*CFP* "EXPLORING MOTHERLY INSTINTICS: REPRESENTATION OF MOTHERS IN INDIAN CINEMA", SPECIAL ISSUE, CAFÉ DISSENSUS JOURNAL

The figure of the mother has always been glorified and depicted in black and white without shades of grey. However, time and again filmmakers and academic thinkers have strived to push this conventional depiction to accommodate various layers associated with the concept of motherhood, as they have sought to challenge the simplistic representation of mothers in popular media. It is important to explore the maternal world further in this highly digitized, globalized and gender-neutral environment.

This proposed issue of Café Dissensus aims to curate a collection of essays on the representation of mothers in films that go beyond the stereotypical portrayal of motherhood as epitomized in the figures of Nirupa Roy and Rakhee Gulzar in conventional Bollywood style, showing unconditional love toward her offspring. 

The proposed issue welcomes submissions on the following themes (though not limited to them):

• Queerness and motherhood 
• Good vs. bad mothers 

*CFP* "EXPLORING MOTHERLY INSTINCTS: REPRESENTATION OF MOTHERS IN INDIAN CINEMA", PROPOSED ISSUE, CAFÉ DISSENSUS JOURNAL

The figure of the mother has always been glorified and depicted in black and white without shades of grey. However, time and again filmmakers and academic thinkers have strived to push this conventional depiction to accommodate various layers associated with the concept of motherhood, as they have sought to challenge the simplistic representation of mothers in popular media. It is important to explore the maternal world further in this highly digitized, globalized and gender-neutral environment. 

This proposed issue of Café Dissensus aims to curate a collection of essays on the representation of mothers in films that go beyond the stereotypical portrayal of motherhood as epitomized in the figures of Nirupa Roy and Rakhee Gulzar in conventional Bollywood style, showing unconditional love toward her offspring. 

The proposed issue welcomes submissions on the following themes (though not limited to them):

• Queerness and motherhood 
• Good vs. bad mothers 

*CFP* "EXPLORING MOTHERLY INSTINCTS: REPRESENTATION OF MOTHERS IN INDIAN CINEMA", ISSUE 63, CAFÉ DISSENSUS MAGAZINE

The figure of the mother has always been glorified and depicted in black and white without shades of grey. However, time and again filmmakers and academic thinkers have strived to push this conventional depiction to accommodate various layers associated with the concept of motherhood, as they have sought to challenge the simplistic representation of mothers in popular media. It is important to explore the maternal world further in this highly digitized, globalized and gender-neutral environment. This proposed issue of Café Dissensus aims to curate a collection of essays on the representation of mothers in films that go beyond the stereotypical portrayal of motherhood as epitomized in the figures of Nirupa Roy and Rakhee Gulzar in conventional Bollywood style, showing unconditional love toward her offspring. The proposed issue welcomes submissions on the following themes (though not limited to them):

• Queerness and motherhood 
• Good vs. bad mothers 
• Evolution of the representation of mothers in cinema 
• Modern women and motherhood 
• Reimagining the domestic space 
• Masculinity and motherhood 

*CFP* "QUEER VISUALS: GENDER, SEXUALITY AND INDIAN CINEMA", BOOK CHAPTER

How society represents its gender and sexual minorities, and whether the visual media should, at all, bear the responsibility of fair and equal representation, form two crucial discourses for a broader discussion in the field of gender studies at present. While ancient Indian society treated sexuality as a fluid concept, homosexuality eventually acquired the label of being a sin or crime primarily during the British Raj. However, the Indian society, as a whole, attempted to engage in constant historical, social and political struggles, the result of which was the decriminalization of the Act 377 terming it as ‘unconstitutional’ in 2018 by the Supreme Court of India. In the post-independent era, the cultural representation of gender identities had undergone a drastic transformation in various forms of visual media. Indian Cinema, one of the most common and easily accessible mediums of entertainment to the common mass, represented gender discourses not only through its stories, but also the songs that it incorporated and which served very much to forward the narrative of the plot, unlike its Western counterpart.

While commercial Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood, has come a long way in its depiction of diversified gender identities, the stereotypes of comical relief and voyeurism still remain its dominant feature. Since songs play a crucial role in facilitating the narrative of the plot, the lyrics used also form a crucial space for critical investigation in the field of gender studies, and to understand in what ways Hindi songs uphold or subvert traditional gender roles. Though in non-Hindi Indian cinema, gender representation in commercial films and songs has often paralleled their Hindi counterparts, there has often been acclaimed efforts by Indian filmmakers who handled the subject and presented the story with a sense of ingenuity, along with sensitivity and sincerity, thus making a mark of socio-cultural significance. 

