"Book Commerce, Book Carnival
Commerce du livre, carnaval du livre
"Studies in Book Culture" Review
Revue « Mémoires du livre »
Published on Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Abstract
Book fairs, writers’ festivals, conventions and other literary gatherings are hubs of activity. From the foundation of the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1454, to the post-war growth of the festival format, to the proliferation of digital and live events in the twenty-first century, book fairs and festivals have shaped book cultures and publishing industries. They are sites of global and local commerce, where books, rights and ideas are traded. They are also carnivalesque, located outside the everyday. Fairs and festivals are celebrations of creativity, flashpoints for anxieties, and sites of bad behaviour. Inhibitions are lowered and people wear masks, power is exposed and sometimes mocked, and books come out to play.
Announcement
Here is the 2020 spring issue of Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture Call for Papers, entitled « Commerce du livre, carnaval du livre / Book Commerce Book Carnival ».
Argument
Book fairs, writers’ festivals, conventions and other literary gatherings are hubs of activity. From the foundation of the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1454, to the post-war growth of the festival format, to the proliferation of digital and live events in the twenty-first century, book fairs and festivals have shaped book cultures and publishing industries. They are sites of global and local commerce, where books, rights and ideas are traded. They are also carnivalesque, located outside the everyday. Fairs and festivals are celebrations of creativity, flashpoints for anxieties, and sites of bad behaviour. Inhibitions are lowered and people wear masks, power is exposed and sometimes mocked, and books come out to play.
This thematic issue seeks essays on book fairs and festivals that address their commercial and carnivalesque aspects. Festivals and fairs can be analysed as worlds, as games, as tournaments, as fields, as events, as microcosms, as situations, as institutions, as networks, as economic structures and/or playgrounds (see, for example, Vincent 2002, Moeran and Pedersen 2011, Bartie and Bell 2012, Murray 2012, Sapiro 2016, Driscoll and Squires 2018, Weber 2018). We seek articles from a range of perspectives, including work on contemporary or historical festivals and research on fairs across the globe. Articles may take the form of case studies, comparative and transnational analyses, theoretical engagements and/or methodological reflections. We encourage creative, arts-informed approaches as well as methods drawn from social sciences and humanities.
Topics for articles may include (but are not limited to):
The international book business
In a digital age, what is the role of business-oriented book fairs such as Frankfurt, Guadalajara, BookExpo, and the Montreal and Paris Salons du Livre? When trade can be conducted through digital technologies, why do publishers continue to gather from around the globe, often at great expense? How do pop-up bookshops, signing sessions, and literary merchandise contribute to literary economies and the circulation of the book? What does it mean for festivals to offer writers promotional opportunities, and public platforms?
Experiences, parties and people
Who do you meet at a festival or fair? Who is in the audience, and what experiences do they have? (What do they wear, and what tote bags do they carry?) What functions do book fairs and literary festivals play for authors; what happens when authors move from the page to the stage? What are fairs and festivals like for publicists, for organisers, for agents? How does informal networking facilitate culture and trade? What harm might be done? Who might be excluded? How diverse is participation in these events?
Live literature
Writers festivals and events at book fairs offer literature an opportunity to be animated, presented live, in front of an audience. How does ‘liveness’ affect the production and consumption of writing? How can the situation of books within a festival environment be explored and explained, in methodological terms?
Controversies and scandals
When is programming provocative and when is it disastrous? How are controversies managed by audiences, organisers, by media? How are book fairs and writers festivals constructed in ideological terms, and how do they create a series of insiders and outsiders? How is institutional privilege entrenched? What might be the role of satirical social media accounts? How might researchers engage with and intervene in such controversies?
Submission guidelines
Abstracts for papers in either French or English of approximately 250 words and a shortbiographical note should be sent to Beth Driscoll and Claire Squires (driscoll@unimelb.edu.au andclaire.squires@stir.ac.uk)
by 30 November 2018.
The editorial committee will inform authors of itsdecision by January 2019.
Selected contributors will be required to submit their full article (c8000words) before 15 September 2019 for peer-review.
Final versions are to be submitted by January 15,2020 at the latest.
Publication is scheduled for May 2020.
Editors
- Beth Driscoll (University of Melbourne)
- Claire Squires (University of Stirling)
Subjects
Date(s)
- Friday, November 30, 2018
Keywords
- foire, carnaval, livre
Information source
- Beth Driscoll
courriel : driscoll [at] unimelb [dot] edu [dot] au
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« "Book Commerce, Book Carnival », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, https://doi.org/10.58079/1102