Last year, I posted the titles of all the papers on British Literature that were presented at MLA 2003.
This year, I’m doing it again. Why? Because people in the press and in the blogosphere tend to pull out a few paper titles, argue that they’re silly or worthless, and then imply first that most of the papers at MLA are silly or worthless and second that contemporary scholarship in language and literature is.
It makes for amusing commentary.
But not only is such commentary intellectually shallow (mocking paper titles? please); it’s demonstrably wrong. As I wrote last year, the majority of papers presented at MLA are “the kind of interesting work one would expect scholars of language and literature to be doing.”
British Literature: General
61. Class and Clan in Early Modernism
Program arranged by the Division on Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Andrew Enda Duffy, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara
1. ìStationed in the Elsewhere: Colonial Spectrality in British Fiction, 1880ñ1920,î Bishnupriya Ghosh, Univ. of California, Davis
2. ìDownsizing ëThe Great Divideí: Reconsidering Class in the Modernist Movement,î Lois Cucullu, Univ. of Minnesota, Twin Cities
3. ìClan, Class, and the Rise of the Modern,î Vincent P. Pecora, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
4. ìMigration Aesthetics: The Celtic Revival, Immigration, and the Atlantic Turbine,î Andrew Enda Duffy
385. Women Theorizing Notoriety: England, 1558-1830
A special session
Session leader: Mihoko Suzuki, Univ. of Miami
1. ìëThe Passioníd Mindí: Criminal and Pious Desires in Anne Lockís Sonnets,î Mary E. Trull, Saint Olaf Coll.
2. ìAphra Behnís Heroism,î Carol Lea Howard, Warren Wilson Coll.
3. ìThe Muff Affair: Fashioning Celebrity in the Portraits of Sarah Siddons and Mary Wells,î Laura T. Engel, Duquesne Univ.
4. ìAuthorship and Libertine Celebrity: Harriette Wilsonís Regency Memoirs,î Lisa M. OíConnell, Univ. of Queensland
For copies of abstracts, write to Mary Trull by 20 Dec. 2004 or visit www.stolaf.edu/people/trull.
461. The Nineties and the Decadents
Program arranged by the Division on Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Marjorie Howes, Boston Coll.
1. ìThe Picture That Failed; or, The Light of Dorian Gray,î David Faulkner, State Univ. of New York, Cortland
2. ìOut of Stays: Kate Chopin and American Local Fiction in the 1890s,î Bradley W. Evans, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
3. ìDecadence, Cosmopolitanism, and Globalization,î Regenia Gagnier, Univ. of Exeter
544. Mind the Gap: Body, Brain, or Between?
Program arranged by the Division on Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Jessica Burstein, Univ. of Washington, Seattle
1. ìëSandow the Magnificentí: The Machine-Body at the Turn of the Century,î Jacqueline E. Brady, Kingsborough Community Coll., City Univ. of New York
2. ìAnalysis as Obsession; or, Thinking Too Much about One Thing,î Lennard J. Davis, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
3. ìWireless,î Richard Menke, Univ. of Georgia
Respondent: Pamela Thurschwell, Univ. Coll. London
British Literature: Old and Middle English
43. Moral Chaucer
Program arranged by the Division on Chaucer
Presiding: Eve Salisbury, Western Michigan Univ.
1. ìThe Parsonís Predilection for Pleasure,î Nicole D. Smith, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
2. ìCuriosityís Fall: The Millerís Tale and Anti-Intellectualism,î Richard Newhauser, Trinity Univ.
3. ìëYpokrephumí and the Morality of Divine Wrath,î Mary Dzon, Univ. of British Columbia
132. Arthurian Audiences
Program arranged by the Discussion Group on Arthurian Literature
Presiding: Rupert T. Pickens, Univ. of Kentucky
1. ìThe In-Text Audience in Sir Thomas Maloryís Le Morte díArthur,î Kelly E. Nutter, Univ. of Delaware, Newark
2. ìA Womanís Castle Is Her Home: Matthew Arnoldís Iseut of Brittany and the End of the Domestic Fairy Tale,î Ingrid K. Ranum, Concordia Univ., IL
3. ìWill the Real/Reel King Arthur Please Stand Up?î Roslyn Blyn-LaDrew, Univ. of Pennsylvania
183. Finding the Words: Old English Texts and Contexts
Program arranged by the Division on Old English Language and Literature
Presiding: John D. Niles, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
1. ìScribesí and Booksmithsí Verses: ëNewí Old English Poetic Texts and Scribal Wisdom,î Thomas A. Bredehoft, Univ. of Northern Colorado
2. ìMetod: An Anglo-Saxon Death Deity,î Lawrence P. Morris, Univ. of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Coll.
3. ìAttending to Dialect: A Rationale for A Handbook of Old English Dialects,î Christopher M. Cain, Towson Univ.
255. What Does a Doctoral Student Want?
Program arranged by the Division on Middle English Language and Literature, Excluding Chaucer
Presiding: Christina Marie Fitzgerald, Univ. of Toledo
Speakers: George Thomas Edmondson, Dartmouth Coll.
Cara M. Hersh, Duke Univ.
Dorothy Kim, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
Rebekah Long, Duke Univ.
