CFP: Welty and Other Women Writers: Apartheid/Segregation (1/6/06; ALA, 5/25/06-5/28/06)

full name / name of organization: 
Barbara Ladd
contact email: 

Call for Papers
Eudora Welty Society at the American Literature Association
May 25-28, 2006
San Francisco, CA
Hyatt Regency, Embarcadero Center

"They are fearless": Women Writers Cross the Color Line
Eudora Welty and Other Others

In an interview, Toni Morrison identifies Nadine Gordimer, Lillian
Hellman, and Eudora Welty as among her favorite writers: "Perhaps it is
because they are all women who have lived in segregated areas of this
country or in an area where there is apartheid. They are fearless.
Nadine Gordimer and Eudora Welty write about black people in a way that
few white men have ever been able to write. It's not patronizing, not
romanticizing--it's the way they should be written about." In another
interview, Morrison states "Nadine Gordimer writes about black people
with such astounding sensibilities and sensitivity--not patronizing, not
romantic, just real. And Eudora Welty does the same thing. Lillian
Hellman has done it. Now, we might characterize these women as geniuses
of a certain sort, but if they can write about it, it means it is
possible. They didn't say, "Oh my God, I can't write about black
people": it didn't stop them" (Conversations with Toni Morrison, 41,
97).

The Eudora Welty Society seeks papers on Welty and other women writers
of her generation ("geniuses of a certain sort") who have lived in
segregated societies and crossed or confronted the color line. Writers
need not be from the United States--they may be British or European,
Asian, African, Caribbean, Central or South American, Canadian. Papers
should engage with some aspect of the work of these writers that is
shared (or can be contrasted with) the work of Welty. Possibilities
include the following: growing up apartheid (children and youth);
eroticism and maternity; cross-cultural (or racial or ethnic) mentoring;
magic, folklore, myth, mystification--Magical Realism in the work of
mid-20th century women writing in, from, and to segregation and
apartheid; madness and memory in apartheid; violence and the body;
writing and protest; women writers and criticism; reception studies.
Other ideas are welcome.

Please send queries or 300-word abstracts by January 5, 2006 to Barbara
Ladd, Vice-President, Eudora Welty Society, Department of English, Emory
University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322. E-mail to bladd_at_emory.edu. Fax:
404/727-2605 (note clearly that fax is for Barbara Ladd). Tel:
404/727-7998.

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Received on Wed Oct 05 2005 - 11:03:10 EDT