Fall CFP Round-Up
Calls for papers are going out now for the conferences of the Association of Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS), The Nineteenth Century Studies Association, and NeMLA. Instead of sending out all the individual CFPs that pass my way, I’m providing links here to the organizations, and a list of NeMLA session proposals of potential interest to Romanticists.
44th ASECS Annual Meeting
Cleveland, Ohio
April 4-7, 2013
Paper proposals due September 15.
34th Annual Conference of the Nineteenth Century Studies Association
Loco/Motion
Fresno, California
March 7-9, 2013
250-word abstracts due September 30.
44th Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
Boston, Massachusetts
March 21-24, 2013
Abstracts due September 30.
Panels of potential interest to Romanticists:
“Ecocriticism and French Romanticism (1750-1870)”
This panel, which foregrounds ecocritical discourses, will examine evidence of environmental concerns in all genres of French romantic literature. Locating specific instances where French Romantics privileged a biocentric model of the natural environment, we will consider how they critiqued the unprecedented scale of human destruction driven by advances in science, industry, and urbanization. Please submit 250-300 word abstracts in English or French to Karen Quandt, kquandt@princeton.edu.
“Eighteenth-Century Secularisms”
This panel seeks abstracts for papers dealing with definitions of secularism in various eighteenth-century literary contexts. What are the secularisms of the past? What negotiations with religion take place in eighteenth century texts? To what extent does secularity mean the absence of religion, and for what purposes? Under what conditions can a state, a mode of thought, a work, or a genre be called secular? Please send 250-500 word abstracts for twenty-minute papers to Nicole Garret, State University of New York, Stony Brook, Nbgarret@gmail.com.
“Evolving Visions of the French Revolution in English Romanticism”
This panel seeks papers on the evolving visions of the French Revolution among English Romantic writers. Submissions can choose literary, historical, or theoretical frameworks, exploring how particular authors reacted and re-reacted to the newest news from France, or how dialectics of events, reports, and their trace produce particular structures that reach us in these particular textual forms. Please send 250 word abstracts to Tat Sang So, sot@sunysuffolk.edu.
“Green Romanticism: The Dawn of the Age”
Green Romanticism invites papers focusing on the nature-culture binary to determine points of contact, effects of culture on nature, and responses to said effects as recorded by early 19th century British writers. How have Romantic writers been complicit in constructing nature as a sort of cultural artifact? Or how have such writers raised concerns about the encroachment of nature on culture? 300 word abstracts may be sent by email for consideration to Dewey W. Hall, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, at dwhall@csupomona.edu.
“The Language of German Romanticism”
This session seeks to explore the newly emerging concept of language and linguistic studies in a theoretical, poetic, gendered, or historical context during the Romantic period, including, but not limited to, the works of the Grimms brothers, Friedrich von Humboldt, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Clemens Brentano or August Schlegel. Send abstracts to Dr. Christine Rapp Dombrowski at christinedombrow@aol.com.
“Literary Celebrity and Social Discourse in Nineteenth Century Anglophone Culture”
Building on recent scholarly attention to the intersections between literary and celebrity studies, this panel seeks papers on the phenomenon of literary celebrity in nineteenth century Anglophone culture. Of particular interest are the ways in which such celebrity inflects and is inflected by the social discourses of the period, including those of gender, sexuality, race, imperialism, class, print culture, crime, and performance. Interdisciplinary and comparative approaches encouraged. Send abstracts to jkayco@gmail.com and hamst20@pitt.edu.
“Literature and Crime in the Early Nineteenth Century”
This panel will explore ways in which nineteenth-century British literature published before 1859 engages with issues of crime and criminality. Papers might examine social responses to this literature or situate issues of class and gender in relation to the broader theme of the panel, though a focus on these particular inquiries is not required. Possible texts include, but are not limited to, gothic fiction, Newgate novels, penny ’bloods,’ and works by G.W.M. Reynolds. Please send 300-500 word abstracts to Elizabeth Stearns, efporter@syr.edu.
“Romanticism and Children’s Literature”
This panel welcomes abstracts on any aspect of the child reader or consumer in the long 18th century and romantic era. Topics may include: children’s literature and publication; works for children by Wollstonecraft, Godwin, Day, Edgeworth, Smith, More, et al.; childhood literacy; education; controversy over fairytales; illustration for children. Please send inquiries or 250-500 wordabstracts (preferably in PDF or MS Word format) to Suzanne L. Barnett at barnett4@english.upenn.edu and Kate Bennett Gustafson at bennettk@english.upenn.edu.
“Romanticism’s Flâneurs”
Following Benjamin, the flâneur is widely linked with urban spaces of the mid- and late-nineteenth century, but what of those who strolled the streets in the years just before and after the turn of the century? As industrialization began to transform major cities, did these earlier figures have a different relationship with flânerie than their later-century counterparts experienced in more commercialized spaces? Please email 250-500 word abstracts examining Romantic-era flâneurs to Kellie Donovan-Condron (kdonovancondron@babson.edu).
“Self-Adornment in the Nineteenth-Century British Novel”
This session investigates objects and practices of self-adornment, including jewelry, cosmetics, accessories, and clothes, as presented in nineteenth-century British novels. Papers might consider realism’s emphasis on detail, the rise of commodity culture, or gendered readings as approaches; papers which consider the special role of self-adornment within specific genres such as the sensation novel, or silver fork fiction are also invited. Abstracts of 500 words or less should be submitted to Danielle Barkley, danielle.barkley@mail.mcgill.ca.
“Sensibility and Sexuality in the Eighteenth-Century Novel”
This panel will explore the intersections of sensibility and sexuality in the eighteenth-century novel. While a certain amount of sensibility was lauded in both sexes, it also complicated emerging ideals of active, rational masculinity and passive, emotional femininity and thus problematized the experience of sexuality. How did the expression of sexuality within the novel become contingent on ideals of sensibility or vice versa, and how did each relate to emerging gender norms? Please send abstracts of 300-500 words to kjennin1@binghamton.edu.
“Sex and Spirit in the Works of William Blake”
To diversify the current critical discussion of sexuality and spirituality in the works of William Blake, this panel invites explorations of the relationships between these two areas, broadly defined. How, in Blake’s words and images, are issues of sex (gender, eroticism, procreation, sexualities, straight or queer, etc.) related to issues of spirit (faith, spiritual vision, religious institutions and practices, etc.)? All critical approaches are welcome. E-mail 250 word abstracts (MS Word or PDF) to Karen Guendel, kareng@bu.edu.
“Under Scott’s Shadow: Historical Fiction in the Nineteenth Century”
This panel seeks papers on nineteenth-century historical fiction and criticism. Most accounts of the historical novel emphasize the achievements of Walter Scott, and while papers on Scott are welcome, this panel also seeks papers on aspects of historical fiction that are often neglected or under-appreciated. How have different authors approached this genre? How have they critiqued or challenged the model of the historical novel created and popularized by Scott? Please send 250-500 word abstracts to Lesley Goodman at lgoodman@fas.harvard.edu.
