Series or movies on vampires, werewolves, zombies, and monsters are en vogue again and have experienced a revival on the big and small screens and in novels. Zombies are marching through the United States in The Walking Dead and provide a new image of coolness iniZombie, while vampires have established a new life in the American South in True Blood (TB) or are in the process of saving a small town by unravelling its mysteries in The Vampire Diaries (TVD). Hollywood productions like Underworld have also attracted countless fans around the world. Although monster movies, series, and novels are not a new phenomenon, what has changed is the representation and the image of these monsters. While vampires, for example, used to be vile creatures literally sucking the life out of their human prey, we now encounter domesticized versions of these former monsters who more than once also save human lives instead of threatening them.
While all depictions of zombies, werewolves, etc. somehow link their monsters to historical aspects of a region or a broader historical or social context, the reception and acceptance of these monsters has changed with time. The editors of the edited volume Monster Media in their Historical Contexts consequently ask for different perspectives:
1) How is the depicted monster historically explained?
2) How is it historically linked to the depicted environment?
3) How has the reception of monster media changed throughout history?
Please send a short chapter proposal (300 words) on specific case studies (film, series, novel, short stories etc.), or broader theoretical approaches, to Verena Bernardi (verena.bernardi@gmail.com) and Frank Jacob (fjacob@qcc.cuny.edu) by May 31, 2016. Final chapters ranging from 6,000-9,000 words are due on February 15, 2017. Style guides will be provided by the editors in case of acceptance of a proposal.
Verena Bernardi (Saarland University, Germany)
Frank Jacob (City Unversity of New York, NY)