Reception of the Fantastic in Modern and Contemporary Visual Art
Imagining the Impossible:
International Journal for the Fantastic in Contemporary Media
Special issue: CFP for Vol. 4: Reception of the Fantastic in Modern and Contemporary Visual Art
The journal Imagining the Impossible is an international, peer-reviewed journal that is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of the fantastic in today’s entertainment media. The aim is to offer new and cutting-edge theories in response to the field of the fantastic. The fantastic is widely understood as stories and genres that break with natural laws. We use the fantastic as a supergenre and an umbrella term for all genres that use fantastic elements – science fiction, horror, fantasy, supernatural and more. The focus is on fantastic fiction in entertainment media, including film, television, games, comic books, internet and social media, and animated films. Media forms such as haunted houses, theme parks, and online forums also fall within this scope. The journal aims to offer a forum for multiple theoretical approaches to the fantastic that respond to their diverse media forms.
The special issue “Reception of the Fantastic in Modern and Contemporary Visual Art” focuses on approaches to the fantastic in the visual arts. Visual art is presented in many mediums, such as paintings (physical and digital), sculptures, games (on- and off-line), television and cinema, memes and more will be considered here as visual art. Fantasy is hard to define, particularly in a historical perspective, thus this special issue aims to contribute with new analyses and theoretical approaches to the fantastic in visual art. We are looking for studies that are address aspects of visualization, and are especially looking for aspects of reception; the transformation of the fantastic in visual art as well as its reception by audiences/users.
This special issue will discuss themes such as: mythological elements, fantastic creatures, human figures with hybrid elements or fantastic attributes, fantastic geographies, and architecture, as well as other elements manifested in modern and contemporary art testifying on the endurance of these visual concepts.
Manifestations of the fantastic appeared in diverse eras and cultures, for example, ancient fantasy is usually classified today as mythology and as connotated to religious and apocrypha. However, one must wonder about content and meaning of this classification. Moreover, in the contemporary world, fantasy is classified as a literary genre, in which a rich academic debate exists, and has also been integrated into new-media studies. It is therefore necessary to develop research in the meaning of the fantastic in visual art in a contemporary era, which aims to understand changes of the fantastic over time and its reception. The identification of fantastic images that have survived or vanished has the potential to further new understandings of the social aspects of contemporary cultures.
Suggested topics may include, but are not limited to:
– The cyclical nature of myths in art
– Images of fantastic creatures
– Fantastic geography in art
– Hybridity
– Magical architecture
– Fantasy as a distorted mirror
– Gender issues in fantastic images
– Fantastic images in religious context
We kindly invite you to contribute to this special issue. If you would like to do so, please send an abstract of about 250 words to skhali18@campus.haifa.ac.il or schubart@sdu.dk by 1.2.2022. Deadline for first draft articles will be 1.8.2022.
Kind regards
Dr. Sharon Khalifa-Gueta Guest editor
Prof. Rikke Schubart Editor
https://www.imaginingtheimpossible.com/kopi-af-publications-media