[ilds] CFP: Locating the Coterie: Writers' Circles and their Cities

[James Gifford]

Locating the Coterie: Writers' Circles and their Cities
http://www.lawrencedurrell.org/louisville_2009.htm


The Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900
http://modernlanguages.louisville.edu/conference/

Louisville, KY | 19-21 February


While Paris stands as the urban icon of the literary and artistic world 
in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, many other cities 
have served as a locus for writers and artists, who by common attitudes 
towards their art, by the virtue of proximity, or by forces such as war 
and empire, have settled in a particular city. For instance:

     * Berlin: The House of Arts and the Writers Club:
       Russians in Berlin, 1921-1923
     * Athens: Durrell, Spencer, Liddell, and the British Council
     * London: the FitzRoy Tavern between the Wars
     * New Orleans: Anderson, Faulkner, et al, 1920s
     * New York: February House, 1940-41
     * Cairo: Refugee English Poets, World War II

In each city, certain situations and conditions have influenced the 
writers and artists themselves, and we may assume that the coteries have 
in turn shaped the space and place of that city, even to the extent of a 
permanent association with a building or neighborhood (e.g., February 
House in New York) . The International Lawrence Durrell Society requests 
papers on topics that address the relationship between coteries and 
their locations, or that investigate a single writer in relation to his 
or her urban locus. We are particularly interested in papers that 
address Lawrence Durrell and his affiliation to both specific locations 
and other writers. Topics may include but are not limited to:

     * War and Dis/location (Berlin, c. 1917, Cairo in World War II),
     * Nationalism, Literature, and the City (Vienna and Zionism)
     * The Occupation of Space: How Writers Inscribed a City
       (WPA Artists in Manhattan)
     * Defining a Literary "Circle"

This panel complements a series of panels sponsored by the International 
Lawrence Durrell Society aimed at promoting dialogue and collaboration 
among the various societies and associations represented annually at the 
Louisville conference and other conferences. To this end, we invite 
proposals for papers on a variety of topics that will promote discussion 
of Modernist authors in their milieu and across the Twentieth Century.

Please send a 1-page abstract to Pamela Francis, International Lawrence 
Durrell Society, (pfrancis at rice.edu) by Sept. 12, 2008. Final papers 
should be limited to 20 minute presentations.