Concept Note: This is a Call for Papers for an edited volume which attempts to enhance scholarship in the active and burgeoning field of Victorian and Neo-Victorian studies and incorporating its relevance to an Open and Distance curriculum where the Victorian period and its literary pieces form a core section of the Post Graduate course (you are welcome to have a look at the syllabus on the website under the school of Humanities). It thus aims at providing greater scope for research in the segment to Victorian scholars as well as creating a readymade source of reference for the learners of this University as well as for researchers in Victorian studies in general. The objective of this volume would be to study the diverse and interesting portrayal of woman and womanhood in the entire gamut of Victorian literature; to analyze how far such depiction adhered to, endorsed or departed from Victorian generalizations about the role of women and to enquire after any attempt, in literature, by the writers of the age to treat women as 'human' rather than simplifying and polarizing them into labels of the 'angel in the house', as popularized by Coventry Patmore, or the 'fallen woman', an image made popular by fiction and the periodical press, and with what degree of success or under what opposition or censure.
Though topical the volume seeks to be relevant to our present times where society still tries to construct and straitjacket womanhood through generalizations and one-dimensional labels. It is interesting to study the precarious position of the Victorian woman caught between the domestic space and public sphere. Victorian domesticity, marriage and child-rearing enshrined the values of female purity, corroborated by the biological implications of motherhood, stability and sanctity. On the extreme opposite pole were the public spheres of street and brothel, the symbolic haunts of the 'fallen woman', whose fall however was of wider significance and resonances than the Original Fall of Man, as to the Victorian moral code it meant sexual activity out of wedlock and hence unpardonable. The erudite and well-researched essays from Victorianists and scholars in this volume would seek to enrich the existing knowledge in this sphere of study – drawing its resources from the fiction, poetry, non-fictional prose, paintings and periodical reports to bring to light hitherto unexplored writers and issues. Also it will try to be seminal for future studies locating the rise in literature, of the voice and image of the woman, so long repressed by patriarchal pronouncements and voyeurism. Of special significance would be the continued research on the later Victorian novelists such as Grant Allen, George Moore, George Gissing and others who contributed diversely to the looming 'Woman Question' and the rise of the 'New Woman'; also, the connections, if any, which the British writers at this time established with their American counterparts. Aiming to bring together papers from diverse groups of scholars, researchers and established academicians researching on Victorian literature and culture, the volume will also seek to explore methods to incorporate the value of such research for Open and Distance modes of imparting education and also of research, making it accessible to teachers and learners in this mode. The following are the broad themes/contexts that could be examined within the broad purview of the volume, but are not restricted to these alone:
1) Early and Later Victorian Fiction, poetry, non-fictional prose and depiction of Women/womanhood
2) Role of the periodical Press, conduct book literature or paintings in constructing/presenting notions of womanhood
3) Madness, motherhood and deviant womanhood
4) Depiction of Woman in sensation fiction
5) Women and/in vocations;
6) Women as fragile/invalids
7) Women and medical science ;
and any others which may present novel ways of thinking and looking at womanhood in Victorian and Neo-Victorian contexts and substantiate the ever-burgeoning field of Victorian studies. Kindly give mail to discuss.
Guidelines for Style Sheet: The papers will be accepted for review in MS-Word only. The title would be in 14pt centered and text in 12pt. (Times New Roman), references should follow MLA 7th Edition. Kindly make limited use of endnotes if necessary and no footnotes.

Papers will be selected for publication after review and the authors will be duly informed via e-mail.

Authors should write their name, address, designation, affiliation, contact no, e-mail ID on the cover page. The abstract (250 words max.) and full paper is required to be sent through e-mail only.

Important date: Submission of Full Paper (approx 3000-5000 words) 15sth December, 2015.

Editor: Dr Oindrila Ghosh
Assistant Professor in English
School of Humanities
Netaji Subhas Open University
Contact: oindrila_24@yahoo.com