HARRY POTTER AND LORD OF THE RINGS Area
2008 Film & History Conference
"Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond"
October 30-November 2, 2008
Chicago, Illinois
Third-Round Deadline: August 1, 2008
AREA: Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings
Upon the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in November, 2001, critic Roger Ebert proclaimed the film “a classic,” predicting that it would be enjoyed for generations to come, much like The Wizard of Oz. A month later, he once again invoked the 1939 MGM classic in his review of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In doing so, Ebert (perhaps inadvertently) hit on two important qualities shared by the series: their roots in the fantastic and their appeal to mythological structures qualities that might make them especially relevant and appealing in the culturally divisive post-9/11 era.
The phenomenal popularity of both film series might suggest a revitalization of the genre film as a locus of contemporary mythology. To what extent do the conflicts in Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings mirror Western and global power struggles? How does the reliance on magic in both series tie into current debates over religion and science? How have these films (and others like them) sparked a renewed critical interest in structuralism, anthropology, and sociology? How do mythologies of magic control or revise scientific discourse? Does it matter that the Lord of the Rings films come from a more “literary” source than the pop-fiction of Harry Potter? Or does the very popularity of the latter series strengthen its potential for mythologizing?
Papers and panels are invited on the topics of the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series (novels-to-films or films alone). Possible topics include but are not limited to the following:
Issues of adaptation
Fantasy genres
Psychological models
Mythological structures
Anthropological analyses
Gender and sexuality
Textual analysis
Publishing and/or film distribution practices
The films’ use (or creation) of stars
Technological innovations in the films
Political allegory
Religious allegory
Fan cultures
Reception studies
Please submit all proposals by August 1, 2008, to the area chair:
Dr. Rodney Hill
School of Liberal Arts
GeorgiaGwinnettCollege
1000 University Center Lane
Lawrenceville, GA30043
678-407-5745
Submissions by email are encouraged.
Panel proposals for up to four presenters are also welcome, but each presenter must submit his or her own paper proposal. Deadline for third-round proposals: August 1, 2008.
This area, comprising multiple panels, is a part of the 2008 biennial Film & History Conference, sponsored by The Center for the Study of Film and History. Speakers will include founder John O’Connor and editor Peter C. Rollins (in a ceremony to celebrate the transfer to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh); Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of Visions of the Apocalypse, Disaster and Memory, and Lost in the Fifties: Recovering Phantom Hollywood; Sidney Perkowitz, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Physics at Emory University and author of Hollywood Science: Movies, Science, & the End of the World; and special-effects legend Stan Winston, our Keynote Speaker. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website (