Please note deadline extension to 1/10/06.

We seek papers for a panel at the 2006 SSAWW conference (in Philadelphia)
that explore the relationship between science and sentiment in women's
writing. Taking as a starting point the wealth of recent scholarship that
examines sentiment in American literature and culture, we are interested in
how women writers' use of and relationship to the sentimental aesthetic
developed as America's scientific world view evolved, from the age of
so-called sentimental "feminization" (in the 18th and 19th centuries) into
the present moment. The language of science-as seen in scientific
treatises, theories, and rhetoric-frequently relies on the language of
sentiment in making its appeal, and this language of sentiment was
disseminated by and associated with women's writing and culture. Thus,
proposals might address some of the following concerns: how does a dual
focus on sentiment and science enable a nuanced understanding of the
interaction between the scientific and the literary? What is the
relationship between science and sentiment in America, and how has that
relationship shaped women's writing practices? How did women's developing
claims to scientific authority (most notably as a result of their entrance
into the professions) affect the production of sentimental writing? How
have women deployed sentimentality to write about sciences that seek to
understand and explain the boundaries of identity (gender, sexual, racial,
class)?

Please send one-page proposals by January 10th to both:

Lydia Fisher

Winterthur Museum and Library

lydiaf_at_sas.upenn.edu

and

Julie Prebel

Occidental College

jprebel_at_oxy.edu

         ==========================================================
              From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
                        CFP_at_english.upenn.edu
                         Full Information at
                     http://cfp.english.upenn.edu
         or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu
         ==========================================================
Received on Fri Dec 16 2005 - 13:09:08 EST