[CFP] The Performing Body in the Hollywood Film Musical

The Performing Body in the Hollywood Film Musical:
An Interdisciplinary Symposium
April 4-6, 2013
Colgate University, Hamilton, NY

Call for Papers

Since its emergence in the 1920s, the film musical has woven together utopian visions and cultural realities, simultaneously creating, reflecting, and critiquing contemporary social, political, and economic conditions. Frequently, film musicals communicate these ideologies through the performing bodies of the film’s cast and crew. This symposium will consider the ways in which bodies perform in the film musical, and what such performances signify. Papers are invited that consider the following questions, among others: how do song and dance animate and define bodies onscreen? When and why are performing bodies marked in terms of gender, race, class, sexuality, and when do these bodies remain unmarked? How do onscreen musical and danced performances differ from those bodily performances that remain invisible to audiences, including those of crew members, sideline and film orchestra musicians, vocal and dance doubles, and so on? How do the film musical’s modes of performance both reflect and influence contemporary production practices?

Submissions from across disciplines are encouraged this symposium is intended as a space for scholars from musicology, film studies, dance, theater, and other fields to share their work and consider various disciplinary methodologies and approaches to the genre. We are delighted to welcome three distinguished keynote speakers: Steven Cohan (Syracuse University), Caryl Flinn (University of Michigan), and Adrienne McLean (University of Texas-Dallas).

Proposals for 20-minute papers should include a name, institutional affiliation (if appropriate), and an abstract of no more than 300 words. Please submit all proposals to filmmusicals (at) colgate (dot) edu by December 15, 2013.

For more information, see http://www.colgate.edu/filmmusicals, or by contacting Mary Simonson, Assistant Professor of Film & Media Studies and Women?s Studies at Colgate University, at msimonson (at) colgate (dot) edu.