Friday, January 21, 2011

Fw: H-ASIA: CFP "Buddhism and Film", Berlin, June 2-3, 2011

----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Conlon" <conlon@U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
To: <H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2011 5:00 AM
Subject: H-ASIA: CFP "Buddhism and Film", Berlin, June 2-3, 2011


> H-ASIA
> January 21, 2011
>
> Call for papers: "Buddhism and Film: Aspects and Perspectives of Media-
> Communicated Religion", Workshop at Freie Universitaet Berlin, June 2nd
> and 3rd, 2011
>
> ***********************************************************************
> From: H-Net Announcements <announce@MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU>
>
> Call for Papers "Buddhism and Film: Aspects and Perspectives of
> Media-Communicated Religion"
>
> Location: Germany
> Call for Papers Date: 2011-01-31 (in 10 days)
> Date Submitted: 2011-01-14
> Announcement ID: 182132
>
> Call for Papers
>
> Buddhism and Film: Aspects and Perspectives of Media-Communicated Religion
>
> Workshop at Freie Universitaet Berlin, June 2nd and 3rd, 2011
>
> During the past several decades in North America and Europe a continuously
> increasing interest in Buddhism can be observed which is also reflected in
> the mass medium of film. More and more movies are being released which can
> somehow be related thematically to Buddhism even though they do so
> without contributing to a more precise understanding of this pluralistic
> religion. In general, standardized images and preconceived ideas and
> imaginations of Buddhism are neither challenged nor reflected as a
> consequence of stereotyped representations. Rather, they are consistently
> reproduced and perpetuated. As in Western receptions of the 19th and 20th
> century, Buddhism serves as a projection screen for Western criticism of
> its own culture as well as for alternative conceptions of religion and
> spirituality, or for suppressed dreams, hopes and desires.
>
> This complex topic will be analyzed more closely in the workshop Buddhism
> and Film. The workshop aims to explore the cultural self-conceptions and
> self-understandings as well as aesthetic and hermeneutic patterns upon
> which Western movies with Buddhist themes are based. Furthermore, tensions
> between Eastern traditions on the one hand, and Western modernism and
> postmodernism on the other (Colonizing the Other) are to be revealed:
> between the interior and the exterior view of Buddhism; between
> self-perception and perception through others; and between fiction and
> reality. For this purpose, we intend to involve information about the
> producers, directors and actors as well as to analyze distinct genres
> regarding their differences and similarities of the representation of
> Buddhist matters. Additional attention will focus on selected examples of
> how symbolic values of Buddhism and the picture language of cinema are
> related, and how religious and political resources as well as financial
> and material forces and energies of circulation relate to each other
> during the production and reception of the movies.
>
> We invite you to discuss the following questions in your paper:
>
> Which standardized images of Buddhism were re-shaped in movies with
> Buddhist themes within the past decades? Upon which historical
> developments and cultural parameters are these images based?
>
> In what ways do Asian movies provide models of imagery for Western film
> productions?
>
> What kind of cultural self-perceptions are produced or selected in Western
> films? Are these self-perceptions related to specific genres? Which
> cinematic techniques (perspective and motion of the camera, takes,
> montage, colors, music, sound etc.) and codes (symbols, language, gesture,
> mimic etc.) are used?
>
> Which films reveal a level of meta-reflection or self-critical hermeneutic
> by broaching the issues of how perspective is interpretively intertwined
> with the continuous creation of Buddhism (as Western perceptions of
> Buddhism in the 19th and 20th century had already been picked up again in
> Asia)?
>
> Which films provide illustrative material and function as a medium of
> education? Which films serve to create room for self-awareness? How is
> this achieved?
>
> By which cinematic techniques and codes are social and political,
> spiritual and religious norms and values, conceptions and goals of the
> respectively depicted schools and traditions visualized?
>
> How is intended work on the consciousness implemented by cinematic
> technique? Does it catch the recipient? Is spiritual knowledge of the
> recipient linked to a certain genre? How do recipients communicate
> spiritual knowledge they gained from watching certain movies about
> Buddhism?
>
> Which psychological patterns are picked up as central in advisory movies
> that deal with Buddhist teachings and doctrines? How are these patterns
> said to be cured through these engagements with Buddhism?
>
> Which connections are evoked between Buddhism and other religions through
> the medium of film? On which reference points are these connections fixed?
>
> The call for papers is also especially addressed to young academics.
> Submissions from different areas such as Cultural and Religious Studies,
> Psychology, Film and Media Studies, Journalism, Communication Science as
> well as Sociology and Social Science are welcome.
>
> Please send your abstract (max. 500 words) and a short biographical note
> by January 31st 2011 to: buddhismus@geschkult.fu-berlin.de. The conference
> languages will be English and German. Participants may therefore choose to
> make presentations in either of the two languages, however, there will be
> no interpretation service.
>
> Prof. Dr. Almut-Barbara Renger
> AG Buddhismus / Study Group Buddhism
> http://www.buddhismusberlin.wordpress.com
>
> Freie Universitaet Berlin
> Faculty of History and Cultural Studies
> Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion
> Gosslerstr. 2-4
> 14195 Berlin, Germany
>
> Alexandra Stellmacher
> Coordinator Study Group Buddhism
> Freie Universitaet Berlin
> Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion
> Gosslerstr. 2-4, 14195 Berlin
> Email: buddhismus@geschkult.fu-berlin.de
> Visit the website at http://www.buddhismusberlin.wordpress.com
>
>
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