*CFP* "FROM LITERARY COMPOSITION TO CINEMATIC ADAPTATION: A STUDY OF INDIAN CINEMA THROUGH POPULAR LITERATURE", BOOK CHAPTER

Authentic, scholarly and unpublished research papers are invited from academics and writers for publication in an edited volume with ISBN. Authors are requested to strictly follow the submission guidelines mentioned herewith in their papers. Only electronic submission via email will be accepted for publication. The proposed title of the volume which is below, may subject to change: from Literary Composition to Cinematic Adaptation: A Study of Indian Cinema through Popular Literature

 

Brief concept note:

Adaptation of literary works into Indian cinema is not new for Indian film makers, rather one can say that such adaptation is as long as film making itself. Last few decades have witnessed many Indian cinemas adapted from literature. From past to present, literary works of many popular writers from national to global level have been adapted into Indian cinema. However, adapting a literary work into a two or three hours cinema, mostly in case of a novel is not always an easy task to a film maker as sometimes, accommodation does not come to fit in the time frame work and thus messing up the whole essence of the original art. Regardless of partial or whole, a cinema based on literary work has always been a great appeal to an erudite person. The present anthology seeks original and unpublished article on Indian cinema based on literary works. Authors may choose any cinema of her or his interest in Indian context.

*CFP* "SHAKESPEARE IN INDIAN CINEMA", SPECIAL ISSUE, MUSE INDIA: THE LITERARY EJOURNAL

Naseeruddin Shah, the actor, once claimed that “The roots may look lost but every big story in the Hindi film industry is from Shakespeare.” It might not be as simple as that but what Shah was pointing out was to the fact that there are many references to Shakespeare’s plays in Hindi film. Not just Hindi but Indian cinema reveals an adaptation and appropriation of the Bard of Avon. There are themes and devices so commonly found in Shakespeare’s plays in Indian films, such as twins separated at birth, cross dressing characters, star-crossed lovers, characters falling in love with messengers, the wise fool, the tamed Shrew and the mousetrap device.

Shakespeare plays have been translated and adapted into many Indian languages. They have been performed in English and in indigenous performative forms like the jatra, nautanki and classical dance forms like Kathakali, as well. His plays have been adapted and appropriated in Indian cinema – Maqbool, Haider, Othello, Angoor, Shylock, Sairaat, Branti Bilaash, Hamlet, Gundamma Katha, Dil Bole Hadippa (a loose adaptation of Twelfth Night), Veeram to name just a few. There are films which use a scene, a dialogue, a reference to his plays, maybe a reference to a character and work them wonderfully into the context of the film.

*CFP* "MUSLIMS IN INDIAN CINEMA", EDITED VOLUME

Critical articles on the representation of Muslims/Islam in Indian films are invited from research scholars/faculty members for the upcoming volume "Muslims in Indian Cinema" to be edited by Md Sarfaraj Nawab and Asrin Khatun.

Cinema is one of the most popular mediums to connect a huge audience under the same roof. In India, folks have a secured emotion, love and dedication for movie-going. Beside entertainment, films have catered to the sense of a connectedness between people across states in India. Presentation of myriad cultures has always been an important motif in Indian cinema considering the diverse nature of lifestyles, faiths or existence of the people. And the consumption of an alien culture by a comparatively large concourse can possibly be imagined only through the silver-screen. Thus, cinema in India plays an important role in the presentation of certain culture, sect or faith. People feed on such presentations and shape their views about the subject. By keeping all these factors in mind, it is important now to address the Muslim Question in Indian cinema in such a time as this when a new and changing notion of India is on the rise. Where do we present the Muslims in the New India vis-à-vis their presence in the past? This book aspires to map and measure the identity of the Muslims as exuded in Indian cinema over the decades. It further seeks to trace the changes in the representation of Muslim identity with time. Well researched articles on movies are invited which might explore following themes/images of the Muslim:

*CFP* "INDIAN CINEMA", I WORLD CINEMA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE (WOCICO 2021)

I World Cinema International Conference (WoCiCo 2021)

Indian Cinema

15-16 June 2021, Online

 

The WoCiCo 2021 invites to seed abstracts on research on Indian Cinema (Bollywood or other Indian film industries).  It is an excellent platform for researchers, teachers, professionals, as well as Doctoral and Master Degree students to present, share, discuss and publish their research work.