Pearl S. Ratunil, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
352. Sight and Spectacle in Anglo-Saxon England
Session leader: Roy M. Liuzza, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville
1. ìExperiencing the World through the Word: Ekphrasis and Aldhelmís Latin Riddles,î Susan L. Crane, State Univ. of New York, Stony Brook
2. ìBody Politics: Saints, Spectacle, and the Cult of Relics in Anglo-Saxon England,î Shari L. Horner, Shippensburg Univ.
3. ìScene and the Seen in Juliana,î Allen J. Frantzen, Loyola Univ., Chicago
388. Outlaws and Out-of-Law
Program arranged by the Division on Middle English Language and Literature, Excluding Chaucer
Presiding: Geraldine G. N. Heng, Univ. of Texas, Austin
1. ìRobin Hood, Performing Criminality, and the Economic Politics of Late Medieval England,î Kimberly A. Thompson, Ohio State Univ., Columbus
2. ìAlternative Chivalry in Froissartís Account of the Free Companies,î Gerald R. Nachtwey, Loyola Univ., Chicago
3. ìTrue Labor, Bad Bodies,î Kellie Paige Robertson, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh
471. Church, State, and History
Program arranged by the Division on Old English Language and Literature
Presiding: Allen J. Frantzen, Loyola Univ., Chicago
1. ìEditing the Law and the Rationale of Memory: Alfred to Today,î Kathleen McFadden Davis, Princeton Univ.
2. ìFashioning History in Anglo-Saxon England: Abraham and the Northmen in Genesis,î Heide R. Estes, Monmouth Univ.
3. ìReading Repetition in Beowulf,î Jacqueline Ann Stodnick, Univ. of Texas, Arlington
487. Old Age
Program arranged by the Division on Middle English Language and Literature, Excluding Chaucer
Presiding: Susannah Mary Chewning, Union County Coll., NJ
1. ìëI Might Not Play No Playí: The Old Joseph, Performance Anxiety, and Masculinity in Medieval Drama,î Christina Marie Fitzgerald, Univ. of Toledo
2. ìGower in Winter: Last Poems,î R. F. Yeager, Univ. of West Florida
3. ìëA Woman in Great Ageí: Margery Kempe, Book II,î David John Wallace, Univ. of Pennsylvania
533. Chaucer and the Politics of Literary Form
Program arranged by the Division on Chaucer
Presiding: H. Marshall Leicester, Jr., Univ. of California, Santa Cruz
1. ìUnhomely Chaucer,î Gerald O. Egan, California State Univ., Long Beach
2. ìCounsel, Confession, and Inquisition in the Tale of Melibee,î Jamie Taylor, Univ. of Pennsylvania
3. ìAristocratic Formalism and Self-Ravishment in the Knightís Tale,î Mark Miller, Univ. of Chicago
585. Chaucer and the Lyric
Program arranged by the Division on Chaucer
Presiding: Larry Scanlon, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
1. ìPoems Unwritten: Chaucerís Lyric Abnegations,î Bruce Wood Holsinger, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder
2. ìëTruth,í Twice: Chaucerís Boethian Lyrics and John Shirley,î Maura B. Nolan, Univ. of Notre Dame
3. ìChaucer as the Father of Free Verse,î William A. Quinn, Univ. of Arkansas, Fayetteville
631. Creating Community
Program arranged by the Division on Old English Language and Literature
Presiding: Lisa M. C. Weston, California State Univ., Fresno
1. ìCommunity in Place: Region, Relics, and Reading the Landscape,î Gillian R. Overing, Wake Forest Univ.
2. ìAggression, Frustrated Eroticism, and the Warband in Beowulf,î Frank Battaglia, Coll. of Staten Island, City Univ. of New York
3. ìHeavenly Bodies and Earthly Communities,î RenÈe R. Trilling, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana
British Literature: Renaissance and Elizabethan
41. The Politics of Genre in Renaissance Drama
A special session
Session leader: Zachary Lesser, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana
1. ìMarketplace Miracle Plays,î Adam Zucker, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst
2. ìThe Masque of Docile Readers, Danced by New-Historicist Critics and Revisionist Historians, upon Sundry Occasions, 1975ñ2005,î Lauren Shohet, Villanova Univ.
3. ìTragical-Comical-Pastoral-Colonial,î Zachary Lesser
50. The Index of Tudor Verse: An Introduction
Program arranged by the Division on Literature of the English Renaissance, Excluding Shakespeare
Presiding: John N. King, Ohio State Univ., Columbus
1. ìThe Index of Tudor Verse: A Userís Guide,î Steven William May, Georgetown Coll.
2. ìReading May and Ringler,î Douglas S. Bruster, Univ. of Texas, Austin
72. Medievalism in English Renaissance Literature
A special session
Session leader: Kent Cartwright, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
1. ìChaucer Centos in the ëWyattí Corpus,î David Richard Carlson, Univ. of Ottawa
2. ìëBrutus Albioní and the Afterlife of Saints,î Catherine A. Sanok, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
3. ìThe New World and the Old Religion,î Nancy Warren, Florida State Univ.
Respondent: Deanne Williams, York Univ., Keele
151. The Josephine A. Roberts Forum: English Renaissance Manuscript Miscellanies
Program arranged by the Renaissance English Text Society
Presiding: Carolyn Cassady Kent, Renaissance English Text Soc.
1. ìEditing the Early Modern Miscellany: Examples from the Henry VIII Manuscript and the Devonshire Manuscript,î Raymond G. Siemens, Univ. of Victoria
2. ìHumphrey Coningsby and the Personal Anthologizing of Verse in Elizabethan England,î Arthur F. Marotti, Wayne State Univ.
