The Lydia Maria Child Society

American Literature Association Conference in Chicago, IL
23–26 May 2024 at The Palmer House Hilton
https://americanliteratureassociation.org/ala-conferences/ala-annual-conference/

2. Celebrating Hobomok (1824) at 200: New Directions, New Reflections

The year 2024 marks the 200th publication anniversary of Lydia Maria Child’s novel Hobomok (1824). Set in early 17th-century Puritan New England, the book features a taboo marriage between Puritan Mary Conant and indigenous Pokanoket Hobomok and Mary’s eventual re-assimilation, with their mixed-race child, into Puritan society.  The Lydia Maria Child Society welcomes new ideas about, or inspired by, this novel. How might its treatments of religious intolerance, racial strife, and gendered rebellion against a religious patriarchy offer new ways of understanding our own times?  How might using Hobomok in the writing, literature, history, education, or fine arts classroom introduce fresh perspectives about community, prejudice, and understanding?  Ever wonder about “the beautiful grey fox of the Mississippi” (ch. 12)?  How might focusing on the natural world—plants, animals, weather—in Hobomok or other writings help us reconceptualize or resituate human agency vis-à-vis that of other life forms?  What might nonhuman life suggest about the choices that human life forms make?  If neither Hobomok nor Child lie within your areas of expertise, how might your own work be in conversation with either?  What fresh surprises await us through our connections to Hobomok or Child or the 19th century US?    

Please send 200-word abstracts, as Word documents, to Sandy Burr at sburr@nmu.edu by January 28, 2024.  Early submissions welcome!

LMC Society

Melissa Gniadek, President
Sandy Burr, VP of Programs

Gia Coturri Sorenson, VP of Membership & Records
Sarah Olivier, VP of Communications
Lori Robison, VP of Inclusive Excellence & Social Action

listserv: lmcs-listserv@googlegroups.com