Call for chapter proposals
Moments in Television:
Complexity/Simplicity ; Epic/Everyday ; Sound/Image ; Substance/Style
Deadline for chapter proposals 19th November 2018
Part of The Television Series, Manchester University Press
Series editors: Jonathan Bignell, Sarah Cardwell, Steven Peacock
These new volumes in MUP’s ‘The Television Series’ will take the form of edited collections of essays celebrating ‘Moments in Television’. Each volume will be organised around a provocative binary theme which we hope will inspire focused, impassioned contributions focusing on a wide range of television programmes. It is expected that each volume will contain nine essays of 8,000 words each.
The first proposed volumes are:
- Moments in Television: Complexity/Simplicity
- Moments in Television: Epic/Everyday
- Moments in Television: Sound/Image
- Moments in Television: Substance/Style
We are seeking proposals for chapters. Each chapter should engage closely with one television programme in a way that captures the work’s particular achievements and persuades the reader of its significance in the TV landscape. Proposals should make clear within which volume (binary) the chapter would be included.
Each chapter should undertake its exploration of its chosen programme via a reflection upon the relevant binary: ‘Complexity/Simplicity’, ‘Epic/Everyday’, ‘Sound/Image’ or ‘Substance/Style’. It is entirely up to the author to determine how best, and how reflexively, to utilise and reflect upon the ideas of complexity and simplicity/the epic and the everyday/sound and image/substance and style to enable his/her exploration of the programme, and to explore critically upon its achievements.
We envisage that these essays will encapsulate the particular emphases of The Television Series, taking television seriously on artistic and cultural terms. Focusing on TV fictions, dramatic or comedic, each book will demonstrate the series’ commitment to close encounters with TV: close stylistic analysis, evaluative criticism and the appraisal of TV creators’ creative achievements.
In pursuit of this, we recommend that each essay include at least 2,000 words engaging with a specific moment which the author feels exemplifies the particular achievements of the programme, attending to both visual and sonic qualities; the remainder of the writing would address the programme more broadly, as the author sees fit, in terms of complexity and simplicity/the epic and the everyday/sound and image/substance and style, and gesturing towards the work’s significance in terms of TV’s art history.
We intend that the variety of programmes explored will be eclectic and wide-ranging. We seek chapters that focus on examples from recent or long-running, established programmes; from a range of countries; and from varied genres, traditions and styles. Whilst we foresee that most examples will be easily-accessible works, ones that are often discussed and studied, there will be room for exceptional examples which will introduce the reader to previously neglected televisual gems.
Please send proposals or queries to Sarah Cardwell, in the first instance: s.cardwell@kent.ac.uk