3. ìThe Holgate Miscellany and Some Related Collections,î Michael Roy Denbo, Bronx Community Coll., City Univ. of New York
Respondent: Steven William May, Georgetown Coll.
302. Spenser and His Irish Contemporaries
Program arranged by the International Spenser Society
Presiding: David J. Baker, Univ. of Hawaiëi, Manoa
1. ìëOne of Their Bards Will Sayí: Beyond Spenserian Ventriloquy,î Patricia Palmer, Univ. of York
2. ìëRime and Reasoní: The Politics of Patronage in Spenserís Ireland,î Richard A. McCabe, Univ. of Oxford, Merton Coll.
3. ìëLittle but Numbersome Burnings and Bitingsí: Spenserís Irish Afterlife, 1633ñ79,î Deana Rankin, Univ. of Cambridge, Girton Coll.
357. Ten Years since Queering the Renaissance
A special session
Session leader: Jonathan Goldberg, Johns Hopkins Univ.
Speakers: Jonathan Goldberg
Richard Rambuss, Emory Univ.
Madhavi Menon, American Univ.
Laurie Shannon, Duke Univ.
Jeffrey A. Masten, Northwestern Univ.
380. Religio-political Imagery in Marlowe: Rome, Babel, and Islam
Program arranged by the Marlowe Society of America
Presiding: Roslyn L. Knutson, Univ. of Arkansas, Little Rock
1. ìVatican-on-Thames: Marlovian Romes and Their Dramatic Uses,î Brett C. Foster, Yale Univ.
2. ìëAs Many Several Languages As I Have Conquered Kingdomsí: Tamburlaine 2 and the Babel Topos,î Per Sivefors, Blekinge Inst. of Tech.
3. ìëSeek Out Another Godheadí: Religious Epistemology and Representations of Islam in Tamburlaine,î Joel E. Slotkin, Stanford Univ.
528. Contemporary Poets and English Renaissance Verse
Program arranged by the Division on Literature of the English Renaissance, Excluding Shakespeare
Presiding: Joseph Foster Loewenstein, Washington Univ.
1. ìëLest . . . the Staffe Should Falle Asunderí: Stanzaic Practices in Early Modern and Modern Poetry,î Heather Dubrow, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
2. ìMechanical Failures: Vaughan, Herbert, Oppen, and the Matter of Metaphysics,î Joseph Anthony Campana, Kenyon Coll.
3. ìCourting God: Donneís Holy Sonnets and Phillipsís ëThe Blue Castrato,íî Christina Anne Pugh, Northwestern Univ.
590. Reading and Writing British Literature in a Transnational Context
Program arranged by the Division on Literature of the English Renaissance, Excluding Shakespeare
Presiding: Susanne Lindgren Wofford, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
1. ìGender, Political Writing, and the French Connection,î Mihoko Suzuki, Univ. of Miami
2. ìThe New Globalism: Transcultural Commerce, Global Systems Theory, and British Sixteenth-Century Literature,î Daniel James Vitkus, Florida State Univ.
3. ìLa Araucana in Ireland,î Barbara Fuchs, Univ. of Pennsylvania
For copies of abstracts, write to Susanne Lindgren Wofford (wofford@wisc.edu) after 15 Nov. 2004.
623. Reading the Fifteenth Century, Writing Literary History
A special session
Session leader: William Kuskin, Univ. of Southern Mississippi
1. ìCaxton, Lydgate, and the Chaucer Canon,î Sarah A. Kelen, Nebraska Wesleyan Univ.
2. ìRecursive Origins: The Development of Literary Authority,î William Kuskin
3. ìShakespeareís Henry VI and the Tragedy of Renaissance Diplomacy,î John Watkins, Univ. of Minnesota, Twin Cities
700. Open Business Meeting of the Renaissance English Text Society
Presiding: Arthur F. Kinney, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst
ìThe Commonplace Book of Sir John Strangways: An Editorís View,î Thomas George Olsen, State Univ. of New York, New Paltz
Respondents: John N. King, Ohio State Univ., Columbus; George W. Williams, Duke Univ.
702. Issues of Literacy and Narrative Strategy in Marlowe
Program arranged by the Marlowe Society of America
Presiding: Bruce Edwin Brandt, South Dakota State Univ.
1. ìëMeanwhile, Peruse This Bookí: Marlowe, Literacy, and the Gutenberg Father,î Douglas A. Brooks, Texas A&M Univ., College Station
2. ìëProfit and Delightí: Locations and Politics of Literacy in Marloweís Doctor Faustus,î Katheryn M. Giglio, Syracuse Univ.
3. ìDesunt Nonnulla: Same-Sex Intimacy and Narrative Outcomes in Hero and Leander,î James M. Bromley, Loyola Univ., Chicago
732. Spenser and the Gods
Program arranged by the International Spenser Society
Presiding: Jeffrey Knapp, Univ. of California, Berkeley
1. ìThinking and the Classical Gods,î Gordon Lloyd Teskey, Harvard Univ.
2. ìDamaged Gods: Spenserís Disarmed Divinities,î Joseph Anthony Campana, Boston Univ.
