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The Call for Papers for the 2010 ASECS Annual Meeting, March 18-21 is
now available at: http://asecs.press.jhu.edu/.
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Additional participants welcome:
Teaching the Eighteenth Century: A Poster Session
PLEASE NOTE: participation in the poster session does not preclude
presenting a paper in another session!
An initial trial of this format at the Richmond meeting proved to be
very successful and invigorating for both participants and attendees.
The poster session format facilitates the sharing of pedagogical
approaches to the eighteenth century. Its goals are thus similar to
those of the sessions based on the Innovative Course Design prizes. But
the poster session allows a larger number of ASECS members to
participate and emphasizes all types of classroom practices, not limited
to innovative course design.
This session asks participants to create posters (or other visual
displays) that present a course or one portion of a course focusing on
the eighteenth century. Participants will be encouraged to provide a
mechanism for sharing the information they present, either in the form
of photocopies for distribution or in the form of subsequent electronic
communication.
This session provides a valuable opportunity for colleagues who are
under institutional pressure to provide evidence of engagement in
professional and pedagogical development. It also highlights one of the
main activities of many ASECS members.
Presenters should be present during the scheduled presentation session,
in order to respond to questions and to interact with other poster
presenters. If possible, the display will remain in place during the
duration of the meeting.
Please sent proposals to: Jack Iverson
email: [log in to unmask]
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"Eighteenth-Century Ectopias" Trevor Speller, 306 Clemens Hall, State U.
of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, 14260; Tel: (716) 645-2575;
Fax: (716) 645-5980; E-mail: [log in to unmask]
At the turn of the eighteenth century, London's Mint Liberties were
effectively an interzone where English law had no jurisdiction. Because
of its complex legal history, the Liberties served as a bounded islet
inside London where debtors and criminals could live outside the law.
Whether we call it a space of exception, or a territory of
transgression, the Mint Liberties serve as merely one example in a
category of eighteenth-century places perhaps best termed "ectopias," or
"outside-places" - physically delineated zones which serve as a
necessary outside to social mechanisms such as law, science, religion,
aristocracy, trade, reason, and the like.
This panel is looking for papers which deal with the literature and/or
history of such particular places in the Restoration and 18th century.
These places might include legal interzones, spaces of sanctuary,
haunted houses, baths, outlaw communities, islands of punishment,
juridical exceptions, and any other geographically delineated
territories that escape political, legal, or rational boundaries. The
panel particularly welcomes papers dealing with non-canonical texts and
unusual accounts.
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"Concepts of Debt in Eighteenth-Century Culture" Linda Zionkowski, Dept. of
English, Ohio U., Athens, OH 45701; Tel: (740) 597-2749; Fax: (740)
593-2832;
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
As Margaret Atwood argues in Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of
Wealth, "Debt . . . is a subject much larger than money," since every
interaction among individuals involves an often complicated
determination of what we owe to others, and what they owe to us. When a
sense of balance is not achieved in this exchange, relationships falter
or disintegrate, sometimes with disastrous results for both parties.
This session will investigate how the idea of debt influences a variety
of eighteenth-century discourses, including those concerning ethics,
law, political economy, religion, sexuality, and aesthetics. Papers
might consider representations of the experience of debt (financial and
otherwise), debt and the legal system, the function of debt as a
metaphor for social transactions, and cultural attitudes toward debt.
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³Creatively Writing the Long Eighteenth Century: Historical Fiction,
Entertainment and Credibility² Judith Bailey Slagle, East Tennessee State
U., Johnson City, TN 37614; Tel: (423) 439-6669; Fax: (423) 439-7193;
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
In the last decade alone many fiction writers have turned their attention to
the long eighteenth century. Novels such as Tremain¹s Restoration, Brown¹s
Invitation to a Funeral, Pears¹ An Instance of the Fingerpost and, most
recently, Gee¹s Scandal of the Season have entertained us with lust, murder
and politics set in Eighteenth-Century England<all the essentials necessary
for a break from ³academic reading.² This panel will address just how well
these novelists and filmmakers (many of them academics in the field) get it
right and might address some of the following questions: How much license
should a novelist take with history? Are these novels written for academics²
What makes these works intriguing to us? How do they make the long
eighteenth century come alive? Can we use them in Class? and more.
