Call for Papers
for the 23rd Annual
Nineteenth Century Studies Association Conference
“ Feasts and Famine”
New Orleans, March 6-9, 2003
What theme could be more appropriate for a conference in New Orleans,
the city inextricably linked with Mardi Gras and fine food? Dickens is
but one of many 19th century writers who created both heartrending
stories of poverty and hunger and convivial scenes of eating,
drinking, and making merry. Much of the century’s real feasting took
place under huge still lives of luscious fruits or dead game. Dances,
music, and theatrical entertainments were as relevant to feasts as
dress, manners, and fêtes for travelers abroad. The technological
revolution in the 19th century changed the production, availability,
preparation, and consumption of food, as well as affecting where and
when one could eat. The railroad promoted cheap day excursions to the
beach and into the countryside, while the steamship and the spreading
power of the British Empire made tea from China, India, and Ceylon a
staple of British society, creating a market for other commodities
like tea gowns, tea sets, and cucumber sandwiches. Barons of industry
on either side of the Atlantic adopted a life of opulence that
dramatized the link between class and conspicuous consumption.
Disraeli’s famous reference to Queen Victoria’s sovereignty over
“Two Nations” characterized a world truth. The new wealth
generated by industrialization depended upon cheap labor, workers
whose bodies and souls were “eaten” by greedy capitalists and
voracious machinery. Philosophers, economists, moralists, and popular
writers debated the merits and effects of public versus private
agencies for social relief and philanthropy. The tropes of excess and
scarcity are found in such contrasting topics as the century’s music
criticism and the enduring fascination with vampirism from James
Malcolm Rymer’s early Varney the Vampire, or the Feast of Blood, to
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). Real starvation marked “The Hungry
Forties,” most famously with the Irish famine, while anorexia
nervosa was first labeled in 1873 as a recognizable phenomenon by
French and British doctors. The hunger for education created a market
for self-help manuals, inspired the establishment of Mechanics’
Institutes, and fueled the Women’s Movement. “Feasts and Famine”
invites conference papers from all disciplines.
One-page proposals, single-spaced, for 20-minute papers should be
accompanied by a 1-2 page c.v. Proposals for a 90-minute panel should
include (1) a cover letter from the panel organizer, indicating format
and title of proposed session; (2) one-page proposal; and (3) 1-2 page
c.v. from each participant. Email or mail proposals simultaneously to
the Conference Program Co-Chairs: Dr. Marilyn Kurata <[log in to unmask]>
Dept. of English, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL
35294-1260 and Dr. Elizabeth Winston <[log in to unmask]> Dept. of
English, The University of Tampa, Tampa, FL 33606-1490. Proposals and
required accompanying materials must be postmarked by October 15,
2002. Decisions will be announced by December 2002.
The conference site will be The Pontchartrain Hotel
<www.pontchartrainhotel.com>. Specific information on reservations and
rates will be sent later. Local Arrangements Director is Dr. Nancy Fix
Anderson <[log in to unmask]> Dept. of History, Loyola University New
Orleans, Campus Box 65, 6363 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA
70118-6195.
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