W/Righting History: The Problem of Literary Historic Sites
American Studies Association Annual Meeting, October 11-14, Philadelphia

Nearly twenty years ago, literary historian Lawrence Buell set out to
understand how the town of Concord, Massachusetts remembered Henry David
Thoreau. He discovered that, "Little has been written about the
phenomenon of canonization itself: that is, the rituals of remembrance
through which those regarded for whatever reason as literary heroes
become enshrined." Little has changed in the intervening two decades.
This panel seeks to correct that oversight by examining the connections
between authors and tourists conjured at historical sites dedicated to
the memory of American writers. What stories do these sites tell about
their authors? How do literary history sites reconcile public interest
in authors' fictional worlds with the historical exigencies of those
authors' lived realities? Do literary history sites contribute to a
kind of vernacular canonization and, if so, how does that process relate
to what we in the academy mean when we speak of a literary cannon?
Keeping in mind the conference's larger theme of community connections,
we are interested in papers that examine how the enshrinement of
literary places gives meaning to their constituent communities.

We are particularly interested in the papers at the intersections of
literary history, history of tourism, cultural geography, public history
and museum studies.

Please send, by January 15, inquiries or abstracts (no more than 500
words) and CVs for consideration to Hilary Lowe
American Studies
University of Kansas
hilowe_at_ku.edu

Hilary Iris Lowe
KU Writing Center
University of Kansas
http://www2.ku.edu/~writing/
785-864-1875
American Studies Program
hilowe_at_ku.edu

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Received on Tue Dec 19 2006 - 17:26:59 EST