Languages: Spanish and English.

The I World Cinema International Conference will be held on 15 and 16 June 2021, at University Complutense of Madrid (Spain), one of the most prestigious universities in Spain and the Hispanic world. It is organized by the research group GECA (Gender, Aesthetics, and Audiovisual Culture).

*CFP* "INDIAN CINEMA", I CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL CINEMA (COICI 2021)

I Conference on International Cinema (CoICi 2021)

Topic of this edition: Indian Cinema

11-12 May 2021, Online

 

The CoICi 2021 invites abstracts on research on Indian Cinema (Bollywood or other Indian film industries). It is an excellent platform for researchers, teachers, professionals, as well as doctoral and master degree students to present, share, discuss and publish their research work.

The I Conference on International Cinema will be held, from 11 to 12 May 2021, at University Complutense of Madrid (Spain), one of the most prestigious universities in Spain and the Hispanic world.

*CFP* "MEDIA BUILDING: ARCHITECTURE, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT", VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

Media Building: Architecture, Communications and the Built Environment

Virtual Conference, 7-10 July 2021

Hosted by the University of Salford and Northumbria University

 

Since the emergence of the first newspapers, the relationship between place and content has been central to the media’s development. The spatial politics of media production could fundamentally shape its reception and circulation. If ‘the medium is the message’, then this applied equally to where media artefacts were created as to what was contained within them. Publishers quickly understood that, from both a commercial and philosophical perspective, landmark headquarters or publishing plants could help enforce the legitimacy and significance of their enterprises. Thus, structures such as the striking neo-gothic spires of the Chicago Tribune tower or the sleek art-deco exteriors of the Daily Express building in London offered compelling expressions of media power, modernity, and the aesthetics of mass communication, providing what Aurora Wallace describes as a “definable shape…a hook on which to hang some news about the media itself.” At the same time, media buildings became key nodes in the urban geography of communications, complementing editorial efforts to make and remake the modern metropolis.

*CFP* "A HANDBOOK OF INDIAN INDIE CINEMA", BOOK CHAPTER

Each year, a large number of Indian Indie films are released that suffer from lack of viewership even when it comes to their target audience, not to mention critical assessments: films that are regional, experimental in nature or have fresh, timely interventions. 

Many among these deserve recognition, not only from general audiences and moviegoers but also from film scholars and the academia. With the onset of streaming sites and OTT platforms, some of these have made it to the limelight, although a systematic handbook that discusses and features many of these films is currently, absent.

We look forward to filling this gap by compiling an accessible handbook of Indian indie films that also sets to capture the various conceptual paradigms, through close engagements.

We welcome abstracts of not more than 300 words along with a bio-note at this mail: indiecinemavolume@gmail.com. The last date for the submission of abstracts is March 31, 2021.

*CFP* "A HANDBOOK OF INDIAN INDIE CINEMA", EDITED BOOK

Each year, a large number of Indian Indie films are released that suffer from lack of viewership even when it comes to their target audience, not to mention critical assessments: films that are regional, experimental in nature or have fresh, timely interventions. Many among these deserve recognition, not only from general audiences and moviegoers but also from film scholars and the academia. With the onset of streaming sites and OTT platforms, some of these have made it to the limelight, although a systematic handbook that discusses many of these films is currently, absent.

We look forward to filling this gap by compiling an accessible handbook of Indian indie films that also sets to capture the various conceptual paradigms and divergences that are offered through close engagements.

 

We welcome abstracts of not more than 300 words along with a bio-note (of not more than 100 words) at this mail: indiecinemavolume@gmail.com. Please make sure that you write on a single film. The last date for the submission of abstracts is March 31, 2021.

*CFP* "BENGALI CINEMA", BOOK CHAPTER

Films do not exist in a vaccum: they are almost always conceived produced, distributed and consumed within specific economic and social contexts. Film is now an integral part of our culture. What is it about films that attract us so much? Why do we enjoy films so much? Why indeed should we study films? It is not only fascinating to look at how films are made or even constructed but how they affect us is also a seminal question. What becomes equally important is what they tell us about our society, our understanding of the world around us and how this differs from one nation to another. Cinema brings traditional forms of cultural memory (novels, short stories, plays) to life in an audio-visual medium that transcends barriers of language, space, and time which makes it such an invaluable tool of entertainment.

