cfp.english.upenn.edu

This one-day international conference will celebrate the achievement of Barbara Pym in the year that marks the 100th anniversary of her birth. Pym is now recognised as an increasingly important post-war British novelist,and we are seeking papers that discuss any aspect of her writing and that may open up new avenues in scholarship.

Abstracts may consider, but are not limited to the following:

* Single women and widows in Pym
* Englishness
* Portrayal of Africa/Postcolonial Readings
* Pym's London
* Literary influences (Austen, Compton-Burnett, and others)
* Friendship and correspondance with Philip Larkin
* Relationship to the middlebrow
* The comic novel; Pym's Humour and Irony
* Use of Realism
* Portrayal of Homosexuality
* The Church
* Comparison with other women writers of era (Margaret Drabble, Elizabeth Taylor, Iris Murdoch, and others).
* Tradition and Modernity
* Pym's 'Fragments'/Posthumous writing

Abstracts should be 250 words, and accompanied by brief biographical details. Please send to Dr Nick Turner (NTurner4@uclan.ac.uk) by Feb 28th 2013.