full name / name of organization:
Call for Papers
Screen Acting: Theory and Philosophy
Despite the recent groundswell of interest in the area of screen acting,
there have been few publications that offer concentrated considerations of
what film acting is in and of itself. In the interests of laying the
ground for future screen performance studies, proposals are invited for
original essays for a new anthology on the theory and philosophy of screen
The primary aim of the collection is to provide theoretical and
philosophical grounding to the phenomenon of screen acting by
investigating a number of basic questions regarding its nature. The
secondary purpose is to bring a greater level of specificity to the
language used to describe acting conceptually, and correspondingly, to
analyze the work of an actor with a greater degree of precision. The
anthology will be organized around specific questions from varying
theoretical and philosophical traditions. Some of these questions may
- What is screen acting?
- What is the necessary aptitude and conditions that enable a subject
- What is the relationship between performer, character and work?
- How might we describe the relationship between actor and audience?
- How do the specifics of the medium function in relation to an actorâ€™s
- What kind of theoretical approaches are best suited to the analysis
- How do notions of performance change depending on context (non-
fictional instances) and subject (animals, children, animation, etc.)?
Due by the end of May 2009, contributions should be no longer than 6000
words and must not have been published elsewhere. As the collection is
concerned with performance rather than the cultural analysis of screen
celebrities we will not be accepting proposals on specific star studies.
Please send a short essay abstract and a brief authorâ€™s biography by
November 1, 2008 to the editors:
Bohdan Nebesio (Brock University, Department of Communication, Popular
Culture & Film)
â€¢ e-mail: bnebesio_at_brocku.ca
Aaron Taylor (University of Lethbridge, Department of New Media)
â€¢ e-mail: aaron.taylor2_at_uleth.ca
From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
more information at
Received on Wed Sep 10 2008 - 18:23:05 EDT