Reminder: Special Issue of Women's Writing “19thC Women Writers & the Rise of the Bestseller” (9/2/2013)

"'Queens of the Marketplace’: nineteenth-century women writers and the rise of the bestseller"

Guest editors: Clare Clarke & Clare Gill

Women writers occupied a highly significant space in the genealogy of nineteenth-century popular literature, not only because of the extraordinary sales their books achieved, but also in terms of women writers’ role in redefining the parameters of authorship at this time. Some of the bestselling works of the nineteenth century were authored by women: from the sensation novels of Mary Elizabeth Braddon in the 1860s to Marie Corelli’s romances in the 1890s, women writers carved out a lucrative share of the marketplace in the second half of the century. Bestselling works by women cut across literary genres (children’s literature, sensation fiction, detective stories, gothic literature, the romance, religious literature, New Woman fiction, cook books, and journalism), and in terms of audience, bestsellers also cut across social lines too.

The journal Women’s Writing invites papers for a special issue dedicated to the exploration of the diverse role of women writers in the rise of the bestseller in the nineteenth century. How did women writers contribute to the reshaping of authorial practice in the nineteenth century? In what ways did women writers address concerns or anxieties about professional authorship within their work? How was popular fiction by women writers shaped by the contemporary critical response to female bestselling authors? In what ways did female authors contribute to traditionally ‘masculine’ genres – such as the adventure and detective story? How and why did bestsellers by female authors appeal to readers across gender and class lines? In addition to reflecting the complexity and diversity of women writers’ contribution to the bestseller phenomenon in the nineteenth century, this special issue will also endeavour to answer some broader conceptual questions about the study of popular works of fiction and non-fiction. Why do some bestsellers have ephemeral popularity while others enjoy enduring appeal? What can we learn about culture more broadly from the study of bestsellers? How does the separation of popularity and value come about?

We welcome contributions on any nineteenth-century female authors of bestselling popular fiction and non-fiction, particularly overlooked and critically-neglected writers. Possible authors include

• Mrs Henry Wood
• Mary Elizabeth Braddon
• Mrs Humphry Ward
• Florence Marryat
• Charlotte Yonge
• Rhoda Broughton
• Ouida
• Marie Corelli
• Mrs Beeton
• Eliza Lynn Linton

Please submit articles for consideration between 4,000-7000 words to Clare Gill, University of Southampton (c.gill@soton.ac.uk) or Clare Clarke, Trinity College Dublin (clarkc11@tcd.ie) by Monday 2 September 2013. 

Contributors should follow the journal’s house style details of which are to be found on the Women’s Writing web site http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/0999082.asp. This is the new MLA. Do note that instead of footnotes, we use endnotes with NO bibliography. All bibliographical information is included in the endnotes. For example, we require place of publication, publisher and date of publication in brackets after a book is cited for the first time.

Last Call: special issue of Women's Writing (5/1/2013)

We seek 2-3 additional essays for a special issue of Women’s Writing on Nineteenth-Century Australian and New Zealand Girls’ Culture.

Colonial girls’ culture is receiving growing critical attention, prompting us to rethink its significance for women’s writing. The journal Women’s Writing invites original papers for a special issue dedicated to the colonial girl and her literature in nineteenth-century Australia.

What was it like to be a girl at “the antipodes” in the nineteenth century? How was the colonial girl constructed, both “back home” and throughout the British Empire, and how did she view and represent herself? Was there a distinctly “antipodal,” Australian, or New Zealand girls’ culture and in what ways did it parallel, overlap with, influence, and in turn, become influenced by constructions of girlhood in other parts of the Empire? How did antipodal girls’ culture harness and redefine imperialist ideologies and their malleable relationship to domesticity? In what ways did their literary representation not only mould imperialist representations, but help to shape nineteenth-century literature in English in general, including children’s and especially popular girls’ fiction, which was emerging as a distinct genre in the course of the century? These are some of the questions that individual articles will be addressing. The colonial girl’s changing depiction in Victorian culture at the same time raises larger issues about the representation of the antipodes in British and colonial texts. A new look at colonial girlhood constructively draws into question the still dominating discourses on male mateship, for example. In addition, it helps us to reassess the wide range of genres that constituted nineteenth-century Australian and New Zealand literature and read them in tandem with similar cultural formations.

This special issue aims to create a forum for a more encompassing approach to nineteenth-century Australian and New Zealand literature, while providing new insight into Victorian representations of girlhood and how the figure of the colonial girl helped change these representations.

• Topics may include but are not limited to:
• Colonial girlhood and its literary representation
• The construction of colonial girls’ culture
• Australian girls’ magazines and periodicals
• “The antipodes” in both British and colonial girls’ publications
• Colonial children’s literature and writing for girls
• Individual authors and their works
• Comparative approaches

Please submit papers for consideration between 4000-7000 words to Tamara S. Wagner at tswagner_at_ntu.edu.sg, by 1 May 2013.

Contributors should follow the journal’s house style details of which are to be found on the Women’s Writing web site http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/09699082.asp

This is the new MLA. Please note that instead of footnotes, we use endnotes with NO bibliography. All bibliographical information is included in the endnotes. For example, we require place of publication, publisher and date of publication in brackets after a book is cited for the first time. Please also include an abstract, a brief biographical blurb (approximately 100 words), and a key of 6 words suitable for indexing and abstracting services.

