CFP: 2020 PCA/ACA Conference (Philadelphia)

The theme of the PCA Romance area in 2020 is scandal and crisis in romance and romantic media. We encourage you to define this theme broadly, thinking not simply about specific texts but through them, to the broader discussions in which they are implicated. What are these romantic scandals saying?
Paper topics on this special theme might include:

• Romantic scandals in celebrity culture (secret babies! surprise engagements!)
• Major scandals in the romance publishing world (#CopyWriteCris, #CockyGate, the RITA Awards, etc)
• Scandals in romance novels (in specific texts, or in Romancelandia)
• Forbidden love in TV and movies (on screen or behind the scenes)
• Contentious depictions of romance in pre- and post-Hays Code movies
• The rom-com in crisis: dead or alive?
• Shipping wars in fandom (eg. Larry Stylinson and One Direction)
• The endless romantic scandals in soap operas and telenovelas
• The love triangle (arguably the most scandalously loved and loathed romantic trope!)
• Taboos and forbidden tropes in popular romance (adultery, anyone?)
• Scandals in romantic reality TV (The Bachelor, Married at First Sight, Love Island, etc)
• Romance and scandal in The Philadelphia Story, in honour of the city hosting this year’s conference

If none of these suggestions appeal, or you simply want to pursue your own intellectual passion, you are very welcome to do so. The Romance area invites any theoretical or (inter)disciplinary approach to any topic related to romance. We would like to emphasise that you do not need to write about romance novels to participate in this area (although that is obviously welcome!).

Submit 250-word abstracts  by October 1, 2019
More details here.