 250-300 words for papers of 20 minutes in length are invited.

Possible topics for papers include, but are by no means limited to:

•       Biopics and national/international histories
•       Biopics and the question of ‘authenticity’
•       Biopics and celebrity
•       Biographical films and nostalgia
•       Biopics and their representations of race, gender, sexuality.
•       Postmodern, ironic Biopics and the role of the biographical film in contemporary US Independent cinema.
•       Biopics and the ‘auteur’
•       Star personas and the portrayal of the biographical subject
•       The biographical television series and the place of the Biopic in contemporary television programming.
•       Biographical documentaries
•       The biographical narrative in European and World cinemas.

Please submit abstracts by 31st March 2010 to Victoria Kearley, vlk204 AT soton.ac.uk

Victoria Kearley
PhD Candidate in Film
Avenue Campus
University of Southampton
Southampton SO17 1JB
UK
Email: vlk204 AT soton.ac.uk
www.film.soton.ac.uk
http://soton.academia.edu/VictoriaKearley