Edith Wharton's Dialog with the Women's Movement
 
The Edith Wharton Society will host a panel at the Society for the Study
of American Women Writers Conference (Philadelphia, November 8 - 11,
2006).

The early twentieth century was shaped, in part, by the struggle for
suffrage and greater educational and professional opportunities for
women. Many of Edith Wharton's writings contribute to the public
awareness of women's repression, yet her role in the fight for women's
rights has been the subject of debate. While Wharton's opportunities as
a professional writer emerge, in part, out of the rich heritage of
nineteenth-century domestic and sentimental novelists, she explicitly
distances herself from many of her foremothers. While her work
demonstrates the destructiveness of political, economic, and social
oppression, she also questions the need for suffrage and defends the
values of the domestic sphere. Wharton's public and private writings
enact a complex stance toward other women writers and the women's
movement. What new insights are emerging out of our increasingly nuanced
understanding of Wharton, her relationship with other writers, the
women's movement in America and abroad, and the radical political and
cultural transformations emerging during her lifetime?

SSAWW explains that it "is committed to diversity in the study of
American women writers --racial, ethnic, gender, class, sexual
orientation, region, and era -- as well as of scholars participating in
the Society." Membership in SSAWW is required in order to participate in
the conference."

To submit a proposal, please provide a one-page abstract and one-page
c.v. on or before November 26, 2005. You may send your work either
electronically (pasted into an email or as a Microsoft Word attachment)
to mcarney_at_mail.maconstate.edu or via postal mail to:

Mary Carney
Macon State College
Humanities Division
100 College Station Road
Macon, GA 31206-5145

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Received on Thu Nov 03 2005 - 13:12:59 EST