3. ìëAnd Is There Care in Heaven?í: The Question of the Pagan Gods in The Faerie Queene,î Heather James, Univ. of Southern California
British Literature: Shakespeare
110. The Shakespeare Variorum: From Furness to Cyberspace
Program arranged by the Committee on the New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare
Presiding: Georgianna Ziegler, Folger Shakespeare Library
1. ìThe Philadelphia Variorum,î Richard Alan John Knowles, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
2. ìBook into Data: The Electronic NVS,î Julia H. Flanders, Brown Univ.
215. Presentism and the End of History in Shakespeare Studies
A special session
Session leader: Hugh Grady, Arcadia Univ.
1. ìBringing Home the Bard,î Terence Frederick Hawkes, Univ. of Wales
2. ìShakespeare and the Prospect of Presentism,î Ewan Fernie, Univ. of London, Royal Holloway Coll.
3. ìPresentist Materialist Shakespeare,î Hugh Grady
236. Philosophical Shakespeares: Encounters between Shakespeare and Contemporary Philosophy
Program arranged by the Division on Shakespeare
Presiding: Lowell Gallagher, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
1. ìëTo Close Impossibilitiesí: Circumventing and Saying Not-Knowing,î Ned Lukacher, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
2. ìPlaying the Cook with Titus: Shakespeare in Cascade,î Julian D. Yates, Univ. of Delaware, Newark
465. Thinking with Shakespeare
Program arranged by the Division on Shakespeare
Presiding: Susan Zimmerman, Queens Coll., City Univ. of New York
1. ìShakespeare and Freud,î Christopher Pye, Williams Coll.
2. ìShakespeare contra Benjamin,î Richard Louis Halpern, Johns Hopkins Univ.
3. ìShakespeare with Arendt,î Julia Reinhard Lupton, Univ. of California, Irvine
496. Shakespeare in China
A special session
Session leader: Douglas A. Brooks, Texas A&M Univ., College Station
Speakers: Bi-qi Beatrice Lei, Natl. Tsing Hua Univ.
Timothy Billings, Middlebury Coll.
Andrew D. Schonebaum, Barnard Coll.
Alexander C. Y. Huang, Penn State Univ., University Park
Lingui Yang, Texas A&M Univ., College Station
Respondent: Murray J. Levith, Skidmore Coll.
632. Shakespeare and Humanist Education
Program arranged by the Division on Shakespeare
Presiding: Lynne Magnusson, Univ. of Toronto
1. ìëPetty to [Their] Endsí? Humanist Elementary Pedagogy and Shakespeareís English Lessons,î Gwynn A. Dujardin, Northwestern Univ.
2. ìCopia and Controversia: Rhetorics of Rule and Misrule in The Merchant of Venice,î Linda Suzanne Shenk, Rochester Inst. of Tech.
3. ìProsperoís Rage: The Failure of Humanism in The Tempest,î Richard A. Strier, Univ. of Chicago
British Literature: Seventeenth Century
6. Marvell for the Twenty-First Century
Program arranged by the Division on Seventeenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Annabel M. Patterson, Yale Univ.
1. ìAndrew Marvell, Samuel Parker, and the Rabbis on Proselytes,î Jason Philip Rosenblatt, Georgetown Univ.
2. ìMarvellís Poems after the New Criticism,î Paul J. Alpers, Univ. of California, Berkeley
3. ìMarvellís Horatian Ode and the End of Historicist Criticism,î Gregory G. Machacek, Marist Coll.
221. John Milton: A General Session
Program arranged by the Milton Society of America
Presiding: Charles Wilson Durham, Middle Tennessee State Univ.
1. ìTradition and the Individual Talent: Phillip Pullmanís Paradise Lost,î Lauren Shohet, Villanova Univ.
2. ìIncertitude, Authority, and Miltonís God; or, Was Empson Right after All?î Peter C. Herman, San Diego State Univ.
3. ìHeroic Solitude in Paradise Regainíd,î Thomas H. Luxon, Dartmouth Coll.
260. Seventeenth-Century Women
Program arranged by the Division on Seventeenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Katharine M. Gillespie, American Univ.
1. ìStrange Bedfellows: Arbella Stuart, the King of Scots, and the ëMost Pardonable Presumptioní of Prose,î Elizabeth A. Mazzola, City Coll., City Univ. of New York
2. ìPolluted Palaces: Gender, Sexuality, and Property in Lucy Hutchinsonís Elegies,î Pamela Susanne Hammons, Univ. of Miami
3. ìThe Letters of the Commonwealth: Sarah Wight, Deborah Huish, and the Epistolary Counterpublic,î Catharine Gray, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana
4. ìëAll Science Lyes as Open to a Lady as to a Maní: Damaris Mashamís Egalitarian Philosophy,î Michal Michelson, Bar Ilan Univ.
296. Cash Bar and Dinner Arranged by the Milton Society of America
Program arranged by the Division on Seventeenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: John D. Rogers, Yale Univ.
1. ìLord Herbert of Cherbury and the Ancient Heresy,î Sarah Ellenzweig, Rice Univ.
2. ìBlurred Distinctions about Blasphemy in Mid-Seventeenth-Century England,î Noam Flinker, Univ. of Haifa
3. ìThe War against Heresy in Miltonís England,î David Loewenstein, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
362. Heresy in Seventeenth-Century England
Program arranged by the Division on Seventeenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: John D. Rogers, Yale Univ.
1. ìLord Herbert of Cherbury and the Ancient Heresy,î Sarah Ellenzweig, Rice Univ.
