CFP: Literary Lessons: Louisa May Alcott’s Sensation Stories and Authorial Ecologies

In Louisa May Alcott Unmasked: Collected Thrillers, Madeleine B. Stern describes Alcott as having lived a “double literary life.” How do Louisa May Alcott’s relationships with other writers enrich her fiction, particularly her early “blood-and-thunder” sensation stories (published anonymously or pseudonymously as A.M. Barnard)? As a stand-in for Alcott, Little Women’s Jo encounters a range of texts, from classics like The Pilgrim’s Progress to contemporaries like Charles Dickens and E.D.E.N Southworth; other writers were “of service [to Jo] now, for they gave her some idea of dramatic effect, and supplied plot.” What authors were of service to Alcott in her sensation stories? How do these early stories compare to a prior and continuing tradition of gothic, sensational tales? How did these stories challenge assumptions about women’s power, and how do they shape conversations about women’s influence in nineteenth-century culture and our present moment? We aim to situate Alcott in a broad ecology of writers and genres preceding and succeeding Alcott—tracing their complex allusions and ongoing echoes. We welcome proposals on any of Alcott’s sensation stories; engagements with the archives; and papers that help us conceive of Alcott’s rich influence and influences.

By Monday, February 15, please email a 250-word abstract and brief bio (50 words) to klacey@bu.edu and chapnick@bu.edu.