Symposium: New Approaches to the Victorian Short Story (7/4/2013)

Symposium: “New Approaches to the Victorian Short Story”

Thursday, July 4, 2013

University of Birmingham

This symposium aims to address the lack of critical attention that the Victorian short story has received by bringing together academics working on different aspects of the form. Owing to the popularity of the periodical press, the genre flourished throughout the period; Dickens, Gaskell, Collins, Eliot and James as well as lesser-known authors all produced short stories. The limitations of the form allowed for a degree of experimentation, which may have been too much of a commercial risk in a full-length work. As John Bowen writes, “The short story is in many ways a marginal form, which often takes marginal or outlaw figures as its central concern. It troubles itself, and thus its readers, with remarkable or strange events, with the inexplicable, disorderly or queer.” We aim to start a critical conversation regarding the nature and functions of the short story genre within the larger context of Victorian literature.

For more details please see  ':http://jimmussell.com/2013_new_approaches_programme.pdf. For inquiries, contact Lizzie Ludlow (e.ludlow@bham.ac.uk) or Maddie Wood (madeleine.wood@brunel.ac.uk).

Reminder: Essay Collection on Thomas Hardy’s Short Stories (9/7/2012)

Hardy’s short stories have had little attention as compared to his novels and poetry. Therefore, I am organizing a volume of previously unpublished essays and seek articles of 6,000 to 8,000 words on any aspect of Hardy’s short stories which help deepen our understanding of his use of the genre. Proposals may address a story individually or the stories as collected in the volumes Wessex Tales (1888), A Group of Noble Dames (1891), Life’s Little Ironies (1894), A Changed Man (1913).

Key themes and topics might include:

Implications of periodical publication;

Readership of individual stories and/or collected stories;

Use of sensationalism;

Use of humor;

Emphasis on class and cultural issues;

Importance of music;

Gender relations;

Use of setting;

Use of supernatural, mystery, mythical aspects;

Use of religion;

Emphasis on community relations and mores;

Use of narrative form

Please send proposals of up to 500 words, for articles of between 6,000-8,000 words, by 7 September 2012 to Juliette B. Schaefer: schaefej@ohiodominican.edu Ohio Dominican University (614) 251-4667. Proposals should include the article’s working title, the author’s academic affiliation, and a 100-word biography.

Inquiries are welcome. I will aim to inform authors that they have been selected for the volume by the second week of October.