cfp.english.upenn.edu

The 2013 British Women Writers Conference will center around the theme of “Customs.” Customs are often thought of as the habits or social norms that dictate behavior, sometimes so rigidly that they appear to be laws. Conversely, though, “custom” can refer to a product or service tailored to the “customer’s” individual specifications, or the taxes or duties on imports/exports, the governmental department charged with implementing such fees, or the place in which all items entering a country from foreign parts are examined for contraband. Regardless of its particular connotation, “custom” denotes a sense of rigidity, restriction, or control; it is these forms of social, economic, and/or personal limitations that we wish to explore with this year’s conference. Prospective panelists are encouraged to think of “customs” broadly as the term might apply to British and Transatlantic women writers and their often-underrepresented contributions to literary studies. Potential topics related to this theme might include but are not limited to the following themes in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British women’s writing:

Trade issues in the local and/or global economy
Business and mercantile transactions and expansion
Trade and exchange (economic, cultural, philosophical, or trade in knowledge and ideas)
Issues of circulation (monetary as well as other goods and services in the social, political, global, or domestic spheres)
Debt and credit
Traditions and conventions (how they are established as well as how they are upheld or subverted, modified, or re-imagined)
Habits, practices, and routines
Fashions and manners
Rituals and ceremonies (religious, political, social, and cultural)
Customers and patronage
Taxation, duties, and tributes
Law and legal systems

Please send abstracts of 250 words for panel proposals by November 15, 2012 and for individual paper presentations by December 15, 2012 to BWWC2013@gmail.com.