Contributions are invited for a volume of interpretive essays on World War I
posters. Many books, including Maurice Rickards's classic Posters of the
First World War (1968), have brought the poster images of World War I to a
wider viewing public. This volume seeks to interpret and contextualize
posters and to explore the role they played in mediating public
understanding of war experience at the front and on the home front in
combatant nations. Essays that compare posters in different national
contexts are particularly encouraged. Essays might address:

-Images of women and their contributions to the war effort;
-Images used to spur enlistment and how they were perceived, contested, or
internalized;
-How governments and artists negotiated in the production and dissemination
of poster images;
-Comparison between World War I posters and other forms of propaganda at the
time or during other wars;
-Comparison between posters and other literary, visual, or popular
representations of war experience, including film;
-images of "the enemy" and the longer historical context such images drew
upon;
-the use of photographic images in posters;
-Images of masculinity and their role in enlistment campaigns;
-how images of race, class, or gender were deployed in World War I posters;
-comparisons between images and tropes appearing in posters from different
combatant nations;
-comparisons between World War I posters and other forms of advertising from
1900-1920;
-how large format, bright color, large scale reproduction, areas of urban
display, or other aspects of image/poster production and dissemination may
have influenced the poster's importance during World War I;
-images of the homefront and its relationship to the front;
-images of national unity or conflict as presented in posters;
-how images of death, sacrifice, and violence in war posters mediated
consent for war;
-how images of World War I posters have been adapted to later cultural
contexts;
-etc, etc.

Send 2-page abstracts or completed 6,000-8,000 word essays and a one-page
c.v. by August 31, 2003.

Please send inquiries or submissions to:
Pearl James
PO Box 7077
Davidson College English Dept.
Davidson, NC 28036
pejamesdavidson.edu
(704) 894-2274

Email submissions are welcome.