modernist studies

Experimental fiction owes an unacknowledged debt to David Markson. A pioneer in the modernist tradition of James Joyce, William Faulkner, and Malcolm Lowry, Markson is generally grouped with renowned postmodernists such as John Barth and William Gaddis. Credited with the creation of his own genre, Markson’s later novels employ a highly idiosyncratic method of combining biographical and historical material to accrete a narrative that is often devoid of traditional characters or plot. While the early novels (which he deemed “Entertainments”) demonstrate a mastery of conventional forms including the Western and pulp noir, the innovations of his later novels have attracted a small but devoted following who have proselytized for a wider readership.

Prospero XXVI – 2021 Call for Papers

The past present of Bildung: new perspectives on and of the Bildungsroman

“Bildung always comes late. This might well be the motto for any fiction that narrates self-cultivation, whether it takes the form of a classical Bildungsroman or any number of variants that seek to avoid its dialectical closure”. (Gregory Castle) 

Welcoming papers!  Discussions of multilingualism in the life and work of William Carlos Williams—including but not limited to his multilingual home and upbringing, his experiences living in Germany and France, his recognition of the need for knowledge of foreign languages, his readings of poetry and/or prose in translation, and his translations from Spanish, French, Greek, and Chinese. 500-word abstract to mlong@keene.edu, please, by 3/24/2021.

A small number of entries for London's East End: A Short Encyclopedia (under contract, McFarland; ed. Kevin A. Morrison) remain unassigned in the "Literature" category. A list appears below. Entries for this category should range from 50-350 words. Established scholars, early career researchers, and advanced graduate students—those who, in a US context, have passed their qualifying exams—are welcome. Interested individuals may contact the volume's managing editor to have one or more entries assigned to them and request a style guide. 

All Hands

All Our Yesterdays

Analogies and metaphors (East End)

Barren Metal

The Big Bow Mystery 

The organizers invite papers on all aspects of Joseph Conrad’s engagement with transnational or transcultural themes. Conrad’s works confront the challenges of transnationality on land or sea, not only through explorations of language, race, and ethnicity, but his characters’ attempts to forge transcultural unity in the face of alterity. Please send abstracts of up to 150 words on this or any other aspect of Conrad’s engagement with the theme to Dr. Mark Deggan at mark_deggan@sfu.ca before 15th March 2021.

D. H. LAWRENCE, DISTANCE AND PROXIMITY
AN INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SYMPOSIUM
10‒14 JULY 2021 (SYMPOSIUM DATES NOW EXTENDED)

“What a pity that distance remains distance, so absolutely”

 In our time of pandemic that necessitates social distancing and raises concerns about our proximity to others, we propose a series of online roundtables and workshops of short papers (500-1000 words) to consider D. H. Lawrence on or from a distance and in or on proximity. To accommodate as many sessions as possible, across international time zones, we have extended the dates: please note that the virtual symposium will begin on 10 July 2021.

Literature Compass Special Issue:

                       “The Histories and Practices of Modernist Studies in Asia”

For a prospective peer-reviewed special issue of Literature Compass, we invite submissions that reflect on the past, present and future of modernist studies in various locations of Asia. How has “modernism” been historically conceived and studied in Asia? What institutions have shaped and are shaping the fortunes of modernist studies in Asia? How are the histories and practices of modernist studies mediated by translation among various languages used in this part of the world?

This panel explores the “undisciplining” possibilities of challenging Anglocentric periodization in the scholarship on the global British empire. Submissions reframing Victorian/Modernist periodicities and/or foregrounding non-English texts, translation, multilingualism, and raciality are especially welcome. Please submit a 250-word abstract to anweshakundu@wustl.edu or oishanisengupta@gmail.com

How can Victorian and modernist models of negotiating crises inform organizing and political engagement in the present? How might we draw upon our literary historical knowledge as we respond to current conditions? (250-word abstracts)

(This is a guaranteed panel sponsored by the Forum on Victorian and Early 20th C. English for the MLA 2022 Conference to be held in Washington, D.C., January 6-9.)

Midwest Conference on British Studies 68thAnnual Meeting

Bowling Green State University

Bowling Green, OH

October 15-16, 2021

The Midwest Conference on British Studies is proud to announce that its 68th Annual Meeting will be hosted by Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, October 15-16. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Sara Butler, Professor and King George III Chair of British History at the Ohio State University.  While the MWCBS intends to hold the conference onsite at Bowling Green State University, we may change the conference to an online format if extraordinary circumstances related to the Covid pandemic warrant.  If so, the change to an online format will be announced in July.

Intertextuality as Intersectional Praxis: Edited Volume

1. The International Nabokov Society invites paper proposals for a guaranteed session at MLA 2022 (Washington, D.C., 6-9 January 2022).  We invite papers on Nabokov’s languages, the transnational and  multi-lingual Nabokov, his invented languages, translation (between languages, cultures and different genres and media), Nabokov’s theory of language, Nabokov’s style,  etc.  We particularly welcome comparative, transnational, and intermedial perspectives.  Please send 250-word abstracts and brief CVs to siggy.frank@nottingham.ac.uk and zokuzmanovich@davidson.edu by 15  March 2021.

The Jonathan Bayliss Society (www.jonathanbayliss.org) invites proposals for papers to be presented at a roundtable at the 2021 American Literature Association annual conference in Boston, Massachusetts, July 7-11, 2021.

 Please note: If a selected panelist is unable to travel to Boston because of the Pandemic, we may allow an electronic presentation, such as through Zoom.

“Behold, I am doing a new thing”: Literary Form in Bayliss, Melville, and Olson

Extension: Call for Papers, Elizabeth Bowen Review: Volume 4, 2021

 The editors of the Elizabeth Bowen Review are seeking scholarly and innovative essays for publication in the fourth volume of the journal in September 2021.

For this issue, the editors are particularly interested in essays on Bowen’s short stories. However, we are very keen to see essays on any aspect of Bowen’s writing – this could include work as a reviewer and critic, Bowen’s travel writing (e.g. A Time in Rome) and non-fiction.

Essays should be 6-7,000 words including citations, and use Harvard referencing. Please attach a 150-word abstract and short biography. Completed essays should be submitted by May 31st 2021.