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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">CFP: Edited book on “Theatre-Fiction”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Abstracts: November 1, 2020<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Seeking proposals for an edited book of chapters on “theatre-fiction”, i.e. novels and stories about theatre.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Theatre has made star appearances in dozens of novels, from J. W. Goethe’s
<i>Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship</i> to Mikhail Bulgakov’s <i>Black Snow</i> to Margaret Atwood’s
<i>Hag-Seed</i>. There are historical theatre-novels (John Arden’s <i>Silence Among the Weapons</i>), naturalist theatre-novels (George Moore’s
<i>A Mummer’s Wife</i>), children’s theatre-novels (Noel Streatfeild’s <i>Curtain Up</i>), detective theatre-novels (Claire Legendre’s
<i>La Méthode Stanislavski</i>), and even science-fiction theatre-novels (Christopher Stasheff’s
<i>A Company of Stars</i>). But while literary genres such as science fiction or crime fiction have been extensively theorized, “theatre-fiction” has not received the attention that this enduringly popular and complexly intermedial genre deserves. This volume
of essays will explore </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">novelists from a range of eras and parts of the world who engage in sustained ways with theatre as artistic practice(s) and industry, examining
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">what happens to theatre on the pages of novels, and what happens to novels when they collaborate with theatre.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">This project situates itself within
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">a developing domain of scholarship on theatre/novel intersections</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">. The significance of theatre in the lives
of particular novelists has been probed in studies such as </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Francesca Saggini’s
<i>Backstage in the Novel: Frances Burney and the Theater Arts</i> and </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Stephen Putzel’s
<i>Virginia Woolf and the Theater</i>. Monographs such as Alan Ackerman’s <i>The Portable Theater: American Literature and the Nineteenth-Century Stage</i> and David Kurnick’s
<i>Empty Houses: Theatrical Failure and the Novel</i> </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">remind us that theatrical</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> and novelistic forms did not
develop in isolation, accentuating a history of fluid boundaries, </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">reciprocal exchanges, and
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">creative antagonisms. On one hand, what will connect the chapters in the proposed volume is a more specific thematic emphasis—they will focus on novels that are specifically about theatre
as artistic practice and industry (as opposed, for instance, to novels whose engagement with theatre and drama is more strictly formal, e.g. novels reflecting the five-act structure of Shakespearean tragedy or the dialogue of well-made plays). Theatre-novelists,
however, </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">are linked not only by theme and topoi but also by the shared formal and stylistic challenges and opportunities that arise from engaging through one medium with elements
and attributes of others. In this respect, a study of theatre-fiction has links with
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">the
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">developing field of intermediality, which has grown to examine what theorists call
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">“intermedial reference” or “intermedial representation”. Within intermediality studies, significant attention has been paid to topics such as the ekphrasis of visual art and cinema, leaving
novelistic engagement with theatre largely unexplored.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">In addition to accentuating the significance of theatre in the work of prominent novelists, this volume is also an opportunity for less-studied theatre-novelists to receive critical
attention. The aim is to bring together discussions of theatre-fiction from a range of eras and parts of the world, shedding light on some hitherto neglected works and bringing them into conversation with a broader field. The following link provides a list
of novels that engage in sustained ways with theatre, and which might be possibilities for discussion in this collection.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre-fiction#List_of_Novels_and_Stories_about_Theatre">
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre-fiction#List_of_Novels_and_Stories_about_Theatre</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">The volume will showcase a range of approaches to theatre-fiction, such as:
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">• a focused analysis of a particular theatre-novel;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">• an analysis of theatre across the oeuvre of a novelist who frequently engages with it;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">• a comparison of the ways in which two or more novelists engage with theatre;
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">• a discussion of theatre-fiction from a particular era (e.g. late-1800s France);<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">• a discussion of a specific theatre-fictional phenomenon across two or more novels (e.g. novelistic portrayal of theatre audiences, novelistic rendering
of acting methods …);<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">• an investigation of how theory and scholarship from the realms of Theatre and Performance Studies might inform analysis of theatre in novels;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">• theatre-fiction and pandemics: the next-best thing when theatres are closed?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">• etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Please send a brief bio and an abstract of no more than 600 words to
<a href="mailto:graham.wolfe@nus.edu.sg">graham.wolfe@nus.edu.sg</a> by <b>November 1<sup>st
</sup>2020</b>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Looking forward to hearing from you,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Dr. Graham Wolfe<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Associate Professor, Theatre Studies, English Language and Literature<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">National University of Singapore<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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