victorian

To mark the 150th issue of Foundation in spring 2025, we would like to include contributions on the topic of sf from 150 years ago, published during the 1870s. Darko Suvin once proposed 1 May 1871 as the starting-point for sf – the day that Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race was published, George Chesney’s The Battle of Dorking began serialisation, and Samuel Butler submitted Erewhon to his publisher. Jules Verne, however, was already in full swing and he would soon be joined by such contemporaries as Camille Flammarion. Where else can we trace the roots of science fiction in the 1870s? How can we reassess the writers we know and who are the writers we need to rediscover?

Dickens remains one of the most visible Anglophone authors, with his fiction adapted regularly for the stage and screen and frequently taught and discussed by scholars. His hypercanonicity has also inspired more diverse, ephemeral forms of engagement across a range of cultural contexts, from popular visual and material cultures, through to literary tourism and festivals, and on to the practices of collectors and fans in both analogue and online contexts. This session invites contributions that analyse an aspect or aspects of this vast and still relatively underexplored terrain.

“I write, not for children, but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or fifty, or seventy-five.”
― George MacDonald

It is often easier for child characters to cross boundaries between reality and fantasy worlds, which frequently go unnoticed by adult characters. In fantasy stories, whether in literature or media for an adult or child audience, it is mainly children who discover portals into fantastic worlds. These child protagonists become redeemer figures and symbols of hope and overcome personal and global crises in those worlds, into which they are lured or called.

This panel is being organized for the upcoming virtual undergraduate and graduate conference, hosted by Queen’s University’s ENGL859, on “Re-imaging and Re-engaging with the Victorians,” which takes place on April 18th from 9:30am-5:00pm EST. 

Patrick Leary Field Development GrantDeadline: 15 March 2024 The Patrick Leary Field Development Grant is named for long-time RSVP supporter, Board member and former President, and created with funds from a generous bequest to RSVP by the late Eileen Curran, pioneering researcher and Emerita Professor of English at Colby College.

Sally Mitchell Dissertation Prize Deadline: 1 March 2024  The Sally Mitchell Dissertation Prize is awarded annually to the best Ph.D. dissertation, defended in the previous calendar year, that explores the 19th-century British periodical press (including magazines, newspapers, and serial publications of all kinds) as an object of study in its own right, not as a source of material for other historical topics. Winners of the prize receive a monetary award of $1,000.

This conference aims to discuss the representation of epidemic remedies in medical
writing in England and in France between 1500 and 1920. Prospective presenters are
invited to address epidemic remedies across five centuries, bearing three main
methodological observations in mind. Firstly, the pivotal role of the plague and the
Spanish influenza as opening and closing points to the selected timeframe. Secondly,
the working definition of “remedy” as a cure “for a disease, disorder, injury, etc.; a
medicine or treatment that promotes healing or alleviates symptoms.” (OED, remedy
2). This comprehensive definition intends to allow for historical specification and

The Oscar Wilde Society invites abstracts for a special session at the 2025 MLA Convention in New Orleans, LA, Jan. 9-12 2025.

“Growing Younger”: Literature and Childlike Faith

Southeast Regional Conference on Christianity and Literature Covenant College
Lookout Mountain, GA
October 10-12, 2024

Keynote Speaker: Malcolm Guite (Poet and President of the George MacDonald Society)

Re-imagining and Re-engaging with the Victorians

A virtual undergraduate and graduate conference

Conference on April 18 and Abstracts Due March 5

Hosted by Queen’s University’s ENGL 859

Contact emails: brooke.cameron@queensu.ca & sydney.wildman@queensu.ca

See full CFP below

Keynote:

Jentery Sayers, Associate Professor, University of Victoria

“Victorian Activities and the Play of Genre in Contemporary Video Games"

Organizers:

Martineau Society Conference 2024 in Lewes, England    06/24/2024-06/27/2024; deadline 04/19/2024

The Martineau Society will be hosting its annual conference in the historic town of Lewes, East Sussex, England. The Martineau Society conference is an interdisciplinary conference that focuses on the lives, work, and contributions of the Martineau family, including its two most famous and influential members, Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) and James Martineau (1805-1900).

Started by Norwich Unitarians in 1994, the Martineau Society encourages scholarship on the Martineau family and their nineteenth-century context as well as their continuing influence.  

Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Invitation 

The University of Exeter’s AHRC-funded “The Art of Fiction” project invites proposals for 15-minute papers on the theme of “patchwork and authorship”.  

Event 2024 is an experiment in sustainable global conferencing, including monthly Zoom events, face-to-face hub events in September, and the asynchronous discussion of uploaded papers on COVE Conferences.

Call For Papers:

We are delighted to welcome you to the University of Birmingham!

The theme of the 2024 symposium will be “Dickens, Context and Co-occurrence.” We invite you to think of the various contexts that Dickens’s works are set in, connect to, and imagine. Contexts are where things co-occur – with various effects.