Lives & Letters Mailing: May 2018
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to another Lives & Letters Mailing. This month’s mailing contains information about:
1. Whites Writing Whiteness: Project News
New book! Olive Schreiner’s The Dawn of Civilisation & Other Unpublished Wartime Writings
From the Blog: Letters in the news
From the Blog: Postcards from Xolobeni
From the Blog: In search of the traces: Van Gogh and archival research
From the Blog: At the BSA conference: letters, diaries, travelling theory
2. Sociology Lens call for contributions
3. Volume VII of the European Journal of Life Writing online
4. Biography and Public History Conference: Registration now open
5. [MASSOBS] Opportunity with SAGE
6. International Georg Simmel Association and Conference
7. MONUMENTS AND MEMORY (10/27/2018; 3/21-24/2019) INCS 2019 Dallas Texas
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1. Whites Writing Whiteness: Project News
There are five new items of project news we would like to share:
New book! Olive Schreiner’s The Dawn of Civilisation & Other Unpublished Wartime Writings
Edited by Liz Stanley
Independently published by Edinburgh: X Press
ISBN-10: 1980698406
ISBN-13: 978-1980698401
Feminist writer, theorist and social commentator Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) was an ‘absolute pacifist’. Read her on arguing with Lloyd George about war, ticking off Gandhi for reneging on pacifist principles, planning anti-war activities with Bertrand Russell, helping Fred Pethick-Lawrence join a pacifist group, commiserating with friends about deaths in the trenches and much more.
Schreiner saw the Great War of 1914-1918 as a total war, unleashing a download economic spiral, bitterness and the sense of unfinished business, and a future even more cataclysmic war to come. She also left a number of previously unpublished manuscripts, short writings which appeared in small circulation journals of the day, and many letters, all concerned with the causes of war and its remedies.
Rather than diplomacy and statecraft, economic and political gain and other structural factors, Schreiner’s analysis pinpoints something more basic and more ingrained in the character of humankind, calling it a ‘desire for dominance’ and ‘top-dogism’ aroused by nationalist and patriotic sentiments, and emphasising that women are attracted to this as much as men.
Edited and introduced by Liz Stanley, who has worked on Schreiner’s writings and letters for more than 20 years, this book publishes for the first time Schreiner’s prescient manuscripts, never before published in full; her rousing shorter wartime writings; and her engrossing letters with their sharp comments about events, people and organisations.
Book Contents
Introduction: Olive Schreiner on War, Peace & Pacifism
Part One: The Dawn of Civilisation
Part Two: Shorter Wartime Writings
Letter to a Peace Meeting
Appeal to Women Workers
Manifesto of the Representative Peace Committee
Letter from 36 sympathisers
To our Anti-Militarists
“Give unto Caesar”
Who Knocks at the Door?
Part Three: Yours Ever, Olive Schreiner’s Wartime Letters
Index
The Editor
Liz Stanley is Professor of Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. She has been writing about Olive Schreiner’s work and manuscripts since reading her political essays and has lived in South Africa for extended research periods. Related books on South African topics include, The Racialising Process: Whites Writing Whiteness in Letters, South Africa 1770s-1970s(Edinburgh, X Press, 2017), Mourning Becomes… The Concentration Camps of the South African War (MUP, 2008), The World’s Great Question: Olive Schreiner’s South African Letters (Van Riebeeck, 2014), and Imperialism, Labour & The New Woman: Olive Schreiner’s Social Theory (sociology press, 2008).
And For More…
For more on Olive Schreiner’s letters and manuscripts, go to https://www.oliveschreiner.org
From the Blog: Letters in the news
Letters have been much in news in UK over last week or so. There was the release of an April 1961 letter written by Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe to a man he’d had casual sex with, and some accompanying FBI documents, which hit the headlines (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43631718). Then an 1888 postcard purporting to be by ‘Jack the Ripper’, a notorious sexual murderer of five or more women, was auctioned and sold for £22,000 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-43955441). And then the letter of resignation by Amber Rudd, erstwhile British Home Secretary, was not only published in full but photographs of her handwritten ‘Dear Prime Minister’ and signature were also published. What of their epistolary significance? To read more about this, please visit the blog: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/blog/letters-in-the-news/
From the Blog: Postcards from Xolobeni
Postcards are an interesting hybridic genre of communication, with their usually one-way message from the writer to the addressee on one side existing in parallel with usually a picture or photograph on the other side. Often the picture or photograph on a postcard is unconnected with the message, but where they reinforce each other this can be very effective in putting across a particular message. And postcards can do this in an electronic format, as shown by an article which appeared a few weeks ago in the Daily Maverick, an online independent South African opinion and newspaper. It is by Thom Pierce and entitled ‘Postcards from Xolobeni’ and provides an important example of how playing on the epistolary form can be used to great effect in particular circumstances. To read more, please visit the blog: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/blog/postcards-from-xolobeni/
From the Blog: In search of the traces: Van Gogh and archival research
