8.0165 CFP: Language, Play, and Performance (1/42)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 6 Sep 1994 11:58:05 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 8, No. 0165. Tuesday, 6 Sep 1994.

Date: Mon, 5 Sep 1994 08:21:49 +0300 (WET)
From: brenda danet <msdanet@olive.mscc.huji.ac.il>
Subject: Call for Papers: Language, Play and Performance


This is a Call For Papers for a special issue of the new
_Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication_, on LANGUAGE, PLAY,
AND PERFORMANCE. There is a surprising return to playful,
expressive "orality" in digital writing, especially in synchronous
modes like Internet Relay Chat and Muds or MOOs, but even in
ordinary email, list discussion groups, Usenet newsgroups, etc.
People play with typography and orthography, with their
identities (nicknames, role-playing), with language, and with
cultural content, from real-world experience to fantasy, folklore,
the comics, and films. Aspects of "performance" traditionally
associated with genres of face-to-face communication such as
storytelling, joke-telling, verbal dueling, etc., are flourishing
on the Net. We find not only unscripted improvisational
performance, but even instances of scripted performance.

This special issue of _JCMC_ will gather papers which engage in
ethnographic description and interpretive analysis of playful
phenomena. Appropriate topics may include (1) digital playfulness
as a postmodern phenomenon; (2) flaming as "performance;" (3)
nicknames on IRC, personas on MUDs and MOOs; (4) improvisation in
real-world theater vs. the Net; (4) Net culture and the norms and
practices of essayist literacy. Papers may focus on a single mode
of CMC, or compare two or more.

_JCMC_ is a multimedia electronic, peer-reviewed journal, and is
edited by Margaret McLaughlin, Annenberg School of Communication,
University of Southern California, and Sheizaf Rafaeli, School of
Business Administration, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and
offers exciting new possibilities for scholarly publication.
Articles may include color graphics, photographs, video, sound,
etc. The deadline for submissions is February 15, 1995. For
further information, write to:

Brenda Danet, Guest Editor of the special issue
Dept. of Communication and Journalism
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mt. Scopus
Jerusalem, Israel 91905
Email: msdanet@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il
Fax: 972-2-827069