Since this book is about Bengali cinema an integral part of Indian cinema one cannot begin the discussion without reference to Bollywood as it is popularly known across the world. It is one of the important film industries in the world in terms of the sheer number of films it produces, Hollywood being the other. The first Indian film was Raja Harishchandra (1913) made by Dadsaheb Phalke which was but made via primitive equipment compared to the technology the film directors now have at their disposal. The distribution patterns too have alternated considerably as well with most films now getting digital releases.

*CFP* "PROMISING JOURNEYS, PERILOUS ROADS: WOMEN'S JOURNEY NARRATIVES IN NEOLIBERAL INDIA", EDITED COLLECTION OF ESSAYS

Traditionally, men have had more access than woman to Indian public spaces, especially the cities, roads, and streets. Not surprisingly, then, the presence of women in patriarchal public spaces such as roads poses a threat to traditional spatial associations of the home and the woman that in turn are significant in the construction of Indian femininity. More important, women on Indian roads have felt threatened and experienced numerous and unbelievable instances of violence, some of which in the recent past have been globally and vocally condemned. Curiously, if narratives of traveling, self-sufficient women and their outdoor experiences remain scarce, what is rarer are theoretical and critical discourses surrounding and analyzing women’s predicaments on the road. Stressing this, academicians such as Manish Madan and Mahesh K. Nalla in their study tilted “Sexual Harassment in Public Spaces: Examining Gender Differences in Perceived Seriousness and Victimization” (2016) note that while a considerable amount of research has been done on  domestic violence in India, which mostly occurs indoors in private spaces, “the treatment of women in the public sphere, particularly with regard to sexual harassment (one of the most pervasive forms of violence against women)” (1) has only received public attention post the notorious Nirbhaya rape case (2012) due to media coverage and international outcry. Likewise, keeping mainly the Nirbhaya rape case and the gang rape of a young photo-journalist in Mumbai (2013) as a contextual backdrop, Shilpa Phadke in her article “Unfriendly Bodies, Hostile Cities Reflections on Loitering and Gendered Public Space” argues that the “overarching narrative appears to be that [Indian] cities are violent spaces that women are better off not accessing at all” (50).

*CFP* "MUSLIMS IN INDIAN CINEMA", EDITED VOLUME

Critical articles on the representation of Muslims/Islam in Indian films are invited from research scholars/faculty members for the upcoming volume "Muslims in Indian Cinema" to be edited by Md Sarfaraj Nawab and Asrin Khatun.

Cinema is one of the most popular mediums to connect a huge audience under the same roof. In India, folks have a secured emotion, love and dedication for movie-going. Beside entertainment, films have catered to the sense of a connectedness between people across states in India. Presentation of myriad cultures has always been an important motif in Indian cinema considering the diverse nature of lifestyles, faiths or existence of the people. And the consumption of an alien culture by a comparatively large concourse can possibly be imagined only through the silver-screen. Thus, cinema in India plays an important role in the presentation of certain culture, sect or faith. People feed on such presentations and shape their views about the subject. By keeping all these factors in mind, it is important now to address the Muslim Question in Indian cinema in such a time as this when a new and changing notion of India is on the rise. Where do we present the Muslims in the New India vis-à-vis their presence in the past? 

*CFP* "A MEDIA ANTHROPOLOGY OF INDIA", CHAPTER BOOK

The intertwining of Communication and Media Studies, and the discipline of Anthropology is not new, in the Indian context. Arjun Appadurai’s (1990) considered takes on global communication flows and mediascapes, Purnima Mankekar’s (1999) landmark work on screen cultures, and the steady engagement of anthropologists like Binod C. Agrawal (1985) in Communication and Media Studies, are some instances of efforts at bringing the two subject areas to influence each other. 

 

The growing number of ethnographies in Communication and Media Studies showcase the influence of Anthropology’s methodological and epistemological offerings to study various media-related phenomena. Research on media and cultures is underway in various departments of Cultural Studies and Film Studies, in the country and outside. Similarly, the popularity of digital ethnography, anthropology of popular culture and development, are areas that have caught Anthropology's fancy. Visual Anthropology has emerged as a distinct field within Anthropology, while departments of Sociology carry out ethnographic work on aspects of Communication and Media Studies. 

