>>This CFP may be of interest to some list members


Helen Chambers

>>Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 09:22:23 +0000
>>From: J Waters <[log in to unmask]>
>>Subject: European Women Writers conference
>>Sender: J Waters <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Reply-To: J Waters <[log in to unmask]>
>>Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>I am helping to organise a conference, on 'Contemporary European
>>Women Writers:
>>Gender and Generation', to be held at the University of Bath from
>>30 March - 1
>>April 2005.
>>If you or any other WIF members know of other lists whose members
>>that might be
>>interested in this conference, please do let me know their details
>>or feel free
>>to forward the call for papers.
>>
>>Many thanks for your help,
>>
>>Julia Waters

Department of European Studies and Modern Languages and Centre for
Women's Studies , University of Bath, UK

International Conference on Contemporary European Women Writers:
  Gender and Generation

Call for Papers

An international conference on Contemporary European Women Writers
will be held at the University of Bath, UK, on 30 March - 1 April
2005, under the overarching theme and title of 'Gender and
Generation'.

There is evidence in the literature of some European countries that
the explosion of women's writing in the 1970s and 1980s has
stimulated the emergence of new generations of women writers in the
1990s and the first decade of the twenty-first century. It is now
time to test out this hypothesis and analyse whether it is applicable
to other European countries too. The aim of this conference is to
explore the legacy of earlier texts by European women and to draw
comparisons and contrasts between different generations of writers.

In view of the reluctance of many female authors to be identified as
'women writers', we will also enquire whether contemporary European
writers regard their gender as a burden, or as valuable and
empowering. Is it a factor of primary importance for them, or does it
exert only a limited influence on their writing?

Within the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages at
Bath there are particularly strong research interests in the
literatures and cultures of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia.
However, we welcome contributions on contemporary women writers of
any European country, including the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Central
and Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Belarus.

We welcome both nation-specific and comparative approaches to women's
writing in Europe in the last 20 years, focusing particularly on
contemporary writers and the changes that have occurred during the
period in question. Areas of particular interest include:

* Legacies, influences, and/or contrasts and conflicts between women
writers of different generations
                * Feminist, non-feminist or post-feminist writing?
                * Women writers' response to social and political change
        * Mothers and daughters, mothers and sons
* The treatment of certain themes by women writers: time, memory,
sexuality, maternity, education and personal development, female
friendship, relationships with men, children and family members,
women's issues, illness, suffering and death, women and work, women
and violence, women and war
* The female body, women's psychology and spirituality
                * Race, ethnicity, immigration and emigration
                * Women's representations of men and the masculine
        * The relationship between literature and theory in specific countries
* Genre and style in women's writing: autobiography, lyric poetry,
prose genres, =E9criture f=E9minine, imagery, mythology

We will be inviting prominent women writers to the conference to
discuss their own work and ideas. The well-known Italian writer
=46rancesca Sanvitale has already confirmed her attendance.

We aim to produce a collection (or most probably several) collections
of articles on the subject of women's writing in individual European
countries and Europe as a whole.

Whilst we are currently seeking funding to pay for the travelling and
accommodation expenses of invited writers and keynote speakers,
please bear in mind that no funds are likely to be available to cover
the cost of other delegates' attendance at the conference.

Please send proposed paper titles and abstracts of about 150 words by
30 June 2004 to [log in to unmask]

        Conference committee: Adalgisa Giorgio
                                Rosalind Marsh
                                Julia Waters



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--
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Prof.Helen Chambers
Department of German
The University
St Andrews KY16 9PH
Tel 01334 463659
=46ax 01334 463677