2. ìBlurred Distinctions about Blasphemy in Mid-Seventeenth-Century England,î Noam Flinker, Univ. of Haifa
3. ìThe War against Heresy in Miltonís England,î David Loewenstein, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
392. Donne and Sincerity
Program arranged by the John Donne Society
Presiding: Raymond Jean Frontain, Univ. of Central Arkansas
1. ìëFeigned Devotioní: A True Map of Misreading,î John Thomas Shawcross, Univ. of Kentucky
2. ìDonneís Christian Sophistry,î Gregory Kneidel, Univ. of Connecticut, Hartford
3. ìTo Biathanatos or Not to Biathanatos? John Donne Thinks It Over,î Ernest Walter Sullivan II, Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ.
529. Sites of Early Quaker Identity: Places, Histories, Texts
A special session
Session leader: Michele Lise Tarter, Coll. of New Jersey
1. ìPublicizing the First Publishers of Truth: The Quakersí London ëTavern Chapel,í circa 1650ñ70,î Patricia Crouch, Temple Univ.
2. ìëAll Dissenters Were in Part Partakersí: Quakers and the Politics of New England Memory,î Anne G. Myles, Univ. of Northern Iowa
3. ìWest New Jerseyís Dying Indian: Ockanickonís Deathbed Speech and Transatlantic Quaker Promotional Literature,î Laura M. Stevens, Univ. of Tulsa
710. John Donne Society Open Session
Program arranged by the John Donne Society
Presiding: Jeffrey Johnson, Northern Illinois Univ.
1. ìThe Politics of Courtly and Anticourtly Love Poetry under Elizabeth,î Joshua Eckhardt, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana
2. ìThe Ghost of Conciliarism in Jonn Donneís Ignatius His Conclave,î Anita Gilman Sherman, American Univ.
3. ìëOh My Blacke Soule!í and ëWilt Thou Love God?í: The Charlatan as Foil,î Roberta Albrecht, Bronx, NY
734. Milton and Toleration, Then and Now
Program arranged by the Milton Society of America
Presiding: Elizabeth Mary Sauer, Brock Univ.
1. ìBefore Independency? John Milton in 1641,î Sharon Achinstein, Univ. of Oxford, Saint Edmund Hall
2. ìMilton and the Irish,î Linda K. Gregerson, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
3. ìMilton and the Deists: Charles Blountís Successful Defense of Areopagitican Toleration,î Catherine Gimelli Martin, Univ. of Memphis
British Literature: Restoration and Early Eighteenth Century
330. The World in the Eighteenth-Century City
Presiding: Paula J. McDowell, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
1. ìWomen in Excess: Convents and Colonies in Early-Eighteenth-Century Writing,î Laura Jean Rosenthal, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
2. ìëLike a World in Miniatureí: Representing the World in Eighteenth-Century London,î Alison F. OíByrne, Univ. of York
3. ìMercantile Accumulation and the East India Factory,î Betty Joseph, Rice Univ.
4. ìDown and Out in Indostan: The British in South Asia and the Development of English Literature, 1658ñ1716,î Robert Moss Markley, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana
409. Sex in the Eighteenth-Century City
Program arranged by the Division on Restoration and Early-Eighteenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Lisa A. Freeman, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
1. ìSuing for Rape: Complicity and the Uses of Seduction in Old Bailey Rape Trials, 1700ñ60,î Toni Bowers, Univ. of Pennsylvania
2. ìWorking-Class Sex,î Sally E. OíDriscoll, Fairfield Univ.
3. ìThe Bawdy House Riots and Performative Sexuality,î Katherine M. Romack, Stanford Univ.
4. ìMen about Town: The London Theaterís Footmen,î Kristina Marie Straub, Carnegie Mellon Univ.
655. Sounds in the Eighteenth-Century City
Program arranged by the Division on Restoration and Early-Eighteenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Jonathan Brody Kramnick, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
1. ìMother Shipton Speaks: Sounding Oracles in Eighteenth-Century Print Culture,î Laura E. McGrane, Haverford Coll.
2. ìPope, Print, and the ëWondírous Powír of Noise,íî Paula J. McDowell, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
3. ìSounds in the Theater,î Paula R. Backscheider, Auburn Univ., Auburn
British Literature: Late Eighteenth Century
94. War and Peace: War and National Identity in the Late Eighteenth Century
Program arranged by the Division on Late-Eighteenth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Elizabeth A. Bohls, Univ. of Oregon
1. ìAfricans in the British Colonies: Soldiers in War, Slaves in Peace,î Kari J. Winter, State Univ. of New York, Buffalo
2. ìThe Meantime of War,î Mary A. Favret, Indiana Univ., Bloomington
3. ìThe Veteranís Tale: War, Mobility, and National Identity,î Charlotte Sacks Sussman, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder
270. Desire and Devotion: Clarissa, Secularism, and Psychoanalysis
A special session
Session leader: Lori Ann Branch, Univ. of Iowa
1. ìReligious Enthusiasm and Libidinal Sociability in Richardsonís Clarissa,î Ioana Patuleanu, Indiana Univ., Bloomington
2. ìClarissa: Sacred Text and Universal Subject,î Kevin Seidel, Univ. of Virginia
3. ìViolating God: Secular Contours of Sentimental Fantasy in Clarissa,î Lori Ann Branch
382. Devolving English Racism: Progress, Race, and Four-Stages Theory in the Transatlantic Long Eighteenth Century
A special session
Session leader: Jennifer Thorn, Colby Coll.
