WOOLFIAN BOUNDARIES

In affiliation with the International Virginia Woolf Society and the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain.

This conference takes Virginia Woolf to Britain's second city in order to explore her work from perspectives 'beyond the boundary' of her own positions and attitudes. Her coolness towards the provinces and 'prejudice' against the regional novel (Letters 6. 381) are thus the starting-point for considering her writing in the light of its own 'limits', self-declared and otherwise. Themes for papers may involve Woolf and:

The conference will centre on a series of parallel paper sessions, plus keynote addresses and round-table discussions. Other events will include displays, exhibitions and performances. Birmingham is in central England and very close to a range of cities and locations including Stratford, Warwick, Worcester, Oxford, Lichfield and the Malvern Hills. The airport is a few miles from the city centre.

Call for Papers and Panel Proposals

Paper and panel proposals should incorporate one or more of the themes listed above. Panels will include three participants, preferably from different institutions, who will be allocated 15-20 minutes each to make their presentations. Please be sure that the scope of proposed papers is appropriate to the time allowed. For paper proposals, please submit a 250-word description of the paper to be presented. For panel proposals, please submit a 250-word description of each paper to be presented by each of the three panel participants along with the proposed title of the panel. All submissions should include the title of the paper(s) and name(s), contact details and institutional affiliation(s), where applicable, of participant(s).

Submissions in electronic form are preferred. Please send submissions by email to the address below, either as an email attachment (in Word Doc or RTF format) or included in the body of the email message. If you are unable to email your proposal, you may post either a PC compatible floppy disk containing the document (in Word Doc or RTF format) or a paper copy to:

Conference Co-ordinators
International Virginia Woolf Conference
Department of English
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2TT
UK

The deadline for receipt of submissions is 4 January 2006.

Conference Co-ordinators: Ann Bissell, Steve Ellis, Deborah Parsons, Kathryn Simpson. For more information contact us by email vwoolf2006@adf.bham.ac.uk or by post at the Department of English address above. The conference web pages will be live from Autumn 2005.