cfp.english.upenn.edu

Stowe and Religion

In Oldtown Folks, Harriet Beecher Stowe famously complains that “woman’s nature had never been consulted in theology.” Yet, as the daughter, sister, and wife of clergymen, Stowe was herself steeped in the theology and religious practice of her day. Through her fiction, Stowe sometimes challenges the patriarchal leadership of the Christian Church and articulates an alternative vision of spiritual life that she figures simply as “the Religion of Christ.”

Papers are sought on any aspect of religion, spirituality, or theology in the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Possible topics of exploration in Stowe’s fiction include but are not limited to:

Feminist theology
Millennialism
Race and religion
Gender and religion
Theology vs. lived religion
Domesticity and spirituality
Catholicism
Representations of the Bible
The democratization of religion
Slavery and the Church
Sentimentality and the representation of religion

While you need not be a Stowe Society member to submit a proposal, you must become a member to present on the Stowe panel at ALA.

Please submit a one page abstract and a one page CV to Mary Wearn (mary.wearn@maconstate.edu) by January 28, 2013.