CfP Issue 27: The Gaze

21-Jun-2018

FORUM Call for Papers, Issue 27 (2018): The Gaze

SC1456231.jpg

Mary Cassatt, ‘In the Loge’ (1878)

The gaze is essential to the ownership and interpretation of art. Even as the woman in Cassatt’s ‘In the Loge’ gazes at the action onstage, she herself is being observed by the man in the background. In The London Review of Books, Julian Barnes writes: ‘It’s as if he’s telling her: don’t forget that the male gaze rules here, my good woman.’ From Jane Austen to #metoo, the recognition and subversion of the dominant gaze has repeatedly shed new light on cultural hierarchies.

Issue 27 of FORUM seeks contributions from a wide range of disciplines concerning the gaze, recognition, and identification. All aspects of culture and identity can be said to be subject to a form of the gaze - how does an art form interact with its audience? How does the presence of the gaze affect the ownership of a medium? How is the gaze redirected in subversive art? Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Visibility and readership of subjugated narratives
  • Digital humanities and contemporary audiences
  • The #metoo movement and the male gaze
  • Queer audiences and popular culture
  • The gaze and hierarchical structures
  • The male gaze in art and literature
  • The onlooker in visual art
  • Cinema audiences in the 21st century
  • The ‘selfie’ and social media viewership
  • Interactions of the audience with live performance
  • The gaze in canonical literature
  • The gaze and sexual identity
  • Historical perspectives on sight and reception
  • The mutual gaze

Papers must be between 3,000 – 5,000 words in length, formatted according to MLA guidelines.

FORUM is also considering academic book reviews (1,000 words) and multimedia or alternative presentations for publication.

Please e-mail your article, a short abstract, and your academic CV in separate, clearly labelled .doc(x) files to editors@forumjournal.org by 11 September, 2018. All eligible articles will be peer reviewed prior to publication. Only one submission per author per issue is permitted.