Craig Svonkin (PAMLA and MSU Denver)
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David John Boyd (University of Glasgow)
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This session invites scholarly investigations into the "aesthetic of the abject" through the lens of Trash Cinema. We seek to move beyond simple labels of "bad" or "low-brow" to explore the historical, ideological, aesthetic, and material significance of paracinema and the grindhouse tradition. Whether examining the shoestring ingenuity of B-pictures, the transgressive energy of cult classics, or the cultural impact of exploitation genres, we welcome papers that analyze how these "orphan films" challenge mainstream cinematic hierarchies and reveal the hidden anxieties of their eras. Proposals analyzing in a thoughtful and nuanced way any trash film, director, producer, studio, movement, or genre are welcome.
Proposals may address, but are not limited to:
· Auteur Studies: The "trash" poetics and shoestring ingenuity of figures like Roger Corman, John Waters, Doris Wishman, or Ed Wood.
· Global Exploitation Genres: Investigations into Blaxploitation, Bruceploitation, Giallo, Sexploitation, or the "Spaghetti" variations of Westerns and Horror films.
· Institutional History: The rise and fall of the Grindhouse, the drive-in circuit, and the "B-picture" as a commercial necessity.
· Formal Ingenuity: Analyzing the "badness" of low-budget production (visible boom mics, continuity errors, recycled footage) as a distinct aesthetic or subversive choice.
· Ideology of the Abject: How "trash" genres address race, gender, and class through transgressive or "sleaze" narratives often avoided by the prestige studio system.
· Rise of Trash: Historical and cultural explorations of how trash films and genres have risen in the culture from the marginal or despised to the influential and rewarded.
· Trash Intertextuality: Intertextual explorations of the influence of trash pre-texts on later films, whether trashy, genre, or culturally-embraced.
· The Archive: The preservation, digital "rehabilitation," and scholarly status of orphan films and subcultural media.