Postgraduate Conference, University of Portsmouth, 14th June 2012

Keynote Speaker: Dr Marie-Luise Kohlke, University of Swansea

In recent years the study of trauma has become central to contemporary conceptualisations of personal and collective narratives of pain and loss. Often identified as a ‘modern’ phenomenon, a product of industrialisation and modernisation, trauma emerged as a distinct pathology alongside the rise of a middle-class readership, and accounts of physical and psychological wounds abound in Victorian fiction. In turn, Victorian tropes of trauma have been appropriated by the neo-Victorian novel, often in ways which offer a self-conscious or critical engagement with past representations.

This conference seeks to examine the intersection between the physical and psychical representation of trauma in both Victorian and Neo-Victorian literature. It aims to explore the importance of the relationship between the mind and the body, as well as the relationship between Victorian literary representations and neo-Victorian appropriations. We welcome papers examining representations of trauma in Victorian and neo-Victorian fiction, as well as contributions from the fields of literary theory, cultural studies, and the visual arts.

Possible areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

•Victorian trauma narratives
•Pain in Victorian art, literature and culture
•Neo-Victorian traumatic appropriations
•‘Wound Culture’
•Traumatic performances (race/gender/sexuality, etc.)
•Imperial trauma

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words for papers lasting 20 minutes, and a brief biographical note (100 words) to cslpgconf@port.ac.uk for the attention of Alex Messem or Emily Hunt by 16th March 2012.

South Central MLA Biography/Autobiography/Memoir panel

The 2012 South Central MLA Conference is accepting paper proposals for its Biography/Autobiography/Memoir panel. Paper proposals on any aspect of biography, autobiography, and memoir are welcome. Literary papers as well as creative works will be accepted. Please submit a 200-word abstract by 3/21/12 to jamiekorsmo@hotmail.com.

The SCMLA conference will be held in San Antonio, TX on November 8-10, 2012.

Mad Narrators - University of Bordeaux (France), 18- 20 octobre 2012.

Call for Papers
International Conference « Les narrateurs fous /Mad narrators ».
University of Bordeaux 3, 18- 20 octobre 2012.

The aim of this conference is to examine the phenomenon of mad narrators in fiction. While several conferences have been held recently which have focussed on mad characters: mad scientists, gender and madness, madness and confinement, etc., this conference takes as its theme the idea of the mad narrator. Narratorial madness is part of the wider concept of narrative unreliability, defined by Wayne Booth. Narratorial madness arouses suspicion, creating instability and a discrepancy between the literary voice of the narrator and that of the “underlying author”. It thus seems important to investigate what it is that sets madness apart from other types of unreliability, such as a child’s viewpoint, intellectual impairment, illiteracy, dysnarration, manipulation or falsehood. The conference will therefore set out to explore the narrative manifestations of insanity and to determine what the “effects of madness” are. It will look at the question of whether there is such a thing as a stylistics of madness, which would imply that there are recurrent markers and codified ways of expressing insanity.
In order to delineate as accurately as possible the notion of narratorial madness, it is important to distinguish between an unambiguous, immediately visible kind of madness, and another kind of madness, a madness that is only hinted at as a possibility within the text. The first kind is expressed in a variety of ways and its symptoms lend themselves to a critical and clinical depiction of those mad narrators who destabilize the link between reality and representation. Obvious examples can be found in Beckett’s narratives, which almost always bear the mark of madness, but they are also present in novels such as The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs or One Flew over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. In this context, the link between the narrator’s madness and literary genre can also be explored; the Fantastic and the Gothic seem to be two particularly popular “literary asylums”. Such texts form a contrast with those where madness is only suspected, occurring as a possibility within the text, worming its way in and creating an intimate crack within a seemingly sane discourse: The Island of Dr Moreau, for example, presents the reader with a witness-narrator, Prendick, who is supposed to be telling the objective story of a mad scientist, but it seems probable that the character’s madness is there as a screen to hide another more surreptitious and dissident instance of madness – that of the narrator himself. Numerous texts can thus be read in two ways, with either a “trusting” or a “suspicious” approach: in Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Edgar Allan Poe’s « The Tell-Tale Heart » or Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, the veiled hint of an unrestrained madness, that cannot be readily assessed or contained, compels the reader to account for his own interpretations and for what he projects onto the text. Over the years, the critical reactions to these works have been varied, and often conflicting, and a diachronic study of these divergent readings would be fruitful.
However madness can also stem from an intradiegetic narrator: and in this case it would be interesting to examine how and why madness can undermine the premises of the master narrative, by analysing the nature and the range of the discrepancies which are created when the mad narrator is confined within the dominant apparatus, but voices a minority counter-narrative; examples are Mr. Dick in David Coperfield or Euchrid in And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave. Finally, it is worth considering whether madness can take over the narrating voice in third-person narratives and if so, what the resulting textual effects are, and the range of the epistemological disruptions which this generates.
Papers dealing with films are also welcome. The prototype of the figure of the “mad narrator” is to be found in The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (Wiene, 1919), where the narrator’s insanity invades and distorts the profilmic space—a later example is The Tenant (Roman Polanski, 1976). Following the conceptual framework established by François Jost and André Gaudreault, discussions might tackle the difference between showing and telling in film, as well as the different levels of narration, from embedded narrators to the “mega-narrator” or “grand imagier” whose presence is often perceptible only through formal deviations from the norm of “conventional” story-telling; such deviations can sometimes be interpreted as symptoms of insanity, undermining the continuity of the narration and, as a result, the stability of the represented world. Speakers may also like to consider whether the expression of narrative madness is exclusively linked to the use of specific stylistic devices (ocularisation, voice-overs, flashbacks), by looking at such films as The Curse of Frankenstein (Terence Fisher, 1957), Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964), or Sisters (Brian De Palma, 1973). Certain genres (the thriller, the horror movie) are, perhaps, more likely to contain mad narrators and, consequently, to develop formal experimentation as a means of representing insanity. Guy Maddin’s films (Brand Upon the Brain, 2006) seem to support such a view, but other examples can be found in Victor Ferenz’s analyses of films like Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000), Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) or American Psycho (Mary Harron, 2000).

