American Literature Association
35th Annual Conference
May 23-26 2024
The Palmer House Hilton
17 East Monroe Street
Chicago, IL 60603
CFP Edith Wharton and Emotion
The Edith Wharton Society invites papers that explore Wharton’s engagement with emotion/feelings/affect in her works. Panelists are encouraged to consider the role of emotion in her writing on design, gardens, and travel as well as her novels and stories. All theoretical approaches are welcome. Proposals might consider (but are not limited to) the following questions:
- What does emotion mean or how is it constituted in Wharton’s work?
- How do questions of sentiment, affect, or sensation inflect Wharton’s perspectives on emotion?
- How does affect relate to aesthetics in Wharton’s works?
- What is the role of feeling in Wharton’s texts?
- How are Wharton’s characters affected by sentiment?
- How is emotion gendered, raced, or classed in Wharton’s work?
- What is the relationship between emotion and cosmopolitan taste in Wharton’s texts?
Please submit a 250-300 word abstract and a brief CV by January 10, 2024 to Margaret Jay Jessee (mjjessee@uab.edu). Please include any requests for AV needs in your proposal. Scholars whose proposals are accepted must be members in good standing of the Edith Wharton Society by the time of the conference.