2007/08 Programme
Saturday 22nd September 2007, Senate House, North Block Room NG14:
Ana Vogrincic, “ Gossip in Eighteenth-Century England: Between Literature and Sociability,” 2:00pm.
ABSTRACT: In my paper, I will talk about gossip in the context of the18th-century English society and literature, notably in the relation to the neglected subgenre of so called 'novels of circulation', focusing on Francis Coventry's "Pompey the Little, or The Life and Adventures of a Lap-Dog" (1751). Presenting the politics and poetics of gossip in Pompey the Little, I will be looking at the concept as a socio-historical phenomenon, but also reflect on what it does within the text, i.e. how it works as a literary device.
Linda Bree, “ Editing Jane Austen's Manuscripts,” 3:00pm.ABSTRACT: Linda Bree is co-editing, with Janet Todd, the 'Later Manuscripts' volume in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen. She discusses some of the challenges involved in the editing process, and how studying the manuscripts adds a new dimension to scholarly appreciation of the work of one of Britain's most famous writers.
Saturday 24th November 2007, Stewart House, Second Floor, Room ST273:
Megan Woodworth, " 'If a man dared act for himself': Cecilia, Masculine Virtue, and the American Revolutionary War", 2:00pm.
Emma Clery, “Jane Austen's Men,” 3:00pm.
ABSTRACT: This paper will have nothing to do with Mr Darcy’s shirt or flirting with Tom Lefroy. Instead, I’ll be suggesting that each of the novels contains a plot of male vocation that works in conjunction with the romance plot and that, paradoxically, Austen dramatically and innovatively elides the male ‘point of view’. I also hope to show that focusing on the men in her life and work offers a new way of understanding the historical nature of her fiction.
Saturday 19th January 2007, Senate House, North Block Room NG14:(Times may move forward slightly - please check again closer to date)
Margaret Thomas, “The Changing Critical Fortunes of Frances Burney: Introductions to Selected Editions of the Novels" 2:00pm.
ABSTRACT: I aim to examine the introductory material to editions of Burney's three novels published during the eighteenth century. I will consider how the original editions were prefaced, changes in Burney's reputation reflected in nineteenth and early twentieth century introductions to editions, and the impact of feminist critical interest on introductions to the novels since 1958.
Sara Read, “'A Difficulty beyond Human Understanding': The Medical Debate Surrounding Menstruation in Early Modern England,” 3:00pm.
ABSTRACT: An outline of the fierce intertextual debate which took place in the early-modern era which attempted to theorize and explain how and why women menstruated.
Darren Oldridge, "Mother Shipton and the Devil", 4:00pm.
ABSTRACT: This paper explores the demonisation of the Yorkshire prophetess in seventeenth-century popular literature. This touches on early modern attitudes towards gender, witchcraft and the Devil.
Saturday 5th April 2008:
WSG Annual Workshop, Room 273 Stewart House, University of London
The 2008 workshop will be on the theme of MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. Our Keynote Speakers, Marie Mulvey-Roberts and Joanna Goldsworthy, will give a paper entitled "Goddesses of Reason and their Daughters: Mary Wollstonecraft, Anna Wheeler, Mary Shelley and Rosina Bulwer Lytton". For further information, please see our Annual Workshop page.
Saturday 24th May 2007 [Note: this is a provisional date]
The outing for this year will be to the National Portrait Gallery exhibition: “Brilliant Women: Eighteenth-Century Bluestockings,” with a curator’s tour.
Details and call for participants to come at a later date.