1. ìDifference, Distinction, and the Meanings of Race: Monboddoís Antient Metaphysics,î Jenny M. Davidson, Columbia Univ.
2. ìReading Race from the Margins of Empire: Mohawks and Highlanders in Anne Grantís Memoirs and Essays,î Juliet D. Shields, Univ. of Pennsylvania
3. ìEating Indians: Benjamin Rush, the Circularity of Stagism, and a Pharmacy of Race,î Julie Chun Kim, Duke Univ.
593. Traveling “Nature” in the Late Eighteenth Century
Program arranged by the Division on Late-Eighteenth Century English Literature
Presiding: Charlotte Sacks Sussman, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder
1. ìStedmanís Tropics,î Elizabeth A. Bohls, Univ. of Oregon
2. ìNature, Human Nature, and the Nursery: Early Illustrations of Africa in Mungo Parkís Travels,î Catherine F. Marsters, Gannon Univ.
3. ìJohnson in Scotland, Scotland in Johnson,î Rivka Swenson, Univ. of Virginia
661. Epistolary Affection
Program arranged by the Division on Late-Eighteenth-Century English Literature
1. ìOut of Hand: Letter Writing, Solitary Pleasures, and Female Desire in Samuel Richardsonís Clarissa,î Christine Crockett, Univ. of California, Riverside
2. ìExciting Language: Sexual Content and Epistolary Form in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure,î Kathleen M. Lubey, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
3. ìJulia de RoubignÈís Epistolary Echo Chamber,î Emily Rebecca Woomer, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz
4. ìAustenís Waning Epistolary Affections,î Laura E. Rotunno, Penn State Univ., Altoona
British Literature: Nineteenth Century
219. The International Morris
Program arranged by the William Morris Society
Presiding: Hartley Steven Spatt, State Univ. of New York, Maritime Coll.
1. ìIceland and the Topography of Wonder in the Late Romances of William Morris,î Phillippa Bennett, Univ. of London, Birkbeck Coll.
2. ìMorris, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and Italy,î Frank Sharp, William Morris Soc.
3. ìEmpire and Survival: The Nibelung Saga in Morris and Wagner,î Gregory Kershner, Hofstra Univ.
4. ìWilliam Morris: The International Artist,î John Lang, York Univ., Keele
393. Dickens Life Stories
Program arranged by the Dickens Society
Presiding: Robert Lowry Patten, Rice Univ.
1. ìëIf I Could Have Married Little Red Riding Hoodí: Dickensís ëFirst Loveí and Other Waterside Characters,î Molly Hillard, Univ. of California, Davis
2. ìPaterfamilias,î Eileen Gillooly, Columbia Univ.
3. ìThe Violated Self: Reading Public Image in Great Expectations,î Renee Fox, Princeton Univ.
460. Romantic Literature and the Sciences I
Program arranged by the Wordsworth-Coleridge Association
Presiding: James C. McKusick, Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County
1. ìRadical Romanticism and the Science of Life,î Sharon Ruston, Univ. of Wales, Bangor
2. ìDissent and Ontological Space in Literature and Science,î Stuart Samuel Peterfreund, Northeastern Univ.
3. ìWordsworthian Science in the 1870s,î Robert M. Ryan, Rutgers Univ., Camden
4. ìBerkeley, Blake, Bohr, and Beyond,î Mark Stephen Lussier, Arizona State Univ., Tempe
506. Romancing the Colonies: Australia and New Zealand as Utopia and Wasteland
A special session
Session leader: Mark A. Kipperman, Northern Illinois Univ.
1. ìëIn the Wildernessí: Antipodean Apocalyptic Fiction at the Fin de SiËcle,î Kelly K. Hurley, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder
2. ìThe Repressed Returns Down Under: Romancing the Colony in Humeís The Mystery of a Hansome Cab,î Mark A. Kipperman
3. ìëWhere a People Primeval Is Vanishing Fastí: Alfred Domettís Ranolf and Amohia and the Dream of Empire,î Hugh J. Roberts, Univ. of California, Irvine
Respondent: Brian May, Northern Illinois Univ.
706. Byron in the East: Research Resources on the Atlantic Coast
Program arranged by the Byron Society of America
Presiding: Charles E. Robinson, Univ. of Delaware, Newark
1. ìInstitutional Collections in New England and New York: Where Money Reigned,î Donald H. Reiman, Univ. of Delaware, Newark
2. ìThe Byron Society Collection at the University of Delaware: ëMany Things Most New to Ear and Eye,íî Marsha M. Manns, Byron Soc. of America
3. ìByron in Philadelphia,î Stuart Curran, Univ. of Pennsylvania
718. Taking Liberties with the Pre-Raphaelites
Program arranged by the William Morris Society
Presiding: Margaret Diane Stetz, Univ. of Delaware, Newark
1. ìFashioning Loose Women: The Uncorseted Pre-Raphaelite Body,î Mary Ann Tobin, Duquesne Univ.
2. ìPre-Raphaelite Spiritualism and Suicide in HDís ëWhite Rose and the Red,íî Alison Halsall, York Univ., Keele
3. ìHis Carpets Flowered: William Morris and Lorine Niedecker,î Elizabeth Willis, Wesleyan Univ.
