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From: Berry, Venise T
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 2:55 PM
To: McFadden, Todd S.
Subject: RE: White-Authored Narratives of Black Life

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From: Young, Vershawn A [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2011 6:33 PM
Subject: White-Authored Narratives of Black Life

CFP: Book Project, Edited Volume
Still Maids? Still Toms?:  Perspectives on The Help and Other White-Authored Narratives of Black Life in the 'Post-Racial' Era"

The last decade has seen several very popular depictions of African-American life created by white writers and directors,including The Help, The Secret Life of Bees, The Blindside, Number One Ladies' Detective Agency, and others.  Editors Claire Oberon Garcia (Colorado College) and Vershawn Ashanti Young (University of Kentucky) seek intellectually informed but accessibly written analyses (around 2500-4000 words, around the length of a conference paper or longish editorial) of these narratives that respond to these or other questions:

What do these texts—and their appeal-- have to tell us about American life and culture and/or contemporary race and gender relations, at a time when some claim that we are living in a “post-racial" era?

 How are notions of authorial "authority" inflected by crossing racial lines?

How is the history of the Civil Rights movement being revised and rewritten in the age of Obama?

What is the role of women's book clubs in creating best-sellers?

How do The Help and similar texts speak to generations born after the 60s?

What is the role of The Help and other texts in revisionary Southern history?

Is the popularity of such books and films a sign of how far "we" have come— or how much farther American society has to go in the quest for racial equality and justice?

Fifty years after the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird changed the hearts and minds of millions of white readers, the novel and film adaptation of The Help seems poised to achieve the same canonical and emotional status. For this collection, Garcia and Young invite artists, bloggers, writers, civil-rights activists, cultural critics, journalists, and scholars from all disciplines to provide insight into the hopes, fantasies, fears, and conflicts that inform and emerge  from contemporary white-authored narratives of black life.

Submission Deadline: Jan 15th 2012
Queries and Submissions should be directed to:  Claire Garcia [log in to unmask] and Vershawn Young [log in to unmask]

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN CONTRIBUTING!