Victorian Popular Fiction Association’s 11th Annual Conference
‘Mind, Matter(s), Spirit: Forms of Knowledge in Victorian Popular Fiction and Culture’
8-10 July 2019, Institute of English Studies, Senate House, London
Keynote: Chris Louttit, ‘Capturing the Spirit of Bohemia: The Life of the Artist in 1860s Popular Fiction’
Keynote: Beth Palmer, ‘Sensation Fiction and the Theatre: Braddon, Boucicault and Matters of Adaptation’
Keynote: Christopher Pittard, ‘Vanishing Points: Sidney Paget, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Sherlock Holmes’
Exhibition: ‘Late-Victorian & Edwardian Paperback Fiction’, curated by John Spiers
Reading Group: ‘Altered States of Mind and Body’, hosted by James Green and Henry Bartholomew
Call for Papers
The Victorian Popular Fiction Association is dedicated to fostering interest in understudied popular writers, literary genres and other cultural forms, and to facilitating the production of publishable research and academic collaborations amongst scholars of the popular.
The organisers invite a broad, imaginative and interdisciplinary interpretation on the topic of ‘Mind, Matter(s), Spirit: Forms of Knowledge in Victorian Popular Fiction and Culture’ 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, panels of three papers affiliated with an organisation or a group of scholars and non-traditional papers/panels, on topics which can include, but are not limited to:
- Altered states of mind, drugs, séances etc.
- Truth, secrets and lies; different perspectives (sex, gender, race/ethnicity, class, profession)
- Mind over matter: resistance, heroics, resilience
- Physical matter: material culture, objects and things, thing theory
- Geography matters: transport, place and space, organisations, institutions and buildings
- Exploration, mapping, urban and imperial knowledge
- Illness of the mind and body, including disability studies
- Household matters: economics and budgets, food, family life, scandals
- Business matters: global economy, trade, partners, shipping, deals
- Spiritual matters: different religions and practices
- Educational matters: school system, education, teachers/teaching, education Acts
- Archival matters: collections, museums, personal papers
- Genre matters: transforming genres, writing practices, co-authorship, publishing practices, syndication, neo-Victorianism
- Historical matters: reforms, parliamentary Acts, debates, events
- Interdisciplinary approaches to Victorian popular fiction and culture
- Teaching Victorian popular fiction and culture
Special topic panels: following our successful formula, we are continuing the special panels which will be hosted by guest experts; therefore we especially welcome papers about the following topics:
Topic 1: ‘The Spirit of Exploration in Victorian Popular Fiction’ hosted by Minna Vouhelainen
Topic 2: ‘Matters of the Mind in Victorian Popular Fiction’ hosted by Valerie Fehlbaum
Topic 3: ‘Matters of the Home in Victorian Popular Fiction’ hosted by Jessica Cox
Please send proposals of no more than 300 words, a 50 word biography and your availability over the conference dates in Word format to Drs Janine Hatter, Helena Ifill, Jane Jordan and Erin Louttit at: vpfainfo@gmail.com
Deadline for proposals: Friday 1st March 2019
Website: http://victorianpopularfiction.org/vpfa-annual-conference/