The 29th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts
Delightful Horror and the Sense of Wonder:
Appreciating the Sublime in the Fantastic
The 29th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts will be held March 19-23, 2008, at the Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel in Orlando, Florida. The focus of ICFA-29 is on the relationship between the sense of wonder embodied by the sublime and the fantastic in literature, film, and other media. The sheer magnitude of the universe gives rise to the amazing, the astonishing, the astounding, the thrilling, and the wondrous. Edmund Burke argued it is “infinity [that] has a tendency to fill the mind with that sort of delightful horror which is the most genuine effect and truest test of the sublime.” It then should come as no surprise that the sublime has been a mainstay in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other related fantastic modes. Papers are invited that explore this topic. In addition, we especially look forward to papers on the work of our guests:
Guest of Honor: Vernor Vinge, author of “The Technological Singularity” and Hugo Award winning A Fire Upon the Deep.
Guest of Honor: Greer Ilene Gilman, author of the Crawford Award-winning Moonwise.
Guest Scholar: Roger Luckhurst, author of The Trauma Paradigm (Routledge) and Science Fiction (Polity Press).
As always, we also welcome proposals for individual papers and for academic sessions and panels on any aspect of the fantastic in any media. The new deadline is October 31, 2007 but we will be happy to consider papers until the original deadline (November 30), pending availability.
We encourage work from institutionally-affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, graduate students, and undergraduate students.
The Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for an Essay Not in English is open to all members of the IAFA. The IAFA Graduate Student Award is open to all graduate students presenting papers at the year’s conference. Details are available via Robin Reid, Second Vice-President (Robin_Reid@tamu-commerce.edu). Finally, the Dell Magazines Undergraduate Science Fiction Award will also be handed out at this year’s conference.
March 19-23, 2008
Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel
Look for Information and Updates at the IAFA website: www.iafa.org