Call for Abstracts
Watchmen and Philosophy
Edited by Mark D. White
The Blackwell Philosophy and PopCulture Series
Please circulate and post widely.
Apologies for Cross-posting.
To propose ideas for future volumes in the Blackwell series please contact the Series Editor, William Irwin at wtirwin@kings.edu .
Abstracts and subsequent essays should be philosophically substantial but accessible, written to engage the intelligent lay reader. Contributors of accepted essays will receive an honorarium.
Possible themes and topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:
How Watchmen Revolutionized Comics; The Graphic Novel as Serious Literature; Superheroes and the State: The Keene Act and the legal suppression of superheroes; The Amorality of the Comedian; A Man without a Face: Rorschach and Identity; Superheroes and Warfare: Dr. Manhattan and the Comedian in Vietnam; The Comedian and “Protecting People from Themselves”: Should We Cede Responsibility to Authority?; Superheroes and Capitalism: The Branding of Ozymandias; The Silk Spectre: Woman as Sexualized and Peripheralized in the Hero Narrative; Legacy Heroes and Identity: Will the Real Silk Spectre Please Step Forward?; Homosexuality and Superheroes: Should Hooded Justice and Captain Metropolis Have Been Out?; Is There a God?: Is the world really “a clock without a craftsman?”; Determinism and Dr. Manhattan’s Knowledge of the Future; Kitty Genovese and Good Samaritan laws; Dr. Manhattan and the Philosophy of Time Travel; Responsibility for Character: Rorschach’s childhood; Watchmen and Deconstruction of the Superhero; Rorschach and the Ethics of Vigilantism; The Ring of Gyges and the Responsible Use of Superpowers; Rorschach and Rand: Objectivism, Individualism and Sacrifice; Veidt and the Will to Power; Dr. Manhattan, Veidt, and the Übermensch; Camus, Dr. Manhattan and the Absurd; “Existence is random, has no pattern”: So what’s the meaning of life? Tales of the Black Freighter: Metafiction in the Watchmen
Submission guidelines:
1. Submission deadline for abstracts (100-500 words) and cvs: March 31, 2008
2. Submission deadline for first drafts of accepted papers: June 16, 2008
3. Submission deadline for final papers August 11, 2008
Kindly submit by e-mail (with or without Word attachment) to:
Mark D. White profmdwhite@hotmail.com
Watchmen and Philosophy
Edited by Mark D. White
The Blackwell Philosophy and PopCulture Series
Please circulate and post widely.
Apologies for Cross-posting.
To propose ideas for future volumes in the Blackwell series please contact the Series Editor, William Irwin at wtirwin@kings.edu .
Abstracts and subsequent essays should be philosophically substantial but accessible, written to engage the intelligent lay reader. Contributors of accepted essays will receive an honorarium.
Possible themes and topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:
How Watchmen Revolutionized Comics; The Graphic Novel as Serious Literature; Superheroes and the State: The Keene Act and the legal suppression of superheroes; The Amorality of the Comedian; A Man without a Face: Rorschach and Identity; Superheroes and Warfare: Dr. Manhattan and the Comedian in Vietnam; The Comedian and “Protecting People from Themselves”: Should We Cede Responsibility to Authority?; Superheroes and Capitalism: The Branding of Ozymandias; The Silk Spectre: Woman as Sexualized and Peripheralized in the Hero Narrative; Legacy Heroes and Identity: Will the Real Silk Spectre Please Step Forward?; Homosexuality and Superheroes: Should Hooded Justice and Captain Metropolis Have Been Out?; Is There a God?: Is the world really “a clock without a craftsman?”; Determinism and Dr. Manhattan’s Knowledge of the Future; Kitty Genovese and Good Samaritan laws; Dr. Manhattan and the Philosophy of Time Travel; Responsibility for Character: Rorschach’s childhood; Watchmen and Deconstruction of the Superhero; Rorschach and the Ethics of Vigilantism; The Ring of Gyges and the Responsible Use of Superpowers; Rorschach and Rand: Objectivism, Individualism and Sacrifice; Veidt and the Will to Power; Dr. Manhattan, Veidt, and the Übermensch; Camus, Dr. Manhattan and the Absurd; “Existence is random, has no pattern”: So what’s the meaning of life? Tales of the Black Freighter: Metafiction in the Watchmen
Submission guidelines:
1. Submission deadline for abstracts (100-500 words) and cvs: March 31, 2008
2. Submission deadline for first drafts of accepted papers: June 16, 2008
3. Submission deadline for final papers August 11, 2008
Kindly submit by e-mail (with or without Word attachment) to:
Mark D. White profmdwhite@hotmail.com