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Gender and Homosociality in the Long Eighteenth Century
The eighteenth century witnessed the emergence of some of its best known
female artists, such as Rosalba Carriera, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun,
Adéläide Labille-Guiard, and Angelica Kauffman. Female patrons played a
substantial role in commissioning these artists to create appropriate
images of femininity. Likewise, Jacques Louis David created a
flourishing homosocial environment in his Parisian studio. This session
will examine the intersection of gender and intellectual patronage in
the eighteenth century. Papers will focus on authors, artists, and
other intellectuals who intentionally sought patrons of their own gender.
Dr. Heidi A. Strobel
Associate Professor of Art History
Department of Archaeology and Art History
University of Evansville
1800 Lincoln Ave
Evansville IN 47722
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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"Sterne, Shandyism, and Public Culture" Michael Gavin, Rutgers U., 510
George St, New Brunswick, NJ 08901; Tel: (732) 253-7233; E-mail:
[log in to unmask]
What was it like to read Tristram Shandy in the eighteenth century? Laurence
Sterne's writings provoked both imitation and indignation, and the public
debate between Shandeans and anti-Shandeans marks a flashpoint in the
relationship between "literature" and the "public sphere," as well as a
watershed moment in the history of literary celebrity. This panel will
consider Sterne and his eighteenth-century reception, considering Shandyism
in relation to other forms of national public identity.
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"New Scholarship on Pope and His Circle" Michael Gavin, Rutgers U., 510
George St , New Brunswick, NJ 08901; Tel: (732) 253-7233; E-mail:
[log in to unmask]
This panel will examine Alexander Pope and his associates (or his critics).
Papers are welcomed that consider any aspect of Pope's versification or
career, but preference will be given to revisionist approaches that seek to
chart new directions for study.
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"New Perspectives on Lessing's Later Works" (The Lessing Society) Monika
Nenon, Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literatures, U. of Memphis,
Memphis 38152; Tel: (901) 678-4094; Fax: (901) 678-5338; E-mail:
[log in to unmask]
Lessing's later works address a whole range of questions such as the
relationship between reason and religion, good government, the
institutions of civil society, ethics, etc. Instead of concentrating on
individual works, this panel would seek to explore the question whether
there are some general underlying themes that are at work in this period
of his writing and serve to provide an overall unity to it.
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Vegetable Love: Plants and Empire in the Long Eighteenth Century
Exo'tick. N. f. A foreign plant. (Johnson's Dictionary)
The last decade has seen a number of studies by scholars such as
Richard Drayton, Jill Casid, and Londa Schiebinger which explore the
links between botany and empire. Building on this growing interest in
colonial botany, as well as the recent destabilizations of the
categories of animal, vegetable, and mineral prompted by thing theory
and the emerging field of animal studies, this panel seeks to explore
the relationship between horticulture and culture in the long
eighteenth century. In a period which witnessed a blossoming of
interest in greenhouse technology and transoceanic exchanges of plants
and seed specimens, how were plants used to mediate discussions of
nativeness and foreignness? What discursive connections can we uncover
between, for instance, the cultural politics of transplantation and
the enthusiasm for horticulture which visibly altered English soil in
this period as kitchen gardens and hothouses became increasingly
common? And what role did plants play in the imperial enterprises of
Europe, as scientific research into precious spices and woods from the
colonies became entangled with state politics and commercial
interests?
This panel seeks to investigate eighteenth-century connections between
plants and empire through a variety of genres (e.g. horticultural
pamphlets, georgic poetry, periodical essays, and archival documents),
and welcomes literary as well as cultural and historical treatments of
this topic.
Please send abstracts to Gail Aw at [log in to unmask] by 15th September.
