Antebellum American Women Writers and the City is a small conference devoted to exploring the connections among, influences upon, and urban concerns of authors Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Susanna Rowson, Lydia Maria Child, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Margaret Fuller, and others. The early 19th Century saw New York City's dominance grow – in its population as well as its identity as the nation's banking, business, and publishing center. American women writers recognized the city’s dynamic energy and wrote works that both celebrated and deplored the changes they witnessed as cultural observers, reform-minded citizens, and women artists. We invite papers and panels that examine long and short fiction, poetry, letters, journalism and criticism by antebellum women. Topics may include but are not limited to:

* writings by or between 19th century women, in or about New York City life, art,
politics, and culture;
* comparisons of NYC and other cities;
* the prominence of NYC: rethinking center and periphery in America;
* city limits: geographical, imaginative, and other borders of the city;
* sex and the city;
* the landscape of the city;
* the depression of 1837 and its impact on women writers;
* escaping the city: writing about tourism and the country.

The fall, 2005 meeting of the 19th Century Women Writers Study Group will occur on Saturday, September 24, as a part of the symposium. All conference participants are welcome to attend, or, as an alternate event, the symposium will offer a tour of places of literary and historic interest in Manhattan.

Submit proposals (200 word abstract) to
Patricia Larson Kalayjian, CMSS vice-president,
By email only to: pkalayjian@csudh.edu

ALL PROPOSALS ARE DUE BY MAY 15, 2005

Archived - Call for Papers