Call for Papers

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.