There is now an established literature which sets out to describe the mechanics and ‘noise’ of archival research by explaining the different activities, twists and turns that are involved. Bernadette Murphy’s (2016) Van Gogh’s Ear is an enthralling, well-written and informative addition to the genre which can be recommended to every beginning and indeed every experienced archival researcher too. This is an account of how Murphy – not an academic, long-term resident in the Arles area in southern France, knowledgeable about local institutions, competent in French, curious about Van Gogh, determined to find out as much as she could – went about trying to solve the mystery of Van Gogh’s ear. Exactly what did he cut off? Why did he do it? To read more, please visit the blog: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/blog/in-search-of-the-traces/
From the Blog: At the BSA conference: letters, diaries, travelling theory
We were at the BSA annual conference 10-12 April in Newcastle, partly to hang out, partly to see who is who and what is what, partly to give papers, Emilia on the complications in some Forbes diary entries regarding what we now call race and ethnicity, and Liz on South African letters and the racialising process. Our two papers were different in that they were concerned with whether and to what extent Elias’s ideas travel in the sense of whether they can be modified, expanded and generally re-shaped to address the events and circumstances of other parts of the world and specifically South Africa. The most exciting thing is that out of a question we were asked about the relationship between diaries and letters concerning gossip, we have decided to offer a joint paper at the forthcoming Norbert Elias conference in Brussels in December. Stay tuned! And to read more, please visit the blog: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/blog/from-the-bsa-conference/
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2. Sociology Lens call for contributions
Sociology Lens is an active and popular community website which brings together news, opinion, reviews and sociology research resources. The site aims to offer a lively and informative venue for faculty, graduate students, professionals and the wider public to discuss current issues in sociology. Originally launched as a companion to the online review journal, Sociology Compass, we are also linked to the associated industry leading Twitter profile Sociology Lens which is followed by nearly 30,000 researchers, policy-makers, practitioners, students, and professional organizations globally.
We’re looking for new contributors! To submit an article to Sociology Lens or join our team of sub-editors, please contact editor@sociologylens.net with a copy of your CV and details about your area of research.
Sociology Lens publishes articles in any and all of the following areas:
Sociology and current events, including the role of sociology in public discourse and mainstream media, placing a contemporary issue in sociological context.
Discipline-specific news such changes in teaching curricula, textbook controversies, new sources of funding, job search issues, upcoming conferences, post-conference reports.
Digital sociology such as reviews of new online collections, declassified documents, databases, or even an interview with the project’s founder.
Arts and book reviews – less formal than a review, a perspective on a new book, article, or film, and what it offers for your field.
Interviews and profiles of sociologists across the entire discipline, including researchers, authors, journal editors, society officials, activists, educators and other professionals.
Any other topics that offer perspectives and shine a light on different aspects of sociology today.
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3. Volume VII of the European Journal of Life Writing online
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF LIFE WRITING
The 2018 Volume of The European Journal of Life Writing is now online: http://ejlw.eu/
So far, the following articles have been published:
ARTICLES
Helma van Lierop: How the Reader Matters. Autobiographies of Childhood for Young Readers
LIFE WRITING “FROM BELOW” IN EUROPE
T.G. Ashplant: Life Writing “from Below” in Europe: Introduction
T.G. Ashplant: Life Writing “from Below” in Europe: Authors, Archives, Avenues, Arenas
Anna Kuismin: Unlikely Documents? Exploring Finnish Nineteenth-Century Life Writing From Below
Nathalie Ponsard: Life Writing from Below in France
Martyn Lyons: Prison Letters: Spain Confronts Its Past
CREATIVE MATTERS
Jane Wildgoose, Roelof Bakker: Strong Room: Material Memories and the Digital Record
REVIEWS AND REPORTS
Dennis Kersten: Kenneth Womack’s Maximum Volume. The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin. The Early Years, 1926–1966
Clare Brant: Hisham Matar. The Return: Fathers, sons and the land in between
Jerome Boyd Maunsell: Sarah Herbe and Gabriele Linke (eds.). British Autobiography in the 20th and 21st Centuries
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IABA-L: A LIST FOR LIFE WRITING
International Auto/Biography Association
https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/iaba/home
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4. Biography and Public History Conference: Registration now open
Registration is now open for the conference, “Biography and Public History: Constructing Historical Narratives through Life-Writing” at the University of Nottingham Music Department on 20 June 2018.
From Plutarch’s Parallel Lives to Gordon Brown’s recent My Life, Our Times, life-writing has long dealt not only with individuals, but also with the times in which they lived. The discipline traverses historical, cultural, social, political and literary realms. As such, life-writing is a unique medium enabling authors to construct complex historical narratives through the eyes of a particular person. Memoirs, diaries, and other forms of life-writing can also fill gaps in the documentary record, offering historical information that may not be found elsewhere. This interdisciplinary conference aims to explore the myriad ways in which the medium of life-writing has and is being used as a means of constructing and understanding history. As a key characteristic of life-writing is its ability to cross disciplinary boundaries, proposals from a range of disciplines are welcomed.
The keynote will be given by Professor Frances Spalding, CBE FRSL (University of Cambridge).
