CFP: DeBartolo Conference on Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Studies: “Medievalizing Britain” (2/8/10; 4/2/10)

CFP: DeBartolo Conference on Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century
Studies: “Medievalizing Britain” (2/8/10; 4/2/10)

THE TWENTY-FIRST DEBARTOLO CONFERENCE
~ CALL FOR PAPERS ~ MEDIEVALIZING BRITAIN
April 2, 2010 Tampa, Florida Back by popular demand, the DeBartolo
Conference will return in 2010 as a one-day Eighteenth- and
Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference on Medievalizing Britain. Our
event will feature a keynote lecture by Professor Antony Harrison,
Distinguished Professor of English and Department Head at North
Carolina State University. Dr. Harrison is a leading scholar on
Christina Rossetti and the author of five books and numerous
articles, editions, and reviews on Victorian poetry, culture, and
medievalism. In addition, the day’s activities will include
single-session panels, a roundtable discussion, a catered lunch, and
an evening wine and cheese reception. This event is free to
participants, guests, and the public at large.

British culture in the four nations (England, Scotland, Wales,
Ireland) was transformed during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, as medieval themes and archaic features emerged in poetry,
novels, ballad-collecting, non-fiction prose, painting, and
photography. Works such as Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry, Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, Alfred Tennyson’s poems, John
Ruskin’s criticism, the Pre-Raphaelites’ paintings, and Roger
Fenton’s photographic images signal a preoccupation with the medieval
past that spans two centuries. This conference looks beyond
traditional periodizations and disciplinary divisions in order to
trace broader patterns and forge new connections on the topic of
medievalizing Britain.

Papers may engage any aspect of the medieval in eighteenth- or
nineteenth-century culture, and may address but are not limited to
the following questions:

• How was the rise of medievalism able to supplant earlier British
identifications with the classical world?
• Why does photography, a new technology, turn to medieval themes?
• Is the medieval modern?
• What role did the turn toward the bardic and the medieval play in
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland in opposition to English domination? In
what ways, politically, aesthetically, or otherwise, did the medieval
turn in English romanticism differ from similar moves in the rest of
the United Kingdom?
• What was the relationship between medievalism and Enlightenment?
Between medievalism and industrialization?
• Why was the historical novel in Britain medieval rather than classical?
• How can we account for the rise of Arthuriana?
• How did new ideas about Britons’ origins as rugged Saxons, Goths,
and Celts affect the conduct of British colonialism abroad?
• How did Pre-Raphaelite painting reimagine femininity and
masculinity in an era of rapid social change?

We invite single presentation abstracts or complete panels with
individual abstracts for each paper. Abstracts should be
approximately 500 words in length; in addition to the abstract, we
ask that individuals include the following: an e-mail address, any
audio-visual needs (including special software needs), and academic
affiliation (if applicable).

Due date for submissions: February 8, 2010