Call for Papers:

‘Before, After and Beyond: Prequels and Sequels in Literature, Arts and Culture’
A Special Issue of Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance
Edited by Annamária Fábián and Márta Minier
https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-adaptation-in-film-performance#call-for-papers

Deadline for submission of abstracts: January 31, 2025

Proposals for scholarly articles, practitioners’ perspective essays and practitioner interviews are warmly invited for the upcoming special issue of the Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance. This thematic issue will address adapting and recreating various forms of text into various modes of media through enhancing or challenging the concept of temporal and spatial continuity, i.e. through prequels and sequels.

Adaptation theory has historically tended to exclude prequels and sequels from its scope; they were treated as marginal or at least separate from ‘regular’ adaptations mainly because, as Linda Hutcheon (2006) pinpoints, building on Marjorie Garber (2003), “[t]here is a difference between never wanting a story to end […] and wanting to retell the same story over and over in different ways”. Yet, it has become apparent that prequels and sequels are here to stay, and they indeed seem to have a unique potential in retelling and reinterpreting stories as well as repositioning them in a new temporal and/or spatial framework. Whether it is the recontextualization of canonical/classical cultural content in (re)defined temporalities or the ever-renewing waves of complex storyverses through multiple, never-ending blockbuster series and spinoffs on various streaming platforms, digging for those new beginnings and not wanting a story to end seem to impress with unprecedented popularity and a potential to provide yet more layers to telling the same stories over and over again.

We welcome abstracts of cca 300 words accompanied by a biographical note and resonating with one or more of the following:

• the story as continuum
• various works begun and continued in multimedial forms
• the challenges of beginning and ending narratives
• the theory of preceding and following
• temporal and spatial repositioning/reframing of various narratives
• classics reframed
• perspectives on transmedia universes; storyverses
• backstories and spinoffs
• typologies and theories of prequels and sequels
• prequels, sequels and hypertextuality
• history and storylines challenged and disrupted
• prequels and sequels and/as anachronisms
• convergence cultures as platform of prequels and sequels
• prequels and sequels in the context of paratextuality

Authors are encouraged to submit their latest research findings (traditional research articles, practitioners’ perspectives contributions and interview-articles) aligned with the topics listed above – the list is to serve as a guideline and food for thought only. We welcome topics embracing other ideas connected to prequels and sequels in any media and in any artform in the most general sense.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Deadline for submitting abstracts: 31 January 2025
Notification of acceptance: 15 February 2025
Deadline for submitting papers: 2 June 2025
Double-blind peer-reviewing process over summer 2025

Abstracts should be sent to both the editors:
fabian.annamaria@btk.elte.hu and marta.minier@southwales.ac.uk

In the subject line, please write “prequel_sequel_special_issue_Name_Title”

If you have any questions regarding the issue please don’t hesitate to contact the editors.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance (Journal)
ISSN 17536421, ONLINE ISSN 1753643X

The closely associated practices of adaptation and translation have had a central place in global cultures for centuries. Focusing on theatre, film and other media, this peer-reviewed journal discusses the place of adaptation and translation within historical and contemporary cultures.

This title is indexed with the Web of Science’s Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI).

For more information, to access the journal or to subscribe visit the Discover platform here.