{"id":174,"date":"2017-05-18T18:47:02","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T18:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eudoraweltysociety.org\/?page_id=174"},"modified":"2026-10-27T21:46:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T21:46:02","slug":"call-for-papers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/eudoraweltysociety.org\/?page_id=174","title":{"rendered":"Call for Papers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Call for Papers for the 2027 American Literature Association Conference<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1. Moveable Feasts: Biblical Allusions and Uses of the Spiritual in Welty\u2019s Work<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Though not a churchgoer herself, Eudora Welty was christened in the Methodist church and grew up in a Mississippi landscape steeped in spirituality, certainly through organized religion but also culturally through biblical stories, folklore, and gospel music that permeated the region across gendered and racial lines. She notes in\u00a0One Writer\u2019s Beginnings<\/i>\u00a0that beyond her mother\u2019s example, she came to view \u201c[h]oliness\u201d most clearly through her travels, experiences that gave her \u201ca love of sitting and reading the Bible for [herself] and looking up things in it\u201d (33). \u201cIts cadence,\u201d she writes, \u201centered into our ears and our memories . . . [and] the ghost of it, lingers in all our books\u201d (34). Welty, a voracious reader, was also intimately familiar with a plethora of classical works, art, and authors across disciplines that were inspired by the biblical and the spiritual\u2014artists with whom her work engaged.<\/p>\n

In centering biblical allusions and spiritual referents broadly, this panel asks what \u201cghost[s] of it\u201d dwell in Welty\u2019s work? What exactly do such traces contribute to our critical understanding of her opus? Papers might consider but are not limited to:<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Uses of biblical names\/figures, stories, places, parables, or types (good Samaritan, prodigal son, etc.).<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Presence and import of gospel, hymns, and other forms of spiritual performance or art.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Secular transformations and applications of doctrine (predestination, the Trinity, etc.) and tenets of Social Gospel (see Peggy W. Prenshaw\u2019s \u201cEudora Welty\u2019s Language of the Spirit\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Political uses of the spiritual that speak to historical issues and\/or those in Welty\u2019s own lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Engagement with other writers\u2019 uses of the biblical and spiritual.<\/p>\n

Please send 250-word abstracts and 100-word bios to Rebecca Harrison at rharriso@westga.edu<\/a> by\u00a0December 4th.<\/b>\u00a0Earlier statements of interest are strongly encouraged.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

2. Towards Theories of Character and Quirk in Eudora Welty's Fiction<\/