Papers will deal with English-language literature, comparative literature and English-language films. 300-word abstracts, in French or in English, should be sent, together with a brief CV, to narrateurs-fous@u-bordeaux3.fr by March 31st 2012.

The scientific committee is composed of Romain Girard, Nathalie Jaëck, Clara Mallier, and Arnaud Schmitt.

Special Session on Women & Work in Literature - October 19-21, PAMLA, Seattle University

Call for proposals: Special Session on “Women and Work,” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association annual conference, Seattle University, October 19-21, 2012.

How do writers represent the work of being women—where “work” is defined broadly to encompass not only paid labor inside and outside the home, but also the work of performing femininity and domesticity? How do writers address social assumptions about who should be performing work, and for what purpose?

Please send proposals, including a title and 50-word abstract, to Susanne Weil: sweil@centralia.edu. Please also submit your proposal electronically on the PAMLA website: www.pamla.org.

The deadline for proposals is March 31, 2012.

Victorian Travelers*: Women Writing Boundaries DEADLINE EXTENDED March 31 - RMMLA 2012 (Oct. 11-13, Boulder, CO)

Gender, Sexuality, and Power Student Research Conference

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LOS ANGELES
CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF GENDERS AND SEXUALITIES

8TH Annual Gender, Sexuality, and Power Student Research Conference May 17, 2012

Keynote Speaker: Doug Mao, Professor of English, The Johns Hopkins University

The Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities (CSGS) at California State University, Los Angeles invites paper proposals for our annual student research conference to be held on May 17, 2012. This is a one-day, interdisciplinary conference inclusive of graduate and undergraduate work in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences that addresses issues of gender and sexuality. We welcome papers from students of literature, history, political science, ethnic studies, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, women’s and gender studies, queer theory, criminology, psychology, law, business, biology, art history, communications, and the performing arts. We are particularly interested in work that takes an interdisciplinary approach and in work that considers gender and sexuality’s intersections with matters of race, ethnicity, disability, nation, class, and religion.

Students whose papers are accepted will later be invited to submit full-length versions of their work to be considered for publication in CSGS’s newly proposed online journal.

Instructions for applying:

Send abstracts of 250 words or less (and please include a title) to Sofia Varona, Center Coordinator, at csgs@calstatela.edu no later than 5PM on Monday, April 2nd. Please include at the top of your abstract your name, your contact information (email address), your program of study, and your institutional affiliation. When you email your proposal, please place in the subject line your first and last name followed by “Paper Proposal”

Example: Chris Smith Paper Proposal

Notifications of acceptance will be sent ASAP. Submitters are encouraged to be explicit about how their work engages issues of gender and sexuality and about how the work constitutes an original intervention in their field(s).

