Even though critics have worked hard to expand and democratize the canon of modernist American literature, it is the major authors, major texts, and major characters who, predictably, continue to hog the scholarly attention. But their minor counterparts are important not only because they are significant cultural products of their era but also because they speak to us about the formation of the American literary canon in the twentieth century. This panel, which will meet as a special topics session at the 22nd annual English Graduate Student Association Mardi Gras Conference at Louisiana State University, interrogates the relation of the minor to the major in pre-WWII American literature.

What can be said for authors who were hugely famous in the modernist era but are virtually forgotten in ours? Why are scholars so hesitant to classify as modernists some "sub-literary" genre writers who entertained modernist themes? Is there value in studying major authors' works that have been deemed "minor" or "non-canonical," such as juvenilia and uncollected stories? Similar questions might be posed in regards to minor characters in major literary works, for all too often ethnic others occupy the margins of such texts.

In short, we invite submissions on minor authors, texts, characters, genres, and movements associated with the modernist era of American literary production. Please send abstracts of 500 words or less to mitchfrye@gmail.com or mardigrasconference2012@gmail.com by December 9, 2011. Include "Minor Moderns" in the subject line. This year's Mardi Gras Conference will take place February 16-17, 2012 in Baton Rouge, LA. For a full description, see the general CFP at: http://uiswcmsweb.prod.lsu.edu/ArtSci/english/GraduateProgram/MardiGrasC....