Manifesting Literary Feminisms

This conference brings together and honours two of the foremost feminist literary scholars in the United States and Australia: Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Susan Sheridan. Both have investigated the gravity of history and possible strategies through which the cultural agency of women writers might be made manifest against and within regimes of social power. For Rachel Blau DuPlessis, this necessitates a writing and reading otherhow. For Susan Sheridan, it means exploring the faultlines of how writers might simultaneously work within and against conventions. Their work investigates strategies by which feminist critics might better consider the affiliations and intersections, as well as the disjunctions and differences between women cultural producers, especially writers. The impetus toward cultural change that informed the women’s movement also remains central to their thinking. This conference seeks to provide a forum in which genealogies of literary feminism, locally, nationally, and globally, might be articulated. It seeks to attract papers that focus on innovative feminist practice in literature and its criticism. We particularly invite papers that focus on the Australian context or on transnational literary and theoretical exchange.

As a special feature of this conference, Manifesting Literary Feminisms will include two special topic seminars: Feminist Experimentalism, and Postcolonialism and Literary Feminism. Seminar participants write brief ‘position papers’ (5-7 pages) that are circulated and read two weeks prior to the conference. With no more than 15 participants, the seminars aim to generate lively exchange and to produce networks of feminist scholars who may continue to work together beyond the conference. The format also allows most conference attendees to seek financial support from their institutions. Seminars are 2 hours in length.

Conference papers are 20 minutes in length. To submit a proposal for the conference or to register interest in seminar participation, please forward a 200-300 word abstract and brief biographical note as an email attachment to either Margaret Henderson (m.henderson@uq.edu.au) or Ann Vickery (ann.vickery@arts.monash.edu.au).

Selected papers from Manifesting Literary Feminisms will be published in a special book-length issue of Australian Literary Studies in 2008.

Deadline for submissions of proposals: 16 July 2007
Notification of acceptance: 1 August 2007