*CFP* "SCIENCE FICTION IN INDIA: PARALLEL WORLDS AND POSTCOLONIAL PARADIGMS", EDITED ANTHOLOGY

In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech titled “The Solitude of Latin America”, Gabriel Garcia Marquez declared that “the interpretation of our reality through patterns not our own, serves only to make us even more unknown, ever less free, even more solitary”. Widely regarded as one of the champions of the magic realist genre, Marquez gestures towards the dynamic between the peculiar nature of a people’s lived experiences and the narrative constructs used to represent their reality. As opposed to magic realism, which is indigenous to Latin America, science fiction is primarily a Western literary genre. 

 

Right from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1819) (often regarded as the first SF novel), to the iconic pulp magazines of SF like Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories, SF developed and matured in Europe and America. Besides germinating in the West, SF has also often been understood as a genre that aligned itself with imperialist ideology. John Rieder, in his now iconic book titled Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction (2008), argues, for example, that SF rose to prominence during the precise period which witnessed the most “fervid imperialist expansion” in the late nineteenth century. Rieder contends that as a product of imperialist culture, SF represents the West’s technological will to power.

*CFP* "TRANSGENDER INDIA: UNDERSTANDING HIJRAS AND SADHINS THROUGH THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES", EDITED BOOK

Chapters are invited for Transgender India, which examines hijras and sadhins from antiquity to the present, drawing on scholarship in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Contributions may explore a range of Indian transgender identities and experiences—including but not limited to individuals identifying as third gender, MTF, FTM, and nonbinary.

Chapters understanding hijras and sadhins from a wide range of disciplines are encouraged, including but not limited to anthropology, art history, Asian studies, biology, cultural studies, economics, education, ethics, gender studies, geography, history, Indology, journalism, law, literary studies, media studies, medicine, musicology, philosophy, political science, popular culture, psychology, queer studies, religious studies, sociology, transgender studies, and visual arts. Proposals to write the introduction to the book are especially welcome.

A sampling of confirmed chapters includes:

*CFP* "THE DETECTIVES: CRITICAL ESSAYS ON SELECT ENGLISH AND BENGALI DETECTIVE FICTION", EDITED VOLUME

In the popular fiction genre, the appeal and attraction of the reader is paramount and consistent. The event of crime and the solving of it through what the father of detective fiction Edgar Allen Poe called "ratiocination" is a result of the paradigm shift towards empiricism, the faculty of thinking and reasoning under influence of the Cartesian and Enlightenment tradition. Later with the advancements in psychoanalysis following Freud which probed into the inner workings of the human mind and forensic science with its back-tracing and interpretation of hidden physiological and spatial evidence further propelled the development and popularity of crime fiction, especially detective fiction and also derivatives like police procedurals, American hard boil fiction, espionage, sensational and crime thrillers. During the flourish of British classic detective fiction master story plotters set it to the highest benchmark. This influenced and inspired later fiction. The genre also saw adaptations and re-presentation in film and television with equal popularity.

In India, during British colonization, especially in the Bengal presidency, cultural transmission acted as a catalyst for the production and popular reception of imitative detective fiction in the early years and later subversion and appropriation through intelligent weavings of indigenous cultural nuances and traditions, thus manifesting a postcolonial approach.

*CFP* "FEMALE BODY IMAGE IN CONTEMPORARY INDIAN LITERATURE AND POPULAR CULTURE", CHAPTER BOOK

Body image scholarship began as a medical discourse and belonged exclusively to the domain of neuropathology for treating body dysmorphic disorders among victims of the World Wars (or other injuries) till Paul Ferdinand Schilder discussed it in the 1930s as a corporeal as well as a sociocultural phenomenon. Through the last century, much progress has been made in body image scholarship and its relevance has been acknowledged across cultures and academic disciplines. To put it simply, body image today refers to one’s own perceptions and beliefs toward her physical appearance and sexual desirability. In India while beauty rituals and traditional body image discourses can be traced back to the earliest moments of civilization, these issues have become a pressing problematic for contemporary women. Our proposed collection of essays entitled Female Body Image in Contemporary Indian Literature and Popular Culture hopes to examine how normative perceptions of beauty and femininity in contemporary India compel many women to appear ‘beautiful’ by adhering to globally dominant images of physical perfection defined largely as a fair, tall, and curvaceous but slim body with sharp facial features and lustrous hair. If this ideal has been constructed by colonial influences on twentieth century India, it is also massively influenced by forces of globalization and liberalization, mass media and the internet revolution, and a globally booming fitness, fashion and aesthetic economy in the present times. The injunctions of an ideal body image have arguably left millions of Indian women anxious, insecure and uncomfortable in their own skin.