Call For Papers: Perry Mason and the Case of America’s Favorite Lawyer @lizzyerwin @DawnKeetley

From Elizabeth Erwin and Dawn Keetley: Call for Papers, Perry Mason and the Case of America’s Favorite Lawyer

 

Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason has been a vibrant part of the cultural conversation for nearly 90 years. The titular trial lawyer with a penchant for detective work first debuted in the novel The Case of the Velvet Claws (1933), setting in motion a publishing streak that would eventually become the third best selling series of all time. Successful radio, film, and television adaptations soon followed, solidifying the character’s presence within the cultural lexicon. Indeed, Perry Mason’s crossover appeal demonstrates a cultural importance that transcends medium and generational divide. Throughout all of his iterations, Perry Mason has remained an aspirational figure so synonymous with the pursuit of justice that he was even referenced in Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing testimony. And yet, there is relatively little critical scholarship that explores the Perry Mason phenomenon. This collection aims to address that oversight.

The extraordinary popularity of Perry Mason over such a significant span of time is virtually unrivaled and offers an unusual lens through which to consider the intersection of social norms and definitions of justice – and how both have evolved over time. While most of the popular culture renderings of the character are explicitly white and heteronormative, the recent HBO series (2020) complicates that history by centering race, class, and sexuality within its narrative. This opens up new areas of analysis not explored in the scant critical literature on prior Perry Mason iterations. Similarly, the ongoing propensity to position Perry Mason as a kind of shorthand denoting an idea of justice that is both radical and nostalgic suggests a fluidity in the character’s meaning that makes it a useful lens by which to explore a variety of disciplines.

We invite submissions on any aspect of Perry Mason for an edited collection that seeks to give the famous attorney his critical due. Emerging and advanced scholars are invited to submit abstracts that explore Perry Mason canon in any of its forms. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

Perry Mason as a rhetorical device

Mason’s place as literary and cinematic lawyer

Adaptation – Perry Mason from novel to television

Erle Stanley Gardner in the detective fiction genealogy, especially the hardboiled tradition of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Chester Himes

Depictions of gender, race, and sexuality in the CBS series vs. the HBO series

Storytelling and narrative structure

Perry Mason in Los Angeles

Representations of law and order as antagonist

Historical representations of crime, guilt, and innocence

Engagement with literary and film noir

Gender politics and Della Street

LGBTQIA+ iconography

Please submit a 300 word abstract and short biography to Elizabeth Erwin (ele210@lehigh.edu) and Dawn Keetley (dek7@lehigh.edu) by January 8, 2023. We anticipate a tentative due date of May 7, 2023, for full essays. We are more than happy to respond to any and all queries.

Bibliography

Bounds, J. Dennis. _Perry Mason: The Authorship and Reproduction of a Popular Hero_. Greenwood Press, 1996.

Coates, Tyler. “Script to Scene: How ‘Perry Mason’ Creators Used Erle Stanley Gardner’s Novels for Origin Story.” _The Hollywood Reporter_, June 12, 2021.

Dickey, Selena A. “The Case of the Option Agreement: Erle Stanley Gardner, Intellectual Property Management, and Radio’s Perry Mason.” _JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies_, vol. 61, no. 4 (Summer 2022), 9-35. DOI: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/861426.

Jarvis, Robert M., and Paul R. Joseph. _Prime Time Law_. Carolina Academic Press, 1998.

Leitch, Thomas. _Perry Mason_. Wayne State University Press, 2005.

Nye, Russel B. _The Unembarrassed Muse: The Popular Arts in America_. The Dial Press, 1970.

Papke, David Ray. “Lawyer Fiction in the Saturday Evening Post: Ephraim Tutt, Perry Mason, and Middle-Class Expectations.” _Cardoza Studies in Law and Literature_, vol. 13, no. 2 (Fall 2001): 207-20.

Rivera, Heather L., and Robert Arp. _Perry Mason and Philosophy: The Case of the Awesome Attorney_. Open Court, 2020.

Stark, Steven D. “Perry Mason Meets Sonny Crockett: The History of Lawyers and the Police as Television Heroes.” _U. Miami L. Rev_. 42 (1987): 229.

Zapala-Kraj, Marta Joanna. “Contemporary Reception of Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason Novel Series and Their Film Adaptations by Polish- and English-Speaking Audiences.” _Annales Philologiae_, vol. 39, no. 2 (2021). DOI: https://journals.umcs.pl/ff/article/view/12467.

Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason has been a vibrant part of the cultural conversation for nearly 90 years. The titular trial lawyer with a penchant for detective work first debuted in the novel The Case of the Velvet Claws (1933), setting in motion a publishing streak that would eventually become the third best selling series of all time. Successful radio, film, and television adaptations soon followed, solidifying the character’s presence within the cultural lexicon. Indeed, Perry Mason’s crossover appeal demonstrates a cultural importance that transcends medium and generational divide. Throughout all of his iterations, Perry Mason has remained an aspirational figure so synonymous with the pursuit of justice that he was even referenced in Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing testimony. And yet, there is relatively little critical scholarship that explores the Perry Mason phenomenon. This collection aims to address that oversight.

The extraordinary popularity of Perry Mason over such a significant span of time is virtually unrivaled and offers an unusual lens through which to consider the intersection of social norms and definitions of justice – and how both have evolved over time. While most of the popular culture renderings of the character are explicitly white and heteronormative, the recent HBO series (2020) complicates that history by centering race, class, and sexuality within its narrative. This opens up new areas of analysis not explored in the scant critical literature on prior Perry Mason iterations. Similarly, the ongoing propensity to position Perry Mason as a kind of shorthand denoting an idea of justice that is both radical and nostalgic suggests a fluidity in the character’s meaning that makes it a useful lens by which to explore a variety of disciplines.

We invite submissions on any aspect of Perry Mason for an edited collection that seeks to give the famous attorney his critical due. Emerging and advanced scholars are invited to submit abstracts that explore Perry Mason canon in any of its forms. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

Perry Mason as a rhetorical device

Mason’s place as literary and cinematic lawyer

Adaptation – Perry Mason from novel to television

Erle Stanley Gardner in the detective fiction genealogy, especially the hardboiled tradition of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Chester Himes

Depictions of gender, race, and sexuality in the CBS series vs. the HBO series

Storytelling and narrative structure

Perry Mason in Los Angeles

Representations of law and order as antagonist

Historical representations of crime, guilt, and innocence

Engagement with literary and film noir

Gender politics and Della Street

LGBTQIA+ iconography

Please submit a 300 word abstract and short biography to Elizabeth Erwin (ele210@lehigh.edu) and Dawn Keetley (dek7@lehigh.edu) by January 8, 2023. We anticipate a tentative due date of May 7, 2023, for full essays. We are more than happy to respond to any and all queries.

Bibliography

Bounds, J. Dennis. _Perry Mason: The Authorship and Reproduction of a Popular Hero_. Greenwood Press, 1996.

Coates, Tyler. “Script to Scene: How ‘Perry Mason’ Creators Used Erle Stanley Gardner’s Novels for Origin Story.” _The Hollywood Reporter_, June 12, 2021.

Dickey, Selena A. “The Case of the Option Agreement: Erle Stanley Gardner, Intellectual Property Management, and Radio’s Perry Mason.” _JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies_, vol. 61, no. 4 (Summer 2022), 9-35. DOI: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/861426.

Jarvis, Robert M., and Paul R. Joseph. _Prime Time Law_. Carolina Academic Press, 1998.

Leitch, Thomas. _Perry Mason_. Wayne State University Press, 2005.

Nye, Russel B. _The Unembarrassed Muse: The Popular Arts in America_. The Dial Press, 1970.

Papke, David Ray. “Lawyer Fiction in the Saturday Evening Post: Ephraim Tutt, Perry Mason, and Middle-Class Expectations.” _Cardoza Studies in Law and Literature_, vol. 13, no. 2 (Fall 2001): 207-20.

Rivera, Heather L., and Robert Arp. _Perry Mason and Philosophy: The Case of the Awesome Attorney_. Open Court, 2020.

Stark, Steven D. “Perry Mason Meets Sonny Crockett: The History of Lawyers and the Police as Television Heroes.” _U. Miami L. Rev_. 42 (1987): 229.

Zapala-Kraj, Marta Joanna. “Contemporary Reception of Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason Novel Series and Their Film Adaptations by Polish- and English-Speaking Audiences.” _Annales Philologiae_, vol. 39, no. 2 (2021). DOI: https://journals.umcs.pl/ff/article/view/12467.