With the arrival of the New Woman at the end of the nineteenth century also came the modernist novel. The beginning of the twentieth century constitutes a period when women struggled with social expectations but decided to leave their own drawing rooms and discover the world; to be power brokers, instead of passive observers; and to gradually move from their interiority to making history. By comparing novels of women writers, both in the US and abroad, this panel attempts to find, in their similarities and differences, the real issues that women faced at the turn of the century, in novels that transitioned from realism and naturalism to modernism. How does the novel of the early twentieth century deal with the issues that women faced during this time of transition? Going beyond well-established authors of modernism such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, this panel is interested in how female realist and modernist writers approached the dilemma between asserting agency and countering the tragedy of the human spirit. Female protagonists in the works by Edith Wharton and Nella Larsen in the US, Nellie Campobello in Mexico, and Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu in Rumania, for example, may help us elucidate how these and other literary works refract the realities of despair, hypocrisy, and greed, and guide us to new discoveries of interiorities. We would like to welcome research in comparative literature that fosters a conversation between early twentieth century novels by female authors from the US and from around the world.

NeMLA's 58th Annual Convention

March 6-9, 2027

Salve Regina University

New Port, RI

This panel will be conducted virtually. Visit https://www.nemla.org/convention/policies.html for instructions. Submit your abstract at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/22511 on or before September 30, 2026.