7th March 2009, University of Warwick

CALL FOR PAPERS

In the second half of the 20th century space has become a reference point of cultural debates. Feminist critics have been particularly receptive to the new findings in this field, and set out to explore the specificity of the relationship between gendered subjects and the spaces they inhabit.

This one-day conference invites papers from a range of disciplines, reflecting the scope of contemporary feminist interest in spatial configurations. The conference will address the issue of “how British women writers represent space”, considering questions such as, how do women writers construct literary space? What types of spaces/places are represented in works by women? How are received notions of space/place interpreted, accepted, or contested? How do we theorise the textual spaces in women’s writing?

We welcome papers covering British women’s writing over a period ranging from the mid-19th century to the present. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

~the theory of “separate spheres” and its cultural/literary contestations;
~enclosed places, spaces of confinement;
~“Woman and the City”: the female flâneur;
~feminist dystopias/utopias;
~bodies in space/sexuality and space;
~borders and boundaries, liminality;
~theorising textual spaces through women’s writing;
~the (in)visibility of women’s position on social/cultural/ethnic maps.

Please send a 300-word proposal for 20-minute papers to the conference organisers.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:
Rosa Ainley
(freelance artist and writer, editor of New Frontiers of Space, Bodies and Gender)
Dr. Deborah Parsons (University of Birmingham)
Professor Linda McDowell (St John’s College, Oxford)
Dr. Lynne Walker (University of London)