The Victorian Popular Fiction Association
6th Annual Conference,
Institute of English Studies, London
Deadline: April 4, 2014
Keynote Speaker: Dr Jonathon Shears (Keele), ‘“[...] battered [...] soiled [...] broken [...] empty [...] half-smoked [...] stale”: The Hangover in Victorian Popular Fiction’.
CFP: Victorian Treasures and Trash
The Victorian Popular Fiction Association conference is recognised as an important event on the annual conference circuit and offers a friendly and invigorating opportunity for established academics and post graduate students to share their current research. We remain committed to the revival of interest in understudied popular writers which is pivotal to the reputation this conference has established.
The organisers invite a broad, imaginative and interdisciplinary interpretation of the topic and its relation to any aspect of Victorian popular literature and culture which might address literal or metaphorical representations of the theme.
We welcome proposals for 20 minute papers, or for panels of three papers, on topics which can include, but are not limited to:
- Treasures and Trash in: the home, the street, the store, the library, the gutter, the island, the workhouse, the factory, etc.
- Print culture and the literary marketplace: ‘trash’ fiction, high/low culture, taste, fashion, rarity, cheap editions, fine editions, ‘specials’, royalties, contracts, collectors, etc.
- Treasure: buried, hoarded, displayed, collected, traded, neglected, etc.
- Waste: scrap/s, refuse, recycling, reclamation, that which is/those who are discarded/unwanted, the abandoned, etc.
- Dirt: gossip, scandal, degeneracy, decay, cleanliness, healthfulness, godliness, etc.
- Trashed: defaced, vandalised, wasted, defamed, scandalised, denounced, drunk, drugged, etc.
- Industry: the ethics of production, craftsmanship, the cheap, the mass-produced, etc.
- Money: markets, debts/debtors, savings, shares, inheritances, ransoms, fortunes, etc.
- Papers and artefacts: archives, special collections, the museum, the preserved, the priceless, the lost, digitised treasures, etc.
- The Beloved: persons, possessions, memories, moments, etc.
- Values: validity, value/worth, cost, price, morals, family values, etc.
- Things: junk, clutter, paraphernalia, bric-a-brac, curiosities, trinkets, tokens/keepsakes, troves, etc.
- People: fortune-hunters, gold-diggers, prospectors, speculators, pirates, con-artists, thieves, beggars, prostitutes, consumers, etc.
Please send proposals of no more than 300 words to Drs. Kirsty Bunting, Janine Hatter and Helena Ifill atvpfamembership@gmail.com. The VPFA 2014 conference website can be found here: http://victorianpopularfiction.org/ and conference registration details will be announced shortly. All speakers must be a member of VPFA to present. To become a member, please visit the website or email vpfamembership@gmail.com for a membership form.