"Betwixt and Between": Intersections of Modernism and the Middlebrow (4/15/06; MMLA, 11/9/06-11/12/06)

full name / name of organization: 
Jayne Waterman

High & Low Culture (04/15/06; M/MLA '06 (Chicago) 11/09/06-11/12/06

"'Betwixt and Between': Intersections of Modernism and the Middlebrow."

In a pugilistic letter written, but never sent, to the New Statesman in the
early 1930s, Virginia Woolf explained that middlebrow fiction "is not well
written; nor is it badly written. It is not proper, nor is it improper?in
short it is betwixt and between" (200). Stepping back from polarized
pronouncements, this panel aims to interrogate the notion of "betwixt and
between" in relation to the cultural and literary intersections of
Anglo-American modernism and the middlebrow. Questions to consider may
include, but are not limited to, the following: What do such formations
tells us about canonicity, brow hierarchies, readerships, and the literary
marketplace, especially in terms of gender and class? How do negotiated
cultural exchanges call into question the idea of authenticity and
legitimacy? What analytical skills can we develop to recognize and interpret
the common ground of texts and authors usually separated by the so-called
"Great Divide"?

Send abstracts (250 words max.) by April 15 to: jaynewaterman_at_hotmail.com

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Received on Tue Mar 07 2006 - 18:23:05 EST