We are seeking additional contributors for our edited collection of scholarly essays
on these recent changes in the complexity of time-travel media (film, television,
gaming, music media, or literature). The primary argument framing for this
collection emphasizes the increasing narrative complexity within recent time-travel
media. Submissions that are interdisciplinary in theory and method are welcome,
especially those in popular culture, science fiction, fantasy, genre studies, critical
media studies, narratology, etc. Abstracts and papers discussing recent time-travel
media, approximately within the last decade, may include but are not limited to
research concerning narrative structure, theme, genre, reception, comprehension,
and other relevant topics. Additional context noted below editors’ signature.
Those interested in submitting works from this following list or similar are of
special interest:
Stranger Things
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Avengers: Endgame
Loki (TV series)
The Adam Project
The Umbrella Academy
Doctor Who (2005 – onward)
Abstracts, up to 300 words, should present research intentions, the research’s
original contribution, and how the focus aligns with the main “theme” of narrative
complexity in this collection. All papers should be approximately 10-25 double-
spaced pages following the current 9th ed. MLA style with in-text citations and
Works Cited page at the end. We are currently in conversations with leading
publishers and will provide more concrete publication deadline information as
those decisions are finalized.
Please submit abstracts (or draft papers) by the new deadline, Feb. 28th, 2023.
Final paper drafts deadline has been tentatively extended until January 31st, 2024.
Please direct all abstracts, papers, and inquiries
to TimeTravelCFP@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you and
learning more about your contributions.
Liz Trepanier (Eastern Florida State College), Luke Leonard (Eastern Florida State
College), and Emory O’Malley, editors
Additional Context:
Historically, time-travel films and television (TV) shows relied on science-fiction
(sci-fi) tropes and storytelling devices to convey atemporal narratives. More
recently, an increasing number of time-travel media have begun incorporating a
variety of non-sci-fi elements to create new, increasingly complicated spins on
well-worn tropes. The rapidly evolving landscape of technological advancements
in our world today have made narratives dealing with the exclusive
science/mechanics of time travel less of an imaginative possibility. Many viewers
today seem receptive to the recycling of science-fiction time-travel tropes in many
of these more traditional sci-fi narratives. However, more authors have begun
creating unique adaptations on tropes such as time travel to engage audiences’
narrative understanding in new ways, and the audiences want to see and be
entertained by them. Whether this is seen as a component of hybrid genre or
structural complexity, more recent time-travel media have purposefully
complicated their narratives by reconditioning audiences to expect the unexpected
and require audiences to learn how to engage with the story to better understand
the narrative on multiple levels.
This edited collection will demonstrate that time-travel media is more complicated
now than ever before, but also that newer time-travel media has expanded into the
“mainstream” of multiple narrative genres that, prior to, were predominantly
superhero, fantasy, thriller, etc. Time travel now has grown into a tried and true
crossover of these genres and many more, taking the necessity of “science” out of
time travel, thus constructing a fresh cultural trope that can be used by any author
writing in any genre. This exploration of how a staple trope strongly tied to a
single genre, like time travel was to science-fiction media, can successfully
become mainstream adds to the current conversation surrounding interdisciplinary
studies in areas such as critical media, genre, narrativity, and more. This
exploration also aims to reveal the interdependent relationship of the time-travel
trope and its malleability, the authors and their ability to make said trope
believable, and the audience and their ability to suspend their disbelief and accept
the use of the trope in new media and genres.
pcasff 