CFP: Mystery, Thriller, Detective, Crime Fiction

Conference
2017 Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference
Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch, St. Louis, Missouri
October 18 - 22, 2017
Stichtag: 2017 04 30

2017 Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference

Crime fiction is one of the most elastic formulas in genre fiction; it can be different things to different people at different times. There’s the whodunnit, the whydunnit, the howdunnit. As a rich and valuable literary genre, it appeals to all levels of readers and culture and scholarship. Crime fiction crosses national borders, time periods, languages, genres and boundaries between the literature and other arts.We are interested in any and all topics about or related to mystery, thrillers, detective and crime fiction and its representations in popular culture.

Topics can include, but are not limited to:

  • critical approaches (race theory, queer theory, postcolonial studies, empirical science)
  • adaptations to film, television, comics, graphic novels
  • cultural representations (crime/criminal, hero/anti-hero, thriller)
  • subgenres (hard-boiled, cozy, police procedural, legal, medical, PIs, true crime)
  • comparative study of crime fiction
  • genre blending and bending (sci-fi/romance/western/eco-noir)
  • historical practices and traditions in and of mystery
  • regional and geographic pressures, influences or settings (national, international)
  • material culture (pets, food, handicrafts, fashions)
  • gender and identity (race/ethnicity, gender-bending, queering the mystery)
  • narrative voice (gonzo writing, humor, young adult)
  • characterization (detectives, supporting, criminals, villains)
  • individual authors, texts, series
  • gender-bending and gender-crossing
  • crime fiction and its readers

Submit a one-page (200-250 words) proposal or abstract by 30 April 2017 to the Mystery/Thrillers area on the MPCA/ACA website http://submissions.mpcaaca.org. Please include name, affiliation, and e-mail address with your abstract. MPCA/ACA can provide an LCD projector for presentations, but it must be requested with your proposal. If necessary, indicate and submit potential scheduling conflicts along with your proposal. If you wish your presentation to be listed as MACA (rather than MPCA), please include this request with your proposal.

More conference information can be found at http://www.mpcaaca.org/.
For further inquiries or concerns, please contact Mystery/Thrillers Area Chair, Maryan Wherry, wherrym@gmx.com.

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