CFP: L.M. Montgomery and Reading
The L.M. Montgomery Institute’s Thirteenth Biennial Conference
University of Prince Edward Island, 21-24 June 2018
“I am simply a book drunkard. Books have the same irresistible temptation for me that liquor has for its devotee. I cannot withstand them.” –April 4, 1899 (from The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The P.E.I. years, 1899-1900)
“In spite of this proliferation of approaches to Montgomery, her fictions flourish in their original form. They continue to draw people from all over the world to the island of reading pleasure.” –Elizabeth Waterston, Magic Island: The Fictions of L.M. Montgomery
The 2018 conference invites research that considers “L.M. Montgomery and Reading” in all its forms and possibilities. The allusions in Montgomery’s novels and the richness of her own reading life raise a host of questions about the politics, history, culture, technologies, and practice of reading. In turn, fans and scholars explore what it means to read Montgomery as they continue to visit and revisit her novels and autobiographical work. Her enduring popularity continues to inspire translations and transformations that offer readers new ways to experience Montgomery’s texts.
This conference will also mark the 25th anniversary of the L.M. Montgomery Institute, providing an important opportunity to (re)read and reflect on the past and future of Montgomery scholarship and to explore how the presenters see themselves in a community of international, interdisciplinary, and interrelated readers.
The conference theme inspires topics including:
- Reading politics and history in and of Montgomery’s works
- Material cultures and the class implications of reading
- Influence and intertextuality across texts including explorations of Montgomery’s literary allusions
- Global experiences of reading classics
- Literacy in all forms, teaching Montgomery texts, and reading education
- The neurobiology and neuroscience of reading and the human capacity to read
- Reading and ways of seeing, reading and visual culture, alternative reading methods
- Reflections on and readings of Montgomery scholarship
- Reading in translation, reading personally and culturally, and reading over a lifetime
Please submit 250-300-word proposals and short CVs to the submission form on the LMMI website (lmmontgomery.ca) by 15 August 2017. Proposals should not only clearly articulate a strong argument but they should also situate that argument in the context of previous Montgomery scholarship. All proposals are blind reviewed. Proposals for workshops, exhibits, films, and performances are also welcomed. For more information please contact Laura Robinson (lrobinson@grenfell.mun.ca) or Emily Woster (ewoster@d.umn.edu).