cfp.english.upenn.edu

Recession, Depression, Panic: Edith Wharton's Writing and Economic Flux

Edith Wharton Society Panel at the American Literature Association, 27-30 May 2010

Wharton observed the Panic of 1893, the post-World War I recession, the economic boom of the 1920s, and the Great Depression. Despite her wealth, she and those around her were not insulated from changes in the American economy. For this panel, we seek papers exploring how Wharton's writing addresses an economically volatile climate. What does Wharton's fiction have to tell us about living in an age of economic instability? Does Wharton--writing from abroad as she observed the US in economic turmoil--shed any light on the global nature of economic downturns and panics? How does Wharton's work recast standard
narratives of the boom-and-bust economy of the 1920s and 1930s? Attention to Wharton's lesser-known works--including memoirs and correspondence--is encouraged.

Please send one-page abstracts and brief c.v.'s to Meredith Goldsmith, Assistant Professor of English, Ursinus College (mgoldsmith@ursinus.edu). Deadline: January 20, 2010.