Many Happy Returns: The Anniversary in Victorian Britain
A Joint Panel of the Victorian Studies Association of Ontario (VSAO) & the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English Conference (ACCUTE)
Toronto, Ontario
27-30 May 2017
On the occasion of its own fiftieth anniversary, the Victorian Studies Association of Ontario invites proposals for the 2017 ACCUTE Conference that address the topic of anniversaries in and of Victorian culture. Literary representations of anniversaries and annual commemorations range from the mournful to the joyous and even laughable: Tennyson’s contemplation of Hallam’s absence every Christmas, Esther Summerson’s “most melancholy” childhood birthdays, triumphal Jubilee poetry, and Alice’s 364 un-birthdays. They describe a cultural space for the exercise of individual and collective memory, different practices of counting, religious and secular rituals, and totems of personal, national, and imperial devotion. Proposals might also consider the memorializing of events within literary works or the memorializing of literary works as events, or offer a retrospective analysis of a Victorian work on its anniversary.
The panel organizers invite prospective panelists to interpret the topic broadly and imaginatively, and especially welcome papers adopting an interdisciplinary approach. Papers might address:
Questions and submissions should be sent to: VSAOatACCUTE@gmail.com. Please submit the following as separate attachments by 1 November 2016:
Speakers must be members of VSAO and ACCUTE at the time of the conference. The second oldest Victorian studies association in the world, the VSAO welcomes new members from universities, libraries, museums – all those who share an interest in Victorian culture. For more information about the VSAO, please visit http://vsao.apps01.yorku.ca.