For more details and to register please follow this link: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-arts/humanities/music/biography-and-public-history/biography-public-history.aspx
The conference is free to attend. Registration closes on 6 June 2018.
Dr Joanne Cormac
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
B7, Department of Music
The University of Nottingham
University Park, NG7 2RD
Twitter: @Joanne Cormac
Latest book: Liszt and the Symphonic Poem
www.cambridge.org/9781107181410
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5. [MASSOBS] Opportunity with SAGE
Have you used Mass Observation data for research? Or collected qualitative data as part of a research project?
SAGE Publishing are looking to commission a series of data-sets by researchers that will illustrate how different methods could be applied to narrative data.
If you are interested in finding out further information see http://methods.sagepub.com/qualitativedatasets
Permission would be required from our Literary Agents on behalf of the Mass Observation Trustees if you choose to use Mass Observation material as fees may apply.
Jessica Scantlebury
The Mass Observation Archive
The Keep
Woollards Way
Brighton
BN1 9BP
j.c.scantlebury@sussex.ac.uk
+441273 337515
Working days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
www.massobs.org.uk
www.thekeep.info
twitter.com/MassObsArchive
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6. International Georg Simmel Association and Conference
Dear friends and colleagues,
I’m writing to you to tell you that an international Georg Simmel association has been born, and to inform you that our first academic activity will be to organise a conference next October – almost coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Simmel’s death. I am attaching the call for papers to this message, and you’ll also be able to find it following this link: https://georgsimmelassociation.wordpress.com/call-for-papers/
Please do feel free to forward this message to colleagues who may be interested in this event and initiative.
Looking forward to greeting many of you next October,
yours,
Natàlia.
—
Dr. Natàlia Cantó Milà
Estudis d’Arts i Humanitats
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
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7. MONUMENTS AND MEMORY (10/27/2018; 3/21-24/2019) INCS 2019 Dallas Texas
Dear Victoria(nists),
I am pleased to post the CFP for INCS 2019, March 21-24 at the Dallas Marriott City Center, on the theme Monuments and Memory.
Submissions due October 27, 2018. I will repost later, when I have a web page with a submission portal. Meanwhile, you may send inquiries to me directly at bnewman@smu.edu, or to INCS2019@smu.edu.
Keynote speakers:
Lauren Goodlad, Professor of English, Rutgers University; Neil Foley, Robert H. and Nancy Dedman Chair in History and Co-Director, Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University.
Ongoing public debate over politically charged public monuments reminds us how much is at stake in the shaping of cultural memory, whether through durable physical structures, portable or reproducible aesthetic works, or discursive representations. How were monumentality and the preservation of the past conceived in the nineteenth century? How might we reconceive our own ways of remembering the nineteenth century? We invite proposals for papers and panels that explore monuments in the broadest sense of the word—those from as well as those about the nineteenth century. We also welcome papers that consider the concepts of monumentality and/or memory as they pertain to humanistic disciplines and engage with nineteenth-century studies. Papers might nominate “monuments” (including scholarly ones) that are overvalued, under-appreciated, or ripe for dismantling; explore works, genres, or forms that encourage remembering; analyze nineteenth-century representations of or discourses about memory or monuments; consider the value of ephemera or the contested return to big ideas via digital means that outstrip human memory and cognition. Other topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
Public monuments
Antiques, relics, and ruins
Monumental texts, paintings, musical compositions
Monuments of conquest and empire
Museums and museum studies
Archives, records and record-keeping
Monuments, mass production and mass consumption
Countermonumentality and antimonumentality
Post-historicist and presentist approaches to the past
Canons and countercanons
Crafting a national history
Crafting global histories
Grands récits and the longue durée
(Monumentally) big ideas
Gaps, silences, and the historical record
Amnesia and repression
Trauma, memory, and forgetting
History painting and the formation of identities
Commemorative music
Pageants, anniversary celebrations, and local histories
People, places, and things remembered and forgotten
Ephemera
Postcards, celebrity photography, and souvenirs
Personal mementos (souvenirs, gift books)
Memory and 19th-century mourning traditions
Nostalgia and cultural myth making
The invention of tradition
Folk art, folk tales, and folk lore
Bodily mementos (tattoos, hair jewelry)
Monuments, gender, and/or sexuality
Memory and aesthetic form
Historical novels
The pastoral
Elegies, tributes, encomiums
Ekphrasis
Victorian medievalism, Victorian neo-classicism
Neo-Victorianism/steampunk as cultural memory
Pre-Raphaelitism
Tableaux vivants
Memorization and repetition
Deadline: October 27, 2018. For individual papers, send 250-word proposals; for panels, send individual proposals plus a 250-word panel description. Please include a one-page CV with your name, affiliation, and email address. Proposals that are interdisciplinary in method or panels that involve multiple disciplines are especially welcome. Send inquiries to INCS2019@smu.edu. For graduate student travel subventions, contact Shalyn Claggett (src173@msstate.edu).
Thank you—
Beth Newman
Southern Methodist University
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IABA-L: A LIST FOR LIFE WRITING
International Auto/Biography Association
https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/iaba/home
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Last updated: 11 May 2018
