eighteenth century

The introduction of movable type print in late fifteenth-century Europe began with the noble aspiration of making the Word of God available for all, most famously exemplified by the Gutenberg Bible.  How could early printers have foreseen that their work would prepare the ground for the violence and social turmoil that would follow in the Reformation. Texts, broadly defined, were experiencing a powerful transformation. The trust that people placed in texts came under severe strain even as they were more readily available than ever before.  Texts of all kinds—the sermon of the local clergyman, a pamphlet expressing a political view, poetry, plays, even the Word of God itself—required new methods and systems for declaring their trustworthiness.

The Globe of Life Blood Trembling: Science Fiction and William Blake Blake's demonstrable knowledge of science is often eclipsed by his reputed mysticism. Please submit abstracts/papers exploring his adaptation of scientific theory and/or 19th, 20th or 21st century science fiction works which intersect with Blake. Papers cannot be read in absentia. The MLA Convention will be 7-10 Jan. 2031 in Toronto Canada. Josephine Ann McQuail, Tennessee Tech U (jmcquail@tntech.edu )

 ‘I was Born a Naturalist’: Charles Darwin and Shrewsbury 

Friday 3rd July 2020, University Centre Shrewsbury. 

We would like to invite you to a one-day symposium exploring Darwin’s origins in Shropshire. We will discuss the effects of Shrewsbury and its surrounding area on the young Charles Darwin. What were the influences of the Darwin and Wedgwood family members on Darwin’s ambitions? What role did female relatives such as his mother Susannah Darwin (née Wedgwood) and his sister Caroline have on Darwin’s formation as a scientist?  

Keynote Speakers:  

Call for Papers

Romantic Interventions: From Idealism to Activism

February 11-13, 2021, TU Dortmund University, Germany

Conference Homepage:
https://rominter2021.wixsite.com/tudortmund

CALL FOR PAPERS, PROJECTS, AND WORKS-IN-PROGRESS 

In Numbered Lives: Life and Death in Quantum Media, scholar and feminist digital humanities practitioner Jacqueline Wernimont examines recordkeeping technologies used to account for human lives and bodies, beginning as early as the 15th century. The book, in part a robust critical historiography, challenges us to interrogate and engage mindfully with contemporary data issues and methods, and with the ways in which they shape our narratives regarding the value of lives and cultures. 

At a time when a medieval and early modern understanding of literary authority had given way and a concept of intellectual property had not yet been solidly established, eighteenth-century Europe saw a surge of activity involving translation and appropriation of materials produced by others. As well as authors who freely borrowed from the past and present within their own cultures and languages, there was special interest in the translation and appropriation of materials drawn from other cultures and reinterpreted for European audiences.

The Postgraduate English Journal, Durham University’s online peer-reviewed literary journal, is one of the longest-running online postgraduate literary journals in the UK.

Early-career researchers/academics and postgraduates are invited to submit papers of 5,000–7,000 words (or book reviews of no more than 2,000 words) by 31st March 2020 for the journal’s 40th edition.

This session (of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association [SAMLA] annual conference to be held in Jacksonville FL Nov. 13-15, 2020) welcomes submissions that view either Sarah Scott’s 1762 Millenium Hall or Frances Burney’s 1796 Camilla (or both novels) through a disability studies lens. Abstracts addressing the SAMLA conference theme (Scandal! Literature & Provocation: Breaking Rules, Making Texts) are especially welcome. By June 10th,  please submit an abstract of 200 words, a brief bio, and any A/V requests to Dr. Chris Gabbard, University of North Florida, cgabbard@unf.edu.

JAMES HOGG AT 250: CALL FOR PAPERS

 An International Conference marking the semiquincentennial of James Hogg. University of Stirling, Scotland, 1-3 July 2020. Call for PapersPaper and panel proposals on any aspect of James Hogg's life and work are now invited. AbstractsAbstracts of no more than 250 words, of papers lasting no longer than 20 minutes, should reach the address below by 31 January 2020. Panel proposals are also welcome: please enquire prior to submission. Abstracts may be e-mailed to jameshogg250@stir.ac.uk

The 12th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference 

June 19-23, 2020, Asafu Yard, Charles Town, Portland, Jamaica

This event welcomes papers and performances from scholars, artists, and activists interested in exploring issues surrounding "Sovereignty," including but not limited to:

London Rising: Friday, 6 March

’Cause in London Town

There’s just no place for a street fighting man

—The Rolling Stones, 1968 

Mick Jagger’s words above can sometimes feel axiomatic.  London has an outwardly less impressive revolutionary tradition to call upon than many of its closest neighbours, most obviously Paris.  This is to say, of course, that history is political: if the past seems quiet, what hope for remaking the future?   

“Queer Crossings, Unruly Locales, 1500-1800”  

University of California, Santa Barbara 

Conference Date: February 28-29, 2020 

Abstracts Due: December 5th, 2019 (Extended Deadline)

“Edges of Transatlantic Commerce in the Eighteenth Century” 

Seeking paper abstracts for the panel “Supernatural Visions” at the British Women Writers Conference (BWWC) in Forth Worth, Texas, from March 5-7, 2020. The panel organizer invites submissions that analyze works by 18th- and 19th-century women writers that explore ghost-seeing, supernatural visions, and the invisible. In recent years, scholars such as Shane McCorristine, Srdjan Smajic, and Sarah Willburn have explored the significance of ghost-seeing in England during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.