Contributions are sought for a prospective peer-reviewed cluster on the Modernism/modernity Print Plus platform (modernismmodernity.org) treating collaboration in modernist arts of the twentieth and twenty-first century.
About the cluster
Collaborative efforts pervade the arts and always have – to the degree that Howard Becker has called artistic production a ‘collective activity’ in his Art Worlds. In cinema studies, a lively debate on the meanings and possibilities of contribution, co-authorship, and collaboration has set the pace for rethinking twentieth-century creativity (Sondra Bacharach, Deborah Tollefsen, Paisley Livingston). But research into other twentieth-century arts frequently concentrates on particular modernist artefacts as the products of great men or women. This roundtable is intended to address this gap, and to propose, define, theorise, and criticise concepts and limits of collaboration in modernism.
We invite proposals examining and challenging collaboration as a concept in modernist cultures. While starting points can be case studies, we seek papers that contribute explicitly to a theoretical and methodological enrichment of modernist art forms. The focus on modernist collaborations raises additional urgent questions for our research, for example about the balance of power in collaborative activity, or the need to move beyond a traditionally monolithic, highbrow, or, in some areas still simply masculine, idea of modernism.
How to submit
Within this broad area, topics of interest include, but are not limited to
- notions of ‘genius’ and ‘muse’,
- Collaboration between intimate or romantic partners/spouses,
- Relationships between mentors or supervisors and mentees or supervisees,
- LGBT+ perspectives of collaboration,
- Postcolonial aspects and issues,
- Collaborative media,
- Performance as a collaborative strategy.
The proposed cluster aims to address these, and other interrelated topics through a multi-disciplinary “roundtable.” Contributions will be conference-paper length (approximately 3,000 words) and peer-reviewed as a unit.
Please send your proposal of 250 words length to Annika Forkert, af15976@bristol.ac.uk, by Friday, 5 January 2018.
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