Myth Today and Together - call for chapters

Friday, December 16, 2011

Working title - Myth Today (and Together): Theory under reconstruction (Routledge, 2013).

Dear Prospective Author

We are inviting a range of published and cited expert teachers in the field of Media / Cultural Studies to contribute essays for a new edited collection of ‘Mythologies’ (after Barthes, 1972) for the year 2012. This is part of a broader project exploring the relationship between Media teachers (both inside and outside of The Academy), their students and ‘theorising’/ ‘writing Theory’/using Theory.  This project uses Barthes’ seminal text as both exemplar and conduit and will produce both the 28 item ‘expert reader’ described above and a more diverse online record of teacher-student collaborations which will be edited down to 54 items.  These seemingly arbitrary numbers merely reflect the scale of Barthes’ original (1957) and its first English translation (1972).  Our research will ultimately consider the relationships between these new versions of a ‘classic’ text – and what that might mean.

Should you accept the invitation, we will require you to:

•      Select a contemporary cultural event / practice / text which you identify as having equivalent mythological meaning as the range of cultural material Barthes discussed in his collection.

•      Produce an essay (3-4000 words) which engages with the cultural event / practice / text as mythological from any perspective you wish.  You are not required to adopt a structuralist approach and you are at liberty to take issue with the notion of ‘mythologies’ / semiotics or to offer an updating / reworking / challenge of any kind.  On the other hand, you are equally welcome to remain faithful to Barthes’ approach and / or style, or to take a position ‘in between’.

The editors will produce a reworking of the ‘Myth Today’ essay. This piece will discuss your contributions and compare the approaches taken.

If you can be persuaded to contribute, we would like you to observe these deadlines –

•      100 word abstract for your essay – Feb 3rd 2012 (please email to j.mcdougall@wlv.ac.uk)

•      Decisions made about acceptances / developing full proposal and contract – by Feb 10th 2012

•      First draft of essay - May 18th 2012

Further deadlines for redrafting will be set by the publisher.

We really hope you are interested in joining us on this project.

Pete Bennett and Julian McDougall
16.12.11