x-post: H-IDEAS
October 7-10, 1999
The Nittany Lion Inn
State College, Pennsylvania
The recently founded Modernist Studies Association is devoted to the study of the arts in their social, political, cultural, and intellectual contexts from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. The organization aims to develop an international and interdisciplinary forum to promote exchange among scholars in this revitalized and rapidly changing field.
The conference will feature three kinds of organized discussion: 1) plenary sessions, each with two invited speakers and a respondent; 2) seminars, small group discussions (maximum of 15) based on brief essays which the participants submit in advance; and 3) panels, each with a chair and three 20-minute presentations. The design of the conference should allow each participant to attend the plenary sessions and participate in a seminar and/or a panel.
Plenary Sessions
"Modernism, Race, and Nation": Peter Nicholls (University of Sussex), Houston Baker (Duke University), and respondent Kathryne Lindberg (Wayne State University)
"Modernism, Feminist Criticism and Identity Politics": Susan Stanford Friedman (University of Wisconsin--Madison), Rachel Blau DuPlessis (Temple University), and repondent Bonnie Kime Scott (University of Delaware)
"Literary Modernism and the Visual Arts": Charles Altieri (University of California--Berkeley), Philip Weinstein (Swarthmore College), and respondent Wendy Steiner (University of Pennsylvania)
Special Sessions
The program committee has arranged special sessions on Modernism and "Redefining Modernity" (Rita Felski, University of Virgina); Modern Art (Patricia Leighten, Duke University); "Middlebrow" Culture (Ann Ardis, University of Delaware); The Marketing of Modernism (Mark Morrisson, Pennsylvania State University--University Park); The Editing of Modernist Texts (Robin Schulze, Pennsylvania State University--University Park); Modernism, Science, and Technology (Susan Squier, Pennsylania State University--University Park); Modernism and Post-Colonialism (Guari Viswanathan, Columbia University); and The London Literary Scene, 1911-1916 (Caroline Zilboorg, Cambridge University)
Individuals may submit a ranked list of two or three seminars and/or a proposal for a panel. Since we can accept only a limited number of panel proposals, we encourage all prospective participants to consider participation in one of the sixteen seminars listed below. Seminar assignments will be made on a first come/first served basis, beginning now and extending to August 1st: the sooner you submit your selections, the better your chance of receiving your first choice.
If you choose to submit a proposal for a panel, we encourage you to register for seminars at the same time. If your panel proposal is not accepted, you are still guaranteed a place in one of the seminars. If your proposal is accepted, you still have the option of participating in a seminar. The deadline for submitting panel proposals is June 1st. The program committee will notify those who have submitted proposals by June 30th.
Seminars are small group discussions (maximum of 15) based on brief papers (5-10 pages) that the participants submit in advance of the meeting. Seminars are an attractive feature of many professional conferences. They offer participants with related interests an opportunity to meet and to engage in a conversation that may extend beyond the conference itself. We strongly encourage registrants to consider participation in a seminar either as a desirable alternative to, or in addition to, their participation on a panel. All registrants are guaranteed a place in a seminar, and will be sent a letter confirming their presence on the program. As far as travel funds are concerned, academic institutions usually regard participation in a seminar as equivalent to participation on a panel.
The program committee has organized the following seminars:
1. Modernism and Popular Culture
David Chinitz (Loyola University--Chicago)
[25 word description still pending. See the website for an update.]
2. Modernist Irony
Kevin Dettmar (Clemson University)
[25-word description still pending. See the website for an update.]
3. Modernism and the Victorians
Mary Ellis Gibson (University of North Carolina--Greensboro) and
Cassandra Laity (Drew University)
How did modernists create narratives of artistic inheritance, reflecting or diverging from their predecessors? How did gender sexuality and changes in publishing and distributing art shape these narratives?
4. Provincial to European: Constructing British Modernisms
Nancy Gish (University of Southern Maine--Portland)
How has political and poetic devolution in contemporary Britain challenged,
displaced, or reconceptualized "English Literary Modernism" constructed as
Eliot's continuation of "the mind of Europe?"
