An essay by two UNE staff members has won a strongly-contested international award recognising the fantastic in arts.
Written by Dr Valentina Gosetti, senior lecturer in French, and Dr Eliza Kent the critical essay, titled “Maribas et la sorcellerie masculine” or Maribas and Male Witchcraft, published in the Revue Bertrand (Classiques Garnier), was named the winner of the 2020 Jamie Bishop Memorial Award of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.
This prize is in honour of Jamie Bishop (1971-2007), an instructor of German who tragically died in the Virginia-Tech shooting. He was the son of award-winning science-fiction author Michael Bishop.
“The essay centres on the character of Maribas, a little-studied figure: a clumsy soldier and male witch appearing in the collection of compositions in prose Gaspard de la Nuit (1842) by Aloysius (Louis) Bertrand,” Dr Gosetti said, “which is traditionally considered the first collection of prose poems in French literary history.”
“In the essay, we build on Eliza’s pioneering work on male witchcraft to explore the subversive value of Maribas’s inclusion in the collection. We contextualise this figure within the cultural, social (and gendered) histories of the male witch and his related traditional features.”
According to the organisers, this year’s Bishop Award was very challenging with entries submitted in seven different languages – Bangla, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish – and representing a wide range of genres, national literary traditions and critical methods.
Entries underwent multiple judging rounds with one winner and two finalists selected.
The Jamie Bishop Memorial Award recognises scholarly essays on the fantastic originally written in a language other than English. It includes science fiction, folklore, and related genres in literature, drama, film, and art and graphic design.
The award includes a cash prize, a honorary plaque and one year’s free membership of IAFA, the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.