4. ìHow They Met (and Made) Themselves: Caricature and the Pre-Raphaelites,î Thad Logan, Rice Univ.
737. Dickens and Accounting: Numbers, Realism, and the Keeping of the Books
Program arranged by the Dickens Society
Presiding: Janice Carlisle, Yale Univ.
1. ìThe Books of Love: Dickens and Matrimonial Accounting,î Thad Logan, Rice Univ.
2. ìA Comprehensive Etcetera: How to Count People in Dickens,î Hilary Schor, Univ. of Southern California
3. ìMinute and Intricate Calculations: Dickensís Ages of Consent,î Helena Michie, Rice Univ.
750. Romantic Literature and the Sciences II
Program arranged by the Wordsworth-Coleridge Association
Presiding: Alan Richardson, Boston Coll.
1. ìRomanticism and the Sciences of Perversion,î Richard C. Sha, American Univ.
2. ìThe Romantic Cow: Animals as Technology,î Ron Broglio, Georgia Inst. of Tech.
3. ìShelley and the Poetics of Glaciers,î Eric Glenn Wilson, Wake Forest Univ.
Respondent: Marilyn S. Gaull, New York Univ.
British Literature: Twentieth Century
28. Contemporary British Writing: B(l)ack in the Center
A special session
Session leader: Maria Helena Lima, State Univ. Coll. of New York, Geneseo
1. ìëMarketing the Marginsí: Rereading the ëStruggle for Recognitioní in Black British Literature,î Mark Stein, Univ. of Potsdam
2. ìThe Black British Fiction ëBoomí: The Second Generation,î Tracey Walters, State Univ. of New York, Stony Brook
3. ìBlack Cosmopolitanism in United Kingdom Poetry: Traditions and Individual Talents,î R. Victoria Arana, Howard Univ.
Respondent: Maria Helena Lima
For copies of abstracts and papers, visit http://www.geneseo.edu/~lima.
169. Philo-Semitism and Anti-Semitism: New Challenges to Modern English Cultural Production
Program arranged by the Division on Twentieth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Phyllis Lassner, Northwestern Univ.
1. ìEducating for a Jewish Gaze: Sandra Goldbacherís ëThe Governess,íî Helene Meyers, Southwestern Univ.
2. ìJew Consciousness in Forster and Orwell: Hellenism and Hebraism in the Twentieth Century,î Beth C. Rosenberg, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas
3. ìIn Britainís Court: ëCivil Anti-Semitism,í Immigration, and the Public Jew, 1902ñ05,î Lara A. Trubowitz, Univ. of Iowa
Respondent: Phyllis Lassner
205. Nostromo at One Hundred
Program arranged by the Joseph Conrad Society of America
Presiding: Peter Mallios, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
1. ìëFor Life to Be Large and Full . . .í: Epic Nostromo,î Terence Collits, La Trobe Univ.
2. ìNostromoís Latin American Legacy,î Jennifer L. French, Williams Coll.
3. ìSuspended Judgments: Skepticism and the Body in Nostromo,î Scott Warren Klein, Wake Forest Univ.
4. ìAn Unrecognized Polish Nobleman in Nostromo,î Jean M. Szczypien, Fashion Inst. of Tech., State Univ. of New York
5. ìAnticipating a Scorcese Nostromo: The Lean, Bolt, Hampton, and BBC Treatments,î Wallace Steadman Watson, Duquesne Univ.
6. ìNostromoís Narrative Confusion and Clarity: A Reassessment,î John G. Peters, Univ. of North Texas
For copies of papers, write to Peter Mallios by 10 Dec. 2004 or visit www.engl.unt.edu/~jgpeters/Conrad/conferences.html.
265. Reassessing Lessing: Prescience and Prejudice in The Golden Notebook
Program arranged by the Doris Lessing Society
1. ìThe Challenges of Teaching Lessingís Golden Notebook after 9/11/01,î Suzette Ann Henke, Univ. of Louisville
2. ìFreedom as Effacement in The Golden Notebook: Theorizing Pleasure, Subjectivity, and Authority,î Tonya Krouse, Northern Kentucky Univ.
3. ìHistory as Emotion and Emotion as History in The Golden Notebook,î Judith Kegan Gardiner, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
325. Neo-Darwinism and Contemporary British Fiction
A special session
Session leader: Jonathan D. Greenberg, Montclair State Univ.
1. ìDavid Lodge and Consciousness Studies,î Michael John Sinding, Wilfrid Laurier Univ.
2. ìEvolutionary Sparks: Darwin, Noah, and Liz Jensenís Ark Baby,î Ann-Barbara Graff, Nipissing Univ.
3. ìThe Evolution of Unreliability: Ian McEwanís Enduring Love,î Jonathan D. Greenberg
403. Virginia Woolf’s Essays
Program arranged by the International Virginia Woolf Society
Presiding: Beth Rigel Daugherty, Otterbein Coll.
1. ìRelatives and Reviewing: Fitzjames, Leslie, and Virginia,î Eleanor J. McNees, Univ. of Denver
2. ìPerforming the Notion of the Tourist in Woolfís Essays,î Jeanne Dubino, Southeastern Louisiana Univ.
