Please see below for a Call for Papers for ‘Works in Progress’, the second annual Graduate Conference for Adaptation and Textual Studies, which will take place at De Montfort University in Leicester on Thursday 7th July.
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Works in Progress
De Montfort University, 7th July 2016
All texts and artworks will have at one stage been a work in progress, despite the tendency to value them as cultural artefacts once they are deemed finished and made available for consumption. Redrafting and editing are processes which strive towards a “final” product, meaning their publication often results in the loss or occlusion of multiple ancillary versions. Such materials are important to our understanding of how texts and works are shaped and reshaped, and by whom.
The second annual Graduate Conference for Adaptation and Textual Studies (GradCATS) aims to explore the significance of alterations and decisions made during the construction, editing or reproduction of all kinds of creative works, including manuscripts, printed books, films, television programmes, music, photographs, dances, and paintings. We are open to a consideration of “works in progress” on a broad scale, from planning documents, drafts, cut or unfinished materials, through to republications, reproductions and adaptations. Proposals for 15-20 minute papers and panel sessions are welcome from postgraduate students working in, but not limited to, the following areas:
• Republications and revisions of texts
• Unfinished works, extra-textual materials or marginalia
• Adaptation and translation as rewriting
• Editing and production theory and practices
• The status of proposals, abstracts, pitches and film, television and radio treatments
• Revisions which are arguably regressive or which are for private consumption
• How the commodification and publicity of a work affects its final form
• How conflict between collaborators affects the finished product
• Methodology behind the search for “lost” or discarded versions or editions
• Artists, writers, performers or sportspeople themselves as works in progress
• Works that depend on audience participation and feedback
Proposals of up to 250 words should be submitted online here by Friday 15th April 2016. Alternatively, email them to gradcats@outlook.com.