CFP: Special Issue of Women's Writing “C19th Women Writers & the Rise of the Bestseller” (9/2/2013)

'Queens of the Marketplace’: nineteenth-century women writers and the rise of the bestseller'

Guest editors: Clare Clarke & Clare Gill

Women writers occupied a highly significant space in the genealogy of nineteenth-century popular literature, not only because of the extraordinary sales their books achieved, but also in terms of women writers’ role in redefining the parameters of authorship at this time. Some of the bestselling works of the nineteenth century were authored by women: from the sensation novels of Mary Elizabeth Braddon in the 1860s to Marie Corelli’s romances in the 1890s, women writers carved out a lucrative share of the marketplace in the second half of the century. Bestselling works by women cut across literary genres (children’s literature, sensation fiction, detective stories, gothic literature, the romance, religious literature, New Woman fiction, cook books, and journalism), and in terms of audience, bestsellers also cut across social lines too.

The journal Women’s Writing invites papers for a special issue dedicated to the exploration of the diverse role of women writers in the rise of the bestseller in the nineteenth century. How did women writers contribute to the reshaping of authorial practice in the nineteenth century? In what ways did women writers address concerns or anxieties about professional authorship within their work? How was popular fiction by women writers shaped by the contemporary critical response to female bestselling authors? In what ways did female authors contribute to traditionally ‘masculine’ genres – such as the adventure and detective story? How and why did bestsellers by female authors appeal to readers across gender and class lines? In addition to reflecting the complexity and diversity of women writers’ contribution to the bestseller phenomenon in the nineteenth century, this special issue will also endeavour to answer some broader conceptual questions about the study of popular works of fiction and non-fiction. Why do some bestsellers have ephemeral popularity while others enjoy enduring appeal? What can we learn about culture more broadly from the study of bestsellers? How does the separation of popularity and value come about?

We welcome contributions on any nineteenth-century female authors of bestselling popular fiction and non-fiction, particularly overlooked and critically-neglected writers. Possible authors include:

• Mrs Henry Wood
• Mary Elizabeth Braddon
• Mrs Humphry Ward
• Florence Marryat
• Charlotte Yonge
• Rhoda Broughton
• Ouida
• Marie Corelli
• Mrs Beeton
• Eliza Lynn Linton

Please submit articles for consideration between 4,000-7000 words to Clare Gill, University of Southampton (c.gill@soton.ac.uk) or Clare Clarke, Trinity College Dublin (clarkc11@tcd.ie) by Monday 2 September 2013. 

Contributors should follow the journal’s house style details of which are to be found on the Women’s Writing web site http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/0999082.asp. This is the new MLA. Do note that instead of footnotes, we use endnotes with NO bibliography. All bibliographical information is included in the endnotes. For example, we require place of publication, publisher and date of publication in brackets after a book is cited for the first time.

Reminder: Special Issue of Women's Writing: Re-evaluating Dinah Mulock Craik (2/1/2012)

Special Issue of Women's Writing: Re-evaluating Dinah Mulock Craik
Guest Editor: Karen Bourrier, Consulting Editor: Sally Mitchell

Throughout her lifetime and since her death, Dinah Mulock Craik (1826-1887) has been considered either ahead of her time or a touchstone for all things Victorian. Henry James, for example, assessed her work as “kindly, somewhat dull, pious, and very sentimental.” At the other end of the spectrum, Elaine Showalter found that she excelled at a “peculiar combination of didacticism and subversive feminism.”1

This special issue of Women's Writing seeks to re-evaluate Dinah Mulock Craik's life and work, moving beyond assessments of her work as either too sentimental or subversive. Recent scholarship on Craik has contributed new contexts to the appreciation of her work. The rise of disability studies has spurred scholars to re-consider the role of invalids in Craik's work, and her complicated relationships with Ireland and Scotland have led to a re-evaluation of the role of the nation in her novels. Her personal involvement in and fictional treatment of controversial topics such as adoption and the Deceased Wife's Sister's Act, along with her widely-cited series of essays, “A Woman's Thoughts on Women,” continue to act as a touchstone for scholars considering women's roles in Victorian family life. This issue aims to interrogate what was idiosyncratic in her views and writings and what was more representative of Victorian thought, in order to gain a fuller understanding of her work and multi-faceted career.

Topics might include but are by no means limited to:

• Craik and disability
• Craik and nationality
• Craik and marriage / adoption
• re-evaluating the woman writer's career
• Craik's posthumous reputation
• Craik and children's literature
• the twentieth-century reception of Craik's work
• Craik's relationships with other women writers; women's systems of mentorship
• Craik's relationships with male publishers and artists
• transatlantic publishing strategies and Craik's American audience
• Craik and the periodical publishing system
• Craik as poet
• Craik and class

Please submit articles of 4,000 to 7,000 words for consideration to the Guest Editor, Dr. Karen Bourrier, University of Western Ontario, karen.bourrier@gmail.com, by 1 February 2012.

Contributors should follow the journal’s house style, details of which are available on the Women’s Writing web site http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/womenswriting.

1See Henry James, “A Noble Life” in Notes and Reviews, Cambridge: Dunster House: 1921, page 172. Elaine Showalter. “Dinah Mulock Craik and the Tactics of Sentiment: A Case Study in Victorian Female Authorship” in Feminist Studies, 2:2/3 (1975), page 6.