[Reader-list] Culture of Terror-cfp

[aartiwani wani]

The Culture of Terror:  Theme Issue, Studies in South Asian Film and Media, December 2009
 
Submissions are invited for an issue dedicated to exploring the theme, “The culture of terror” in relation to media practices and technologies, representational politics, ideology, and discourses in contemporary South Asian media, culture, and society. Historically, the function of state terror, as in the Middle Ages, was to strike fear by presenting a spectacle so violent and graphic that a repetition of the actions which earned such wrath might be prevented.  Terror, in all its contemporary variants, is as much about representation, about shock and awe, as it is about inflicting real injury and destruction.  We invite essays that examine the symbolic and material manifestations of terror, in South Asian media and culture, from interdisciplinary, historical, critical and theoretical perspectives.  We are especially interested in essays that bring the insights of anthropology, sociology, history, and political theory to bear upon contemporary media and culture.  At the same time, we are looking for close analysis of the aesthetics of terror, its representational forms and strategies and the kinds of publics and subjectivities that it generates. 

Topics may include but are not limited to the following:

The representations of terrorism in contemporary South Asian cinema, television, documentary
Gender, sexuality and the culture of terror
Art as resistance
The representation of memory and trauma in visual culture
Citizen vigilantism, police brutality, and the culture of fear
News and terrorism
New media technologies and surveillance:  The State and the Neoliberal Subject 
Religious fundamentalism and the politics of terror
Hindutva and its cultural politics
The globalization of terror
Technologies of surveillance and representation
 
Procedure for submission
March 30th    :   500 word abstract
July 31:  First draft
September 18:  Final draft

Send abstracts/enquiries to:  aaj.safm at gmail.com 
 




Happiness has to do with reason,and only reason earns it.-Ursula Leguin