For more information about the conference or about The Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities, contact…

Sofia Varona, Coordinator, Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities: csgs@calstatela.edu

or

Benjamin Bateman, Director, Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities: rbatema@calstatela.edu

Victorian Medicine and Popular Culture

Call for Papers: Edited Collection: Victorian Medicine and Popular Culture

How was the rise of scientific medicine in the Victorian era appropriated and adapted by popular culture? This essay collection explores the relationship between the increasingly specialized medical disciplines and a variety of texts and contexts, including popular (non-canonical) literature, journalism, advertisements, home medical and nursing manuals, and lectures and exhibitions at and mechanics institutes. The collection also offers perspectives on literature’s reciprocal influence on diverse health care fields including nursing, pharmacy, medical philanthropy, health care missionary work, advertising, and quackery.

The proposed collection seeks to add to the growing body of scholarship on Victorian scientific and medical writing by considering representations of health care within specifically popular fields. How can we understand the relationships that existed between consumerism, health care, and popular literature in the Victorian period? When and how was lay practice or its representation complimentary, and when was it a form of resistance to increasingly professionalized and scientific medicine? How do popular texts and artifacts of the period represent medical and popular health care trends of the era, such as the scientific revolution in Victorian healthcare? How did visual iconography including advertisements reflect changing views of health care practitioners and consumers? We invite interdisciplinary scholarship and work drawn from a range of disciplines: art history, literature, history, anthropology, public health, sociology, and communications to broaden our understanding of the non-elite bodies of professionals, texts, and cultures that influenced Victorian health care policy and practice.

Please send abstracts to Louise Penner (Louise.Penner@umb.edu) or Tabitha Sparks (tabitha.sparks@mcgill.ca) by May 15, 2012, or complete essays (3,000-7,000 words) by June 30, 2012.

NEGOTIATING GENDERED SPACES // TOPOGRAFÍAS DOMÉSTICAS Y GÉNERO. Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), May 16-18, 20

WSQ (Womens Studies Quarterly) Call for Papers, Poetry, Prose and Art: Fashion Issue (due March 15)

Fashion is an economic and social force, a culture industry, a global powerhouse, a political statement. Fashion can simultaneously express freedom and constriction, be both democratic and totalitarian; both repress and liberate the body and gender roles. Transformation and affect are at its heart. Fashion is a universal form of human expression that transgresses boundaries of gender/race/class/embodiment/culture/nation. Fashion ignites passions, produces colossal waste, demands ruthless exclusion, inspires hysterical devotion. Bubbling up and filtering down, fashion mixes high and low, sultry and strong, ancient ritual and cutting edge technology.

A thorough study of the history of fashion in its symbolic, creative and coercive faces shows how it has been crucial in the construction of national identities in fascist regimes or in processes of decolonization, such as in India, or in the remapping of the world economy, including China, India and Brazil. Fashion is closely tied to industrial, technological and economic developments and is at the center of cultural activity and change. In today’s globalized world, the fashion and textile industry are key factors to understand the profound transformations occurring in cities, nations and regions the world over.

Underling all the recent scholarly attention that has been given to fashion is the intent of stripping it of its apparent light and frivolous reputation, and replacing it with a serious scholarly investigation that seeks to uncover the many complex layers that its surface conceals. The study of fashion, costume and dress has involved a series of disciplines, and has expanded their boundaries.

Is fashion a women’s issue? Inherently gendered, based on female bodily display, taking fashion seriously demands exploring the limits of gender and embodiment. Pushing that envelope reveals how fashion can question pre-established notions of gender, aesthetics and behavior. How do we understand masculinity in relation to dress and fashion? We invite exploration of fashion, clothing and adornment through plays of androgyny, from dandyism to lesbian chic. Seeing through clothes to the politics of power they materialize draws fashion into debates concerning identity, selfhood, sustainability, subjectivity, representation, and virtuality. How does the fashioned body trouble the boundaries between lived and represented, driving toward new phenomenological conceptions? How do the globe spanning trends of fashion reshape experiences of self and locale, and bring new relations of time and space? How has fashion in the blogosphere affected technologies of self, and produced new relations between bodies and city-scapes all over the world? How does fashion mediate the body? How do these mediations feed through text, film, the Internet and beyond?

Always in flux, never static, fashion’s fast pace often defies and disrupts the discipline-bound analytics of traditional scholarship. In this special issue of WSQ we seek scholarship that pushes the boundaries between dyadic conceptions of art and commerce, technology and the body, nature and culture, aesthetics and politics, reality and representation.

