We welcome proposals for 20 minute papers, or for panels of three papers, on topics which can include, but are not limited to:
Treasures and Trash in: the home, the street, the store, the library, the gutter, the island, the workhouse, the factory, etc.
Print culture and the literary marketplace: ‘trash’ fiction, high/low culture, taste, fashion, rarity, cheap editions, fine editions, ‘specials’, royalties, contracts, collectors, etc.
Treasure: buried, hoarded, displayed, collected, traded, neglected, etc.
Waste: scrap/s, refuse, recycling, reclamation, that which is/those who are discarded/unwanted, the abandoned, etc.
Dirt: gossip, scandal, degeneracy, decay, cleanliness, healthfulness, godliness, etc.
Trashed: defaced, vandalised, wasted, defamed, scandalised, denounced, drunk, drugged, etc.
Industry: the ethics of production, craftsmanship, the cheap, the mass-produced, etc.
Money: markets, debts/debtors, savings, shares, inheritances, ransoms, fortunes, etc.
Papers and artefacts: archives, special collections, the museum, the preserved, the priceless, the lost, digitised treasures, etc.
The Beloved: persons, possessions, memories, moments, etc.
Values: validity, value/worth, cost, price, morals, family values, etc.
Things: junk, clutter, paraphernalia, bric-a-brac, curiosities, trinkets, tokens/keepsakes, troves, etc.
People: fortune-hunters, gold-diggers, prospectors, speculators, pirates, con-artists, thieves, beggars, prostitutes, consumers, etc.
Special author panels: This year we will schedule special panels to be hosted by guest experts on each of six key popular authors; therefore we especially welcome papers about the following authors:
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (hosted by Anne-Marie Beller)
Wilkie Collins (hosted by Mariaconcetta Constantini)
Marie Corelli (hosted by Nickianne Moody)
Florence Marryat (hosted by Greta Depledge)
Ouida (hosted by Jane Jordan and Andrew King)
Robert Louis Stevenson (hosted by Sara Clayson)
Other suggested authors/papers in previous years have also discussed authors such as:
J. M. Barrie
Mrs Beeton
Anne Brontë
Charlotte Brontë
Emily Brontë
Rhoda Broughton
Lewis Carroll
Mary Cholmondeley
Arthur Conan Doyle
Charles Dickens
George Eliot
Elizabeth Gaskell
George Gissing
Thomas Hardy
Jerome K. Jerome
Rudyard Kipling
Eliza Lynn Linton
Edith Nesbit
Margaret Oliphant
Dinah Craik
Olive Schreiner
Bram Stoker
William Makepeace Thackeray
Anthony Trollope
Mary Augusta Ward
H.G. Wells
Ellen Wood
Charlotte Yonge
Please send proposals of no more than 300 words to Drs. Kirsty Bunting, Janine Hatter and Helena Ifill at vpfamembership@gmail.com
Deadline for proposals: Friday 4th April 2014
Organisers will offer acceptances in the days following the 18th April 2014.
Conference registration details will be announced shortly. All speakers must be a member of VPFA to present. To become a member, please download and complete a membership form.