The William Faulkner Society

Society Calls for Papers

The William Faulkner Society will sponsor two panels each at the American Literature Association Conference in San Francisco, May 22-25, 2008, and the Modern Language Association Conference also in San Francisco, December 27-30, 2008. We encourage submissions of 250 word abstracts for individual papers or proposals of entire panels on open topics for either conference. The deadline for ALA submissions is January 15, 2008, and the deadline for MLA submissions is March 1, 2008. Send proposals to John T. Matthews, President, The Faulkner Society, Boston University, Department of English, 236 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215 or jtmattws@bu.edu. Electronic submissions preferred.

In addition to unrestricted proposals, we are interested in papers or panels that might address the following topics:

For ALA:

• Teaching Faulkner: New contexts for teaching Faulkner, including postcolonial literatures; history of colonialism and imperialism; global South; critical regionalism; new theoretical models.

• Faulkner and the African Diaspora: Faulkner’s relation to the literature and history of African diaspora: slavery; anti-colonialism; black nationalisms; African and African American culture.

For MLA:

• Why Faulkner?  Why Now?: What accounts for the present resurgence of interest in Faulkner’s writing and career?  What are new contexts for research and teaching?  What concerns may be raised about such interest?

• Faulkner and modernist studies: Investigations of Faulkner and the South in new accounts of modernism.

Upcoming and Recent Sessions

The society will sponsor panels at the Modern Language Association convention in Chicago, December 27-30, on Faulkner and World Cinema and Voices from Beyond the United States. An informal business session will follow the Faulkner and World Cinema panel.

The William Faulkner Society sponsored panels at the American Literature Association conference in Boston, May 24-27, on New Directions in Faulkner Scholarship and The Space(s) of Faulkner's Pylon.

Faulkner: The Returns of the Text July 20-24, 2008

For a number of years Faulkner criticism, in keeping with literary study generally, has emphasized the significance of various historical and cultural forces as the determining factors of what texts say and how readers interpret them. More recently, there have been signs of a shift re-affirming the formal dimension of literature, the way in which texts assert an original response to culture through their formal qualities. The result has been a fresh attention to the act of reading, that submission to the full complexity of the text that generates what one writer has referred to as “the basic materials that form the subject matter of even the most historical of investigations.” The newer emphasis by no means ignores the cultural context, but instead of approaching the literary text as a reflection, a representation of that context—historical, economic, political, and social —it stresses the role of the text as a challenge to the power of external ideological systems to dictate textual expression.

The 35^th annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha conference will examine Faulkner’s fiction in terms of the texts’ unique renderings of, and responses to, the historical and cultural conditions in which they were made. Given the extent of Faulkner’s originality, his apparent effort to reinvent prose fiction with each new novel and story, we anticipate a wide range of discussion. What, for example, is the relationship between his specific strategies of narrative, character, setting, and voice and the construction of original meaning? What generic conventions does Faulkner employ and how does he manipulate them according to the presence of specific historical context? In what ways does Faulkner’s language move beyond the limits of “argument” toward “performance,” replacing ideologically inflected commentary with a more subjective, freer expression? In short, what we have called the “returns” of the text embrace a return to textual priority, a return that registers a textuality sensitive to the historical/cultural context, and return as the profit that such consideration can yield.

We are inviting 40-minute plenary papers and 20-minute panel papers. Plenary papers consist of approximately 5,000 words and will be appear in the conference volume published by the University Press of Mississippi. Panel papers consist of approximately 2,500 words.

For plenary papers the 14th edition of the University of Chicago Manual of Style should be used as a guide in preparing manuscripts. Three copies of manuscripts must be submitted by January 31, 2008. Authors whose papers are selected will receive a waiver of the conference registration fee, and  lodging at the Inn at Ole Miss from Saturday, July 19, through Thursday, July 24. For short papers, three copies of two-page abstracts must be submitted by January 31, 2008. Authors whose papers are selected will receive a reduction of the registration fee to $100. All manuscripts and inquiries should be addressed to Donald Kartiganer, Department of English, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677-1848. Telephone: (662) 915-5793, e-mail: dkartiga@olemiss.edu. Panel abstracts may be sent by e-mail attachment; plenary manuscripts should only be sent by regular mail. Decisions for all papers will be made by March 1, 2008.

William Faulkner Society Scholarships

The John W. Hunt Memorial Scholarship and the Faulkner Journal Scholarship: The William Faulkner Society offers scholarships for as many as two graduate students to attend the annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in Oxford, Mississippi.  These awards are funded by generous donations in memory of Faulkner scholar John W. Hunt, author of William Faulkner: Art in Theological Tension, by the Faulkner Journal, and by annual dues from members of the Society.  The scholarships cover the costs of registration for the conference and of the students' choice of an organized day trip during the week. The topic of the next conference is "Faulkner: The Returns of the Text." It will be held July 20-24, 2008.

Graduate students may apply directly for the Hunt / Faulkner Journal Scholarships or be nominated by a faculty member. Each application should include: a letter from the student explaining how the student's work can be enhanced by attending the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha conference; a current curriculum vitae; and at least one letter of recommendation from a faculty member familiar with the student's work--a letter of nomination satisfies this requirement. Send applications to John T. Matthews, President, The Faulkner Society, Boston University, Department of English, 236 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215 or jtmattws@bu.edu. Deadline for applications is March 15, 2008.

Society for the Study of Southern Literature: The New Southern Studies is currently revolutionizing the study of the American South by unsettling its histories, blurring once-accepted borders, excavating forgotten stories, foregrounding cultural encounters, and situating a region once designated as anti-modern within a the currents of modernity, postmodernity, and globalization. Multicultural observances of Jamestown's 400th anniversary and the bicentennial of the closing of the slave trade indicate just two new directions explored by New Southern Studies, and in recognition of these two overlapping commemorations and the field's new avenues, the program committee for the 2008 biennial meeting of the Society for the Study of Southern Literature has chosen as its conference theme "Southern Roots and Routes: Origins, Migrations, Transformations," to be held April 18-20, 2008 at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Please send two-page session proposals and/or one-page individual abstracts as Word attachments by December 15, 2007 to svdona@wm.edu. Include names, institutions, and email addresses with all submissions.

Faulkner and Chopin: The Center for Faulkner Studies and the Southeast Missouri State University Department of English invite proposals for twenty-minute papers on any topic relating to Faulkner and/or Chopin for a conference at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, October 2-4, 2008. All critical approaches, including theoretical and pedagogical, are welcomed, as well as papers on special collections of Faulkner and Chopin. We are particularly interested in inter-textual approaches and papers treating topics such as race, gender, class, history, New Orleans, narrative technique, and the role of the artist. Proposals for organized panels are also encouraged.

In addition to the paper sessions, the conference will include a keynote address, dramatic readings based on the works of Faulkner and Chopin, exhibits from the University’s Faulkner and Chopin collections, and an historic tour of the local area.

E-mail a 250-word abstract by April 30, 2008 to cfs@semo.edu. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.semo.edu/cfs/index.htm. Inquiries should be directed to Robert Hamblin at rhamblin@semo.edu or (573) 651-2628.

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