5. New Approaches to the Harlem Renaissance
Robert von Hallberg (University of Chicago)
[25-word description still pending. See the website for an update.]
6. Modernity, Gender and Pan-Africanism
Cyraina Johnson (University of Notre Dame)
This seminar invites papers addressing the relation between modernity and
Pan-Africanism, as seen through the prism of the late 19th- and early
20th-century constructions of race and gender.
7. Modern and Contemporary Women Poets
Linda A. Kinnahan (Duquesne University)
This seminar invites papers exploring how contemporary women's poetry is
connected to/affected by/read in relation to the continuing recovery and
(re)reading of women modernist poets.
8. Modernism and Queer Theory
Colleen Lamos (Rice University)
What is the relation between modernist aesthetics and the emergent psycho-medical
discourse on homosexuality? How does queer theory alter our
understanding of modern literature?
9. Modernism and Pedagogy
Gail McDonald (University of North Carolina--Greensboro)
Theoretical and practical approaches to modernist texts in the classroom:
issues of difficulty, allusiveness, and cultural "capital." What can pedagogy
reveal about the assumptions and aesthetics of modernist experimentation
in fiction, poetry, and the other arts?
10. Recontextualizations of Modernism
Michael North (University of California--Los Angeles)
[25-word description still pending. See website for an update.]
11. Modernism and the Jewish Writer
Alicia Ostriker (Rutgers University)
Discussions of modernism in Jewish poetry and fiction, in terms either of
formal experiment, or thematic concerns such as the immigrant experience,
the Great War, changing gender roles.
12. Modernism and Post-Colonialism
Leonard Orr (Washington State University)
What is the impact of post-colonial theory on modernist studies? How do modernist
texts represent double consciousness, syncretism, and the trauma of diaspora?
13. Modernism and Politics
Stan Smith (Notthingham-Trent University)
The modernism of Eliot, Pound, Yeats, Wyndham Lewis, Lawrence, etc. seems
inextricably linked with a right-wing authoritarian, hierarchical, and masculine
politics. Is the conjuncture merely coincidental, or are there deep structural
reasons for the link?
14. Modernism and the Law
Robert Spoo (University of Tulsa)
This seminar will consider authors in various legal contexts, including (but
not limited to) obscenity laws, customs and postal regulations, passport
restrictions, copyright and libel laws.
15. Modernism and the Occult
Leon Surrette (University of Western Ontario)
Papers of a critical and scholarly nature are invited on occult topics in
modern poetry or fiction and/or occult writers. By "occult" we mean a hidden
("occult") tradition of religious belief, or secret ritual practice. Secret
societies are a different category.
16. Modernism and the Canon
Keith Tuma (Miami University, Ohio)
This seminar will explore how we might represent British modernist literature
in a post-national and post-canonical American academy in which the
once-privileged position of "British" literature is increasingly a thing
of the past.
Seminar assignments will be made on a firstcome/first served basis beginning now and extending to August 1st.
Please submit a ranked list of two or three seminars to:
Sanford Schwartz
Department of English
The Pennsylvania State University
116 Burrowes Building
University Park, PA 16802-6200
Fax: (814)863-7285
E-Mail: sxs8@psu.edu
Once the assignments are completed, each seminar leader will contact the other members of the group and set a precise timetable for the exchange of materials. The general guidelines are as follows: around mid-July, each participant sends a one-page precis to all other participants in the seminar; around the beginning of September, each participant sends his or her essay to all other participants.
Panels
The program committee welcomes proposals for panels, though only a limited number can be accepted. The committee is especially interested in interdisciplinary topics. Please include the following: your name, session title, professional affiliation, mailing address, phone number, fax, and e-mail address, the names and affiliations of the other members of your session, a 250-word abstract on the topic of the proposed session.
Send proposals postmarked, faxed, or E-mailed by June 1st to:
Sanford Schwartz
Department of English
The Pennsylvania State University
116 Burrowes Building
University Park, PA 16802-6200
Fax: (814)863-7285
E-Mail: sxs8@psu.edu
The program committee will notify those who have submitted proposals by June 30th.
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