3. ìVirginia Woolf and First-Year Composition: ëWords Do Not Live in Dictionaries, They Live in the Mind,íî Leslie A. Werden, Univ. of North Dakota
4. ìëShe Does Not Work with Her Brain Onlyí: Woolfís Ellen Terry,î Andrea E. Adolph, Kent State Univ., Stark Campus
434. Lawrence and America: Crosscurrents
Program arranged by the D. H. Lawrence Society of North America
Presiding: Virginia Hyde, Washington State Univ., Pullman
1. ìAmbiguous Crossing: Melvillean Katabasis in ëThe Woman Who Rode Away,íî Marijane Osborn, Univ. of California, Davis
2. ìLocating the Future Native: Lawrenceís American Neonativism,î Julianne Newmark, Wayne State Univ.
3. ìThe Authority of Phantasy in Studies in Classic American Literature and The Plumed Serpent,î Robin Nilon, Temple Univ.
478. Sebald in England
Program arranged by the Division on Twentieth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Bruce W. Robbins, Columbia Univ.
1. ìSebald after Conrad,î Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
2. ìSebald on Aerial Bombardment,î Bruce W. Robbins
609. England in Europe
Program arranged by the Division on Twentieth-Century English Literature
Presiding: Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
1. ìShawís Geography of Ideas,î Martin Puchner, Cornell Univ.
2. ìëThe Thrill of the Impersonalí: Ian McEwan and the European Union,î Lisa Jeanne Fluet, Trinity Univ.
3. ìCaryl Phillipsís The Nature of Blood and the Modalities of European Racism,î Ashley James Dawson, Coll. of Staten Island, City Univ. of New York
4. ìKen Loach and the European Turn in British Realism,î James F. English, Univ. of Pennsylvania
695. Doris Lessing: Prophet or Maverick?
Program arranged by the Doris Lessing Society
Presiding: Debrah K. Raschke, Southeast Missouri State Univ.
1. ìExtraplanetary Perspectives in Doris Lessingís Canopus in Argos: Archives Series,î Lauren J. Lacey, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
2. ìFour Levels of Detachment in Shikasta,î Phyllis Sternberg Perrakis, Univ. of Ottawa
3. ìTrauma, Nature, and the Divine: An Environmentalist Perspective on the Works of Doris Lessing,î Jeanie E. Warnock, Univ. of Ottawa
724. Apart from The Hours: Virginia Woolf’s Continuing Presence on the Intellectual Scene
Program arranged by the International Virginia Woolf Society
Presiding: Mark F. Hussey, Pace Univ., NY
1. ìReading Woolf in Africa: Aidoo, El-Sadaawi, and Lessing,î Anne Elizabeth Fernald, Fordham Univ., Lincoln Center
2. ìThe Legacy of the ëOutsiderís Societyí: Woolf, Brand, and Postcolonial Nationhood,î Erica L. Johnson, Chatham Coll.
3. ìSituating the Pain of Others: Pictures, Arguments, and Empathy,î Madelyn Detloff, Miami Univ., Oxford
747. Tolkien Our Contemporary
Program arranged by the Conference on Christianity and Literature
Presiding: Ralph C. Wood, Baylor Univ.
1. ìTolkien and the Other: Gender and Race in Middle-Earth,î Jane Chance, Rice Univ.
2. ìTolkien as Preservationist,î Charles A. Huttar, Hope Coll.
3. ìTolkienís Postmodernism,î Ralph C. Wood
759. D. H. Lawrence and America: New Perspectives
Program arranged by the D. H. Lawrence Society of North America
Presiding: Eleanor Hewson Green, Coll. of Mount Saint Vincent
1. ìLawrenceís American Audience in Vanity Fair,î Hannah Crawforth, Univ. of Cambridge, Christ Coll.
2. ìLawrenceís Modern Myth of Return in The Plumed Serpent,î Christopher Schedler, Central Washington Univ.
Respondent: Virginia Hyde, Washington State Univ., Pullman
764. Conrad in the Twenty-First Century
Program arranged by the Joseph Conrad Society of America
Presiding: Andrea White, California State Univ., Dominguez Hills
1. ìTerror, Terrorism, and Horror in Heart of Darkness,î Frances Singh, Hostos Community Coll., City Univ. of New York
2. ìHomeland Insecurity: Joseph Conradís The Secret Agent,î Cristina M. Mathews, Bloomsburg Univ.
3. ìëThe Ends of the Earthí: Globalization and Its Discontents in Conradís Heart of Darkness,î John D. McIntyre, Trent Univ.
4. ìThe Voice of Comedy in Joseph Conrad and Primo Levi,î Debra Romanick Baldwin, Univ. of Dallas
5. ìOf Trifles and Trade: Conrad and Globalization,î Deborah L. Shapple, Univ. of Pennsylvania
6. ìëWhirrí Is King: International Capital and the Paradox of Consciousness in Typhoon,î Nels Christian Pearson, Tennessee State Univ.
Respondent: Carola M. Kaplan, California State Polytechnic Univ., Pomona
See also “The ACH Guide to Humanities-Computing Talks at the 2004 MLA Convention”
[Via MGK]
I was a presenter at this year’s MLA and I must agree that the NYT article seems decidedly unfair as it represents the MLA. I noticed that the article starts out with a general castigation of the profession, but then finds supposedly egregious examples of MLA misbehavior in discussions of pop culture and sexuality. It is the latter which, to me, especially evidences an inexcusable prudishness on the part of the NYT. Those prophets-of-doom who predict the downfall of humanity because some professors get together and talk about, gasp, sex, seems to be what is wrong with this culture.