CALL FOR PAPERS

One session on Early Modern Women co-sponsored by: The Society for the Study of Early Modern Women, Convivium, and Ashgate Publishing, for the 39th International Congress on Medieval Studies meeting in Kalamazoo, Michigan on May 6-9, 2004. Deadline for abstracts: September 15. We encourage earlier submissions.

Gender and Oral Traditions in Early Modern Literary Texts

Works by numerous early modern authors, such as Shakespeare and Spenser, demonstrate a heavy debt to oral practices and traditions, often transmitted by female caretakers in the childhood. Recent work by Marina Warner and Robert Darnton provide new and deeply social perspectives on this culture. This session foregrounds the cultural presence of those--especially lower class women--often marginalized in contemporary criticism. Papers should connect oral traditions, especially those inflected by gender, and literary texts. Traditions may include but are not limited to oral tales, ballads, and folk practices.

Reading time for papers should be no more than twenty minutes. Participants may submit an abstract only to one session in a given year. Requests for any equipment must be submitted with the abstract. Please include home & office phone numbers, fax number, complete mailing address (home and office), and e-mail address along with your abstract.

Submitting by e-mail: please send abstracts to the following three e-mail addresses listed below. Because of various incompatible software programs, please paste your abstract rather than attaching it.

Submitting by snail mail: please send abstracts to all three: