[Buddha-l] CFP: Buddhism and American Film

[J Whalen-Bridge]

Greatings, all.  Could you kindly pass this message to anyone who you
think would be interested?

CALL FOR PAPERS:  “Buddhism and American Film”

 This is an open call for submission of completed or nearly completed
essays for inclusion in a volume on Buddhism and American film. The
essays selected will appear in a contracted book on Buddhism and film
entitled Moving Pictures: Buddhism and American Cinema. Aimed at a
readership across a wide range of disciplines, this book is intended
to advance an already lively exchange between film and literary
scholars, philosophers, and religious theorists.  In addition to close
readings of specific films, we are looking for discussions of
particular directors or actors; the pluralization of Buddhism in film
(e.g., a comparative analysis of Theravadan and Mahayanist
influences); analytical approaches to groups of films; postmodernist
trends as these may relate to Buddhism, and so forth. Possible topics,
with the editors’ special preferences in listed order, include the
following:

Denominations of Buddhism: How does the pluralization of
Buddhism—e.g., Theravadan and Mahayanist Buddhism—relate to filmic
narrative and theme?
Buddhist Film Conferences: How have recent Buddhist film conferences,
both national
     and international, contributed to the presence of Buddhism in film?
Internationalism: How useful are comparisons between US films and
Asian films about Buddhism?
Buddhism Co-opted?: Has Hollywood commercialized Buddhism,
     or does Buddhist cinema reveal a dialectical exchange between
cultural materialism and spiritual values?
Comparative Religion: What are connections made between Buddhism
     and other world religions (especially Christianity and Judaism)
in American film?
     What specific points of comparison between Buddhism and other
religions may be
     used to dramatize Buddhist principles? How might these
connections be used to
      interpret a filmic text?
Buddhism and Contemporary Psychology: what are the points of connection between
     Buddhism and cognitive psychology research (e.g., Aaron Beck)?
The “positive psychology”
     movement (e.g., Marvin Levine, Martin Seligman)? The research in “Flow” (
     e.g., Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi)? How does this psychology permeate
characters in recent
     “happiness” films?

Please submit, in electronic format in MS Word, the complete or nearly
complete essay and a two-page CV to both Gary Storhoff
(gary.storhoff at uconn.edu) and John Whalen-Bridge (ellwbj at nus.edu.sg)

The deadline for essays is 31 October 2009 .The length for completed
articles is 3,000-6,500 words, including all notes and bibliographical
citations (use MLA Style Manual, 2nd ed.). This volume on film will be
the fourth in a series of books on Buddhism and American Studies,
published by the SUNY Press. The first volume in this series, The
Emergence of Buddhist American Literature was published June, 2009;
the second volume will appear in May, 2010.

--
J. Whalen-Bridge
English, National U of Singapore  (currently visiting Naropa University)