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Please forward to your lists:<br>
<br>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">
<p class="MsoNormal">Call for Submissions for an upcoming volume of <i>Performing
Arts Resources</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To: archivists and historians of theatre, drama,
performance studies, music, dance, and cinema </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Re:<span> </span>Call for Submissions for a
Volume of <i>Performing Arts Resources</i> dedicated to Brooks McNamara
to be titled "A Tyranny of Documents:<span> </span>The Performance
Historian as Film Noir Detective"</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For a forthcoming volume of <i>Performing Arts
Resources</i>, we are looking for submissions focusing on your
experience with a 'tyrannical' document from the archive--a document
that would not allow you to draw an otherwise apparent conclusion, that
flew in the face of the evidence, or that carried embedded in it some
aspect of the event that was incomprehensible, no matter how much
additional research was brought to bear on it.<span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Proposals should examine one document--and one
only--that has been particularly troublesome to the researcher.<span> </span>The
emphasis should be on the work of the historian or archivist as
detective in the archive, and on the difficult balance sought between
respect for documentary evidence, the need to generate significance
from it, and the natural-but-dangerous tendency to smooth out the rough
edges of evidence.<span> </span>Joint submissions by
librarians/archivists and researchers discussing their relationship
will also be considered.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If the historian is a detective, the model is
sometimes less Hercule Poirot than a film noir gumshoe, who <span
lang="EN-CA">can’t quite realize the implications of the mystery, but
who can’t stop following the clues.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This volume of <i>Performing Arts Resources</i> will
be dedicated to Brooks McNamara, <i>in memoriam</i> -- former President
of the Theatre Library Association, Founding Director of the Shubert
Archive, Professor of Performance Studies at NYU, a pioneer in the
serious study of popular performance in North America, and a much
admired teacher and mentor.<span> </span>Brooks was a gumshoe of the
first order.<span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Those interested in contributing to this volume
should send a 200 word proposal to Stephen Johnson, Director, Graduate
Centre for Study of Drama, University of Toronto, by email attachment
at <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:stephen.johnson@utoronto.ca">stephen.johnson@utoronto.ca</a> .<span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Deadline:<span> </span>15 June 2010 for
proposals; if accepted, 30 Sept 2010 for final copy.<span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Length of final submissions will be 3,000 words
(10 pages), allowing for a greater number of briefer entries into this
volume.<span> </span>We hope to publish images of documents wherever
possible, and will assist in rights and permissions research.<span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Performing Arts Resources</i> is published by
the Theatre Library Association <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.tla-online.org/">http://www.tla-online.org/</a></p>
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