CFP: Collection of Essays on AMC's Breaking Bad

 

 

Despite garnering critical notice, Breaking Bad has received little serious scholarly attention in academic circles. This edited collection will be the first publication to conduct a scholarly study of the series from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives—critical-cultural, feminist, gender studies, genre studies, phenomenological, philosophical, political-economic, sociological—all in an endeavor to delve deeply into the complex worlds of Breaking Bad, its characters, narratives, and audiences.

 

I am seeking critical essays (20-30 pages) that explore Breaking Bad along with the social, cultural, institutional, and political contexts of its production and reception.

 

Potential essays may include, but are not limited to the following topics: 

 

Vince Gilligan as auteur

 

Series and AMC's branding and programming strategies Breaking Bad's moral, ethical, and philosophical universe universe

 

Series' representation of narco cultures, D.E.A., & the war on drugs Latino/a Americans, Mexicans, and border politics

 

Series' meth cultures and America's underclass Breaking Bad and the western landscape

 

Breaking Bad and life and myth in the modern American Southwest Breaking Bad as metaphor for modern American capitalism and culture

 

Series' representations of white and Latino American masculinity Good/bad fathers and sons

 

Series' representations of race, ethnicity, disability, and sexuality The women of Breaking Bad

 

The Tao of Gus Fring and Mike Ehrmantraut Walter White and the mythologies of the American western outlaw

 

The uses of black comedy and violence in Breaking Bad Breaking Bad's take on the television serial drama

 

The visual and aural style of Breaking Bad Breaking Bad's fan readings, cultures, production, and activities

 

Please send abstract proposals (350-500 word) with working title and brief biography listing any publications by email by 1 April 2012; finished essays by 3 December 2012. Send proposals and questions to David Pierson, Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Southern Maine at david.pierson@maine.edu