We invite a rethinking of the traditional organization of disciplines within the social sciences and the humanities to include the impact of fashion within their contexts and welcome academic papers from a wide range of approaches, including theory, empirical research, literature, art, history, design, media and film studies, cultural studies, performance studies, women’s and gender studies, psychology, sociology, semiotics, and anthropology, as well as creative prose, poetry, artwork, memoir and biography. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

Fashion cities in literature, cinema, the arts

Fashion and digital technology

Sustainability and ecofashion: how can we make sustainability a fashionable choice?

Fashion shows, models, and the work of producing fashion

Fashion Capitals

Fashion and philosophy

Fashion, policy, and gentrification

Fashion tourism

Fashion and religion

Fashion and feminism

Fashion and masculinity

Cross-dressing

Drag Queens

The closet

The street

The runway

Stars

Shopping

Fast Fashion

Luxury Brands

Fashion designers/Fashion Design

Fashion and museums

New York Garment District, Yesterday, today and tomorrow

Fashion and Migration

Fashion and sweatshops

Fashion East/West

Blogs and their effect on fashion

Clothing as a second skin

Anti-fashion

Transgression/transgender/ transformation/ transcendence

Department Stores

Fashion Photography

Fashion Films

If submitting academic work, please send articles by March 15, 2012 to the guest editors, Eugenia Paulicelli and Betsy Wissinger at WSQFashionIssue@gmail.com. Please send complete articles, not abstracts. Submission should not exceed 20 double spaced, 12 point font pages and should comply with the formatting guidelines at http://www.feministpress.org/wsq/submission-guidelines.

Poetry submissions should be sent to WSQ's poetry editor, Kathleen Ossip, at WSQpoetry@gmail.com by March 15, 2012. Please review previous issues of WSQ to see what type of submissions we prefer before submitting poems. Please note that poetry submissions may be held for six months or longer. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable if the poetry editor is notified immediately of acceptance elsewhere. We do not accept work that has been previously published. Please paste poetry submissions into the body of the e-mail along with all contact information.

Fiction, essay, and memoir submissions should be sent to WSQ's fiction/nonfiction editor, Nicole Cooley, at WSQCreativeProse@gmail.com by March 15, 2012. Please review previous issues of WSQ to see what type of submissions we prefer before submitting prose. Please note that prose submissions may be held for six months or longer. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable if the prose editor is notified immediately of acceptance elsewhere. We do not accept work that has been previously published. Please provide all contact information in the body of the e-mail.

Art submissions should be sent to Margot Bouman at WSQArt@gmail.com by March 15, 2012. After art is reviewed and accepted, accepted art must be sent to the journal's managing editor on a CD that includes all artwork of 300 DPI or greater, saved as 4.25 inches wide or larger. These files should be saved as individual JPEGS or TIFFS.

Sex, Courtship and Marriage in Victorian Literature and Culture

Victorian Network is an MLA-indexed (from 2012) online journal dedicated to publishing and promoting the best postgraduate work in Victorian Studies.

The sixth issue of Victorian Network, guest edited by Dr Greta Depledge (Royal Holloway), is dedicated to a reassessment of nineteenth-century constructions and understandings of sex, courtship and marriage. Although the heteronormative and companionate marriage was vital for economic and reproductive reasons - as well as romantic impulses - recent scholarship has illuminated its status as but one of several diverse paradigms of marriage/sexual relationship accessible to the Victorians
Across the nineteenth century, profound crises of faith, extensive legal reforms and the new insights afforded by the emergent discipline of anthropology all contributed to a culture of introspection about the practice of marriage, at the same time as advances in science and medicine opened up new interpretations and definitions of sexual practices and preferences.

We are inviting submissions of no more than 7000 words, on any aspect of the theme. Possible topics include but are by no means limited to the following:

• Victorian narratives of queer desire: text and subtext
• Representations of women’s sexuality (angels, whores and spinsters)
• Prudishness and censorship: “deviant” novels and scandalous dramas
• Adultery, bigamy, divorce and other affronts to the ideal of companionate marriage
• Transgressive relationships
• Nineteenth-century marriage law, including prohibited degrees of affinity, property reform and breach of promise
• Representations of sexual innocence and experience (virginity, puberty and prostitution
• Subversion of traditional courtship narratives
• Sex and class: adventuresses, mistresses, sex workers and blackmail
• Customs of the country: courtship conventions, betrothals and bridal nights
• Performance, stylization and parody: gender scripts, consumer culture, theatrical subversion

All submissions should conform to MHRA style conventions and the in-house submission guidelines. The deadline for submissions is 30 May 2012.

Contact: victoriannetwork@gmail.com
Website: http://www.victoriannetwork.org/index.php/vn