The fantastic is today’s most popular and significant genre in entertainment media. Among its developments are George R.R. Martin’s fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire and its HBO adapted series Game of Thrones; the Hunger Games film series based on Suzanne Collins’ books; The Walking Dead in comics and television; the new Disney princesses in Brave and Frozen; the rebooted superheroes emerging in games, comics, and film series; religious-themed stories in blockbuster cinema; and among games are LOL and WOW. The fantastic has reached new audi-ences and achieved mainstream status.Fantastic genres include fantasy, science fiction, horror, and the fairy tale, and today’s transmedia storytelling generates new versions, hybrid forms, and new audience engagements. Multiple me-dia platforms and participatory audiences call for new theorizations of the fantastic as it expands, transforms and migrates across media, be they grand cinemas or intimate cell phones. This raises questions about medium specificity: What does the fantastic look and feel like in different media and how do stories – affectively and aesthetically – behave when changing form? What significant developments demand our attention, from mash-up narratives to TV genre hybrids? How do au-diences engage with the fantastic across media? How does the increase of female authors and female characters influence the fantastic? And, finally, the relation between imagination and the fantastic calls for re-conceptualization: Is the fantastic conservative or subversive, or can its appeal be explained by other factors?

Abstracts and panels are invited on topics including (but not limited to)

• Theorizing the fantastic• Transmedia storytelling• Questions of genre, genre hybrids, genre developments• New themes, characters and tropes• Mash-up and other narrative developments• Adaptation and medium specificity• Audience engagements• Digital aesthetics and the fantastic• Fantastic emotions• Fantastic women• Ideology, philosophy, and religion

The Fantastic in a Transmedia Era New Theories - Texts - Contexts

24 and 25 November, 2015

International two-day conference at the University of Southern Denmark

InfoConference date: 24 Tuesday and 25 Wednesday, November 2015 Time: 09.15- 17.30 both daysVenue: University of Southern DenmarkOrganized by: Rikke Schubart, Institute for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark

Deadline for abstracts: 5 August, 2015Abstracts should be max. 300 words, have 2–5 references and contain institutional affilia-tion and a 100 word bio. Panel proposals are welcome and they should be max. 300 words and have three or four presenters.

RegistrationRates: (incl. lunches and coffee) Until 10. Sep From 11. SepTwo-days 1850 DKK (250 €) 2200 DKK (295 €) Day one 1000 DKK (135 €) 1200 DKK (160 €) Day two 1000 DKK (135 €) 1200 DKK (160 €)

Conference dinner 600 DKK (80 €)

Students are 1/2 price for participation (not on conference dinner)All prices are included VAT

Confirmed keynotes and invited speakers:

Fairy tale scholar Prof. Cristina Bacchilega (US) Media and audience scholar Prof. Martin Barker (UK)Media and Popular Culture Studies Prof. Katherine Fowkes (US)Gender scholar Senior Lecturer Stéphanie Genz (UK)Film scholar Prof. Anne Gjelsvik (N)New media scholar Prof. Angela Ndalianis (AUS)Film scholar Associate Prof. Rikke Schubart (DK)

Feedback on 1 September

Program goes public on 4 September

www.sdu.dk/thefantastic

Contact: thefantastic@sdu.dk

Illustration “Mother of Dragons.” Original artwork by Uruguayan artist Yama Orce