Tuesday, September 2, 2014

CFP: Locating Southeast Asian Horror

CFP: Locating Southeast Asian Horror

CALL FOR PAPERS   Plaridel Special Issue   Locating Southeast Asian Horror   
Issue editors: Katarzyna Ancuta & Patrick F. Campos



The unprecedented success of Japanese and Korean horror on international markets in the early 2000s increased the demand for the genre from the region, but also set a new standard against which these productions were judged. Encouraged by the enthusiastic reception of (the problematically labeled but widely accepted category) “Asian Horror” by commentators and the global fan community, Southeast Asian national cinemas began to revitalize their local horror genres, and distributors eventually turned to Southeast Asian horror as well.
But contemporary “Southeast Asian Horror” proved to be quite diverse,ranging from those that adapt the same strategy that made J- and K-horror into a global phenomenon, to a great majority of horror films that resisted or spawned its own formula. Many of these films followed local modes of narrative, frequently mixed elements of comedy with horror, introduced stories of supernatural creatures incompatible with the generic hordes of universally acceptable ghosts and monsters, and appreciated a different aesthetics than one usually associated with either Western or East Asian horror film.

There is much to be said about Southeast Asian horror yet until now the genre has mostly eluded the attention of the academic community. This collection is an attempt to fill in the gap. Horror forms a staple part of Southeast Asian cinematic repertoire. As a genre, it is almost exclusively supernatural. This is not surprising, given the region’s rich texture of religiosity, supernatural beliefs, shamanic rituals, and animistic practice. While there is no denying that, at least to a certain extent, Southeast Asian horror has been influenced by Western or, more recently, East Asian horror films, we cannot underestimate the importance of the particular politics, local cultural grounding, and other permutations of Southeast Asian Horror.

With this in mind, this special issue aims to answer a number of questions: Does Southeast Asian horror exist as a separate, recognizable category? How is Southeast Asian horror different from Western or East Asian horror genres? What are the particular political and cultural characteristics of horror films when considered in the context of Southeast Asia or as being Southeast Asian? Are there any similarities or differences between films in the region across national cinemas? What is the current reach of Southeast Asian horror, in terms of international viewership? What are the modes of receiving and appreciating Southeast Asian horror?

We invite contributions of academic articles that can further the discussion of the topic.

Some of the suggested themes are:
  • History of the genre in the region or in particular Southeast Asian national cinemas
  • Foreign influences on Southeast Asian horror
  • Transnational horror
  • Southeast Asian horror narrative structure
  • Southeast Asian horror sub-genres
  • Comparative view of horror from Southeast Asian national cinemas
  • Themes, motifs and locations
  • Folklore and oral tradition
  • Rural and urban horror
  • Haunting and spectrality
  • Representations of otherness
  • Representations of gender
  • Race, class and ethnicity issues
  • Political dimension of Southeast Asian horror
  • Cultural dimension of Southeast Asian horror
  • Southeast Asian horror audiences                                                 
Manuscripts should be submitted via email to plarideljournal@gmail.com, on or before 1 DECEMBER 2014.

About Plaridel

Plaridel: A Philippine Journal of Communication, Media, and Society was first published in 2004 as a national journal of communication and has since been released on a regular bi-annual basis. It has an international advisory board. In 2010, Plaridel began to publish essays on Asian and Southeast Asian media and communication topics, analyzed and evaluated from diverse disciplines and employing different methodologies,by Filipino and international scholars. Current and past issues may be viewed at www.plarideljournal.org.

Information for Authors

Plaridel is a refereed biannual journal published by the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC). Articles may focus on any aspect of communication and media. Reviews of a book, film, website, TV, radio program, event, or festival may also be submitted. All articles should exhibit a high degree of scholarship.

All manuscripts should be written with proper citations using the American Psychological Association (APA) style. Articles must not exceed a maximum of 10,000 words, while reviews must have up to 1,500 words. In addition, articles should be accompanied by an abstract of 100 to 150 words. Abstracts for contributions written in Filipino must be written in English and be 200 to 250 words in length.

Submissions are to bee-mailed to the Editor-in-Chief at plarideljournal@gmail.com in MS Word format without any identifying information such as author(s) name and institutional affiliations. Authors should also submit a separate title page with the manuscript title, author name(s), institutional affiliation and contact information for the corresponding author.

Authors submitting manuscripts should not simultaneously submit them to another publication. Manuscripts should not have been published elsewhere in substantially similar form or with substantially similar content. Authors are responsible for gaining permission for including any copyrighted material that needs permission, including quotations of more than 300 words.

Plaridel publishes original articles that have gone through a rigorous double-blind peer-review process. Papers submitted to the journal for publication consideration undergo an initial editorial review by issue and associate editors. At this stage papers can be accepted or rejected. Papers that are favorably reviewed move forward to the double-blind peer-review process. Referees are selected based on their publication history and expertise in the field where the article seeks to make a contribution.

Plaridel is accorded Category A-2 status by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Journal Accreditation System since 2010. For further information, call (02) 9206864 or UP trunkline 981-8500 loc. 2668 or email plarideljournal@gmail.com.

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