CFP for Panel on Doris Lessing and Canon Formation for the Second
International Doris Lessing Conference, Leeds Metropolitan University,
U.K, to be held July 6-8, 2007.

Proposed Panel: "Putting the 'Woman of Letters' in Her Place: Canon
Formation and the Lessing Canon"

In the past 30 years, the canon of "great literature" has expanded,
shifted, and changed. No longer primarily a list of privileged, white,
male authors, the canon as we know it in the 21st century includes
writers who represent a range of identity categories. Spaces have been
carved out for women, gay, lesbian, working-class, postcolonial, and
multicultural writers.

Nevertheless, with these new spaces in the canon has come a tendency
toward hyper-specialization in literary criticism, and this creates a
unique set of challenges for those who wish to do scholarly work on
Doris Lessing's writing. A quintessential woman of letters, Lessing
cuts across genres and calls to question the tiny categories (like
nationality, gender, or literary period, to name just a few) in which
contemporary literary criticism attempts to contain literary texts.
Where and how do we place Lessing's writing in a 21st century canon?
What are the practical and/or theoretical implications of where and how
we choose to place her writing? How does our placement of Lessing's
writing also work to place Doris Lessing, the author, and, by extension,
the figure of the woman writer? This panel seeks papers that explore
these questions.

Submit one-page abstracts by August 31, 2006 to:

Tonya Krouse
Assistant Professor of English
Department of Literature and Language
Northern Kentucky University
krouset_at_nku.edu

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Received on Wed Jul 12 2006 - 16:31:29 EDT