[ilds] CFP | Space Between conference in Montreal | June 16-18, 2011

[James Gifford]

Hello all,

I'm passing this along in case anyone is interested.  I attended the 
Space Between conference in Portland last year, and it was very fine -- 
I think they would be receptive to a Durrell panel if anyone is 
interested in pitching something as a group.

Best,
James

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The Battle of the Brows: Cultural Distinctions in the Space Between, 
1914-1945
McGill University, Montreal, Canada
June 16-18, 2011

With the massive growth in the production and consumption of literature, 
music and art in the period 1914-1945 came powerful anxieties about 
cultural authority and transmission. As audiences and artists 
increasingly came from middle or lower classes, critics tried to 
distinguish between the “serious” and the “popular.” Cultural 
distinctions that relied, directly or indirectly, on attitudes toward 
hierarchies of gender, class, and race came under increasing scrutiny. 
It was a time of debate and radical change: new media and materials 
(radio, film, jazz, paperback novels) gained ground over traditional 
forms and venues (classical music, poetry, theatre); many arts became 
professionalized, rather than relying on inherited incomes; institutions 
such as the Book of the Month Club and the BBC formed new communities of 
cultural consumption.

How does recognition of these social and cultural conflicts impact our 
work as scholars of the space between the wars? Conversely, how does our 
work impact the vocabularies and values through which we access and 
understand the societies and cultures of this time period?

The 13th annual Space Between Society Conference, in cooperation with 
the Middlebrow Network, invites proposals that consider questions and 
problems related to cultural distinction in the years 1914-1945. Please 
send abstracts (no more than 300 words) with a short biographical 
statement to spacebetween2011 at gmail.com by 15 January 2011. Possible 
topics include:

* Middlebrow culture and the discourses of modernity
* Art in the marketplace
* Cultural capital and cultural minorities
* Documentaries, Hollywood film, art film, the woman’s film
* Theatre, vaudeville, street theatre, group theatre
* Visual culture: photography, painting, advertising
* Music, soundtracks, opera, jazz, musicals
* Kitsch
* Working-class cultures
* Architecture, furniture, and interior design
* Historical crises and cultural responses: militarization, 
demobilization, civilian life
* Domesticity and domestic service
* Pleasure, entertainment, and audiences
* International popular cultures
* The avant-garde
* Genres and modes: melodrama, social realism, adventure fiction, spy 
thrillers, romances
* Movement across media: film, print, radio, gramophone
* Public radio and broadcasting: BBC, CBC, ABC
* Mass-Observation