The Folklore Society and the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy are delighted to announce a joint conference on “Folklore and Fantasy” at the University of Chichester on Friday 13th to Sunday 15th April 2012.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Deadline 27 January 2012
Many folktales are closely related to the fantastic – through subject matter, content and impulse. Folklore often deals with the fantastic, or turns to the supernatural to provide explanations for extraordinary events. Similarly, folklore has long been a major source of inspiration for fantasy literature, from authors like Kevin Crossley-Holland and Angela Carter and graphic novelists like Neil Gaiman and Bill Willingham who take on and re-present traditional stories, to authors like Lloyd Alexander Susan Cooper, Kate Thompson who draw on established tropes, to authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Susanna Clarke and Terry Pratchett who invent their own folk traditions.
This three-day conference will explore, investigate and celebrate the relationship between folklore and fantasy. We welcome papers on all aspects of folklore and fantasy from the medieval to the modern and the post-modern.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
Folklore of the fantastic
Invented Folklore in Epic Fantasy
Graphic novels
Urban Legends
Superstitions
The Gothic Tradition
Monsters, Bogies and Boggarts
Real and invented folk history
Medieval and Modern Travellers’ Tales
Folklore in Children’s Literature
World Folklore in American Fantasy
Celtic folklore in Popular Culture
Folklore on the Stage or on the Screen
The Commodification and ‘Disneyfication’ of Traditional Stories
Folklore in Art
Abstracts of 250 words for 20-minute papers should be sent by 27 January 2012 to enquiries@folklore-society.com and to b.gray@chi.ac.uk