As part of an edited collection, we are seeking proposals for a volume on Underground Creatures, which will form part of the Transmedia Monsters and Villains series with Lexington Press. This new series aims to cover the fascinating subject of monsters and villains through an interdisciplinary perspective represented by fields as different as literary, film, religious, gender and art studies as much as philosophy and sociological and ecocritical approaches. Each volume will focus on a single figure (or group of figures) and examine it in its multiple incarnations, from their origins in myth, folklore and history as well as in a literary text, to their various adaptations in different media, including comics, graphic novels, cinema, TV, exhibitions, the visual arts, merchandise and tourist attractions. Most welcome will also be an approach to the subject that transcends genres and thus examine the single monsters and villains as they are presented in horror fiction, thriller, science fiction, etc.
It is essential that contributions to the volume on Underground Creatures exhibit interdisciplinarity and focus on the issues of adaptation and transmediality. Proposals may include (but are certainly not limited to) the following figures:
- Gnomes
- Trolls
- Goblins
- Dragons
- Troglodytes
- Morlocks
- Undead/Zombies/Mummy
- Penguin/Batman
- Demons/Devil
- Sewer Monsters
- Pennywise/Stephen King’s It
- Mole Man/Marvel comics
- Lava Men/Marvel comics
- Miscellany creatures from Marvel’s Subtarannea world
- Worms/Tremors
- Aliens/Quatermass and the Pit
- Irradiated ants/Them!
- Umber Hulk/Dungeons & Dragons
Proposals should be around 300-400 words. Please submit to Sarah A. Joshi at sjoshi@pitt.edu by June 30th, 2024.