[csaa-forum] CFP Comedy Studies (Romantic Comedy/Early Modern Comedy)

[Nick Holm]

Dear Colleagues,
Since 2010, Comedy Studies has been publishing leading scholarship on comedy, with an emphasis on theatre, performance, and stand-up comedy. However, given the growing importance of comedy across a range of media and cultural forms, the increasing implication of comedy in a range of social and political conflicts, as well as the accompanying growth of scholarship addressing comedy and humour, the journal is now actively broadening its scope to address the role of comedy as a cultural, social, performative, economic and political form, with a particular emphasis on cultural, critical, textual, and interpretive perspectives.
Comedy Studies defines comedy broadly and inclusively, and we welcome original research on comedy, humour, laughter, entertainment, amusement, fun, and related topics. The journal is committed to developing interdisciplinary conversations around comedy and publishes work that emerges from a range of disciplines including theatre, media studies, cultural studies, philosophy, sociology, history, geography, literary studies, communication and politics.
We invite submissions that address all aspects of comedy and humour, and particularly welcome research that seeks to understand and explain how comedy as a cultural form can intervene in wider social, cultural, philosophical, political and economic conversations.
In addition to this general call for papers, the journal also currently has calls for two forthcoming special sections:

Call for Proposals: A Formula for Love: The State of Romantic Comedy
For more information, see https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/a-formula-for-love-the-state-of-romantic-comedy/
This special section of Comedy Studies will focus on the genre of the Romantic Comedy, or rom-com.Whether on the screen or on the page, rom-coms have always elicited a lot of opinions and strong feelings – audiences often either dismiss them as a low form of entertainment, hate them for their (mostly) conservative and normative worldviews, love them for the emotional catharsis they might find in them, or they love to hate them and consider them guilty pleasures. Are we so quick to judge rom-coms because love is always personal, or because relationships are a window into society? Or is it because the rom-com has always been a gendered genre, focusing on female-driven plots, targeting female audiences, and so offering narratives about power dynamics and (in)equality? How far has the rom-com evolved since its ‘golden age’? And what exactly are the functions of humour in the rom-com?
Topics might include (but are not limited to):

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The diversification of the genre in terms of race, class, sexual orientation, able-bodiedness and able-mindedness, age, etc;
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The representation of the love plot, the pursuit of happiness, and the HEA/HFN ending (Happily-Ever-After/Happy-for-Now), especially in the face of heteropessimism;
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Relationships between rom-com and affiliated genres and cultural formations, like popular romance and “chick lit”;
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Representations of femininity, masculinity, and non-binary gender identities;
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Classic rom-com tropes such as enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, or the fake relationship, etc.;
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Pandemic rom-com narratives and the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the state of rom-coms;
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Adaptation of literary rom-coms for the screen;
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Audience engagement with rom-coms beyond the page or screen on social media, such as TikTok or Instagram.

Please submit proposals (250-300 words) to Heike Mißler <h.missler at mx.uni-saarland.de> by Thursday, 31 October 2024. Selected proposals will be invited to prepare articles of 6000-8000 words which will be due in July 2025 and will be peer reviewed.

Call for Proposals: Early Modern Funny Business
For more information, see https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/early-modern-funny-business/
This special section of Comedy Studies will focus on the business of comedy in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. From the first permanent playhouses to the consolidation of the patent theatre system, and from jest books to the emergence of the comic novel, our focus will be on the “industry” of the early modern entertainment industry, examining the ways in which comedy (inclusive of performance, writing, and visual culture), might be viewed as a business during the early modern period. Topics might include (but not be limited to):

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Professional comedians: writers and performers, clowns, jesters and fools;
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The economics of comedy, including theatrical economies, the economics of satire, the rise of the novel, and print and visual culture;
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The place of comedy in the entertainment industry, including theatrical competition, repertoire, the composition of acting companies, and the emergence of new forms, such as pantomime and commedia;
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Early modern celebrity;
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Audiences and consumers: consumer behavior, criticism and feedback, audience share and distribution, popular demand;
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The economics of liminal spaces, including fairs, carnivals, festivals, and side shows;
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Bootleg, contraband, illicit, and unlicensed markets;
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Comedy and capitalism: comedy in or about emergent economic systems;
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Economic alternatives: sedition, rebellion, and/or dissent.

 Please submit abstracts of no more than 500 words to Andrew McConnell Stott (astott at usc.edu) by 31 October 2024. Invited articles of 6000-8000 words will be due in April 2025 and will be peer reviewed.


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Dr Nicholas Holm<http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/expertise/profile.cfm?stref=990001> |Associate Professor in Media Studies|Editor, Comedy Studies | Book Reviews Editor, Humor

Building 7, Room 7C43 |Massey University |Wellington |Aotearoa New Zealand

DDI 04 979 3544 |ext. 63544 | nhfholm at massey.ac.nz<mailto:N.H.F.Holm at massey.ac.nz>

https://nicholasholm.wordpress.com/

Recent Publications
Holm, N. (2023) Everyone’s a Critic (So what comes next?)<https://journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org/index.php/mt/article/view/200> Media Theory 7.1.

Holm, N. and E. Tilley. (2023) The Aesthetics of Creative Activism<https://academic.oup.com/jaac/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jaac/kpad015/7185629> Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 81.2.

Holm, N. (2023) The Limits of Satire, or the Reification of Cultural Politics<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07255136231154266> Thesis Eleven 174.1.

Holm, N. (2023) Advertising and Consumer Society: A Critical Introduction<https://www.routledge.com/Advertising-and-Consumer-Society-A-Critical-Introduction/Holm/p/book/9781032181363> (2nd Ed), Routledge.
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