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CFP: “Horror (as/is) Humor, Humor (as/is) Horror: sLaughter in Popular Cinema” (collection)(15 octobre 2012)In his review of Tavernier’s Coup de torchon, David Kehr wrote in When Movies Mattered: Reviews from a Transformative Decade,Death, violence, and moral corruption aren't just slapstick props … but  agonizingly real presences, and their comedy isn't a release from  horror, but a confrontation with it.… [H]umor and horror exist side by  side, they play on the very thin line that separates a laugh from a  scream, touching the hysteria common to both.… The best black humor  makes us feel the horror. (186)Scholarly collections in Humor and Horror Studies have largely conceived  of them as separate genres and fields. Yet popular culture has  increasingly seen a rise in the emotional and visceral confluence of  humor and horror—from black comedies, dark fantasy and a renewed  interest in fairy tale adaptations, to fresh literary works, graphic  novels, and politics and satire.Scholarly essays are sought for a potential collection on the nexus of  humor and horror—sLaughter—in popular culture texts with a primary focus  on film. Topics may include, but are clearly not limited to: Genre  (e.g., parody, science / speculative fiction, thriller, dark fantasy,  cyberpunk / splatterpunk, “classical” comedy / drama, post-humanism,  terror/ism, apocalyptica and TEOTWAWKI); Creator / Auteur (e.g., Joss  Whedon, Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk, Mary Harron, Matt Groening, Seth  McFarlane, the Soska sisters, the Coen brothers, Bret Easton Ellis,  Charles Bukowski, Amy Lynn Best, David Cronenberg, Tim Burton, John  Carpenter); or Theory / Theorist (e.g., structuralism, grotesquerie /  freakery, transgressionism, attraction=repulsion, bodily mutilation /  ablation, postmodernism, biomechanics / cyborg interfaces).We are NOT interested in Abbot and Costello, “camp,” or anything else  offering the audience a chance to be “psychologically distanced” from  mortal terror—beyond the fact that they are viewing images on a screen.  Though we are interested in zombies, lycanthropy, vampirism, and that  lot, we envision a much broader and more scholarly collection than the  fanzone tends to produce—much scarier than Twilight, etc.—that addresses  the intersection of humor/horror. We want you to make us FEEL it, and  tell us why it’s important.By 15 October 2012, please submit a 250 word abstract and one-page CV to both Johnson Cheu (cheu@msu.edu) and John A Dowell (jdowell@msu.edu)