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Associational Reading: Libraries, Reading Societies, and Book Clubs in
the Eighteenth Century"
"Associational Reading" is a term used to describe formal library
activity defined by the association and sociability of the participants.
It is used particularly to distinguish subscription and membership
libraries, book clubs, reading societies and specialist societies that
had libraries (medical societies, law societies, agricultural societies
etc) from other book-lending institutions, especially the commercial
circulating libraries (which were usually owned and managed by a single
profit-oriented entrepreneur) and charitable foundations. Although
profit-driven, commercial circulating libraries sometimes adopted
associational language to promote their ventures many private libraries
facilitating an associational (or at least sociable) form of reading,
lending books to friends, neighbors and relatives in their area. This
panel invites paper that explore various forms of "associational
reading" in the long eighteenth century. Papers may focus on a
particular library, reading club, society or reading group, or may focus
on another aspect of as this phenomenon. Panelists may also wish to
consider the ways that associational reading intersects with issues of
race, class, gender, genre, or commerce. Please send one page abstracts
to Eleanor Shevlin, [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> (or
2006 Columbia, NW, Apt. 42, Washington, DC 20009) by September 15, 2009.
All panelists who are not members of the Bibliographical Society of
America are kindly requested to join before the ASECS meeting in March.
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"The Noble and the Not So Noble Savage in Eighteenth-Century Travel
Writings" Michael J. Mulryan; E-mail: [log in to unmask]
This panel will discuss the European origins of modern stereotypes of
Native Americans, both positive and negative. Of particular interest are
papers that investigate the modern resonance of eighteenth-century
explorers and missionaries' eurocentric depictions of indigenous peoples
in the Americas.
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New Economic Criticism and the 18th century: Ten years later
It has been ten years since M. Woodmansee and M. Osteen edited The New
Economic Criticism: Studies at the Intersection of Literature and
Economics (Routledge, 1999), taking stock of the current state of
scholarship in the field and proposing new ways to explore the fruitful
connections between these two types of discourse. The "economic"
approach has yielded important new contributions for the study of the
18th century novel in England-D. Lynch's Economy of Character or J.
Thompson's Models of Value to name only two examples-but has had less of
an impact on other national traditions. The goal of this panel is thus
two-fold:
- evaluate the current legacy of new economic criticism: how has it
changed our understanding of the representation of credit, consumption,
and other economic matters in the age of the rise of the novel?
- interrogate the usefulness of the theoretical tools offered by
economic criticism in the larger context of 18th century European
fiction: how can we think of the representation of economic questions in
fictional texts and of the confluence of economic and literary discourse
outside of the British context?
Please send one page proposals to [log in to unmask]
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Call for papers
Noise and Sound in the Eighteenth Century
Sorbonne nouvelle, Paris, 11-12 December, 2009
CREA XVIII (EA PRISMES)
This conference will address the topic of noise and sound in the
eighteenth century. By definition, there are no acoustic records from
that period, but texts, both fictional and non-fictional, represent
sound and noise. Voice, not as a metaphor but as an acoustic reality,
will be included, especially as conversation. Conversation, a highly
codified form of exchange, has its own dynamic, with subtle differences
for male and female voices and inflections. Pictures also may represent
noise and sound. Fiction, periodicals, historical discourse construct
domestic and public spaces differently through sound. Texts as diverse
as dictionaries and guides to versification, as well as music, mimic
sounds, no less than specific representations of urban noise. These are
some of the areas which can be investigated.
Summaries (150 to 200 words) are to be sent before 30 September, 2009,
to Isabelle Bour (<[log in to unmask]>), Sorbonne nouvelle,
Institut du monde anglophone, 5 rue de l'Ecole de médecine, 75006 Paris.
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The German Studies Call for Papers List
Editor: Stefani Engelstein
Acting Assistant Editor: Olaf Schmidt
Sponsored by the University of Missouri
Info available at: http://www.missouri.edu/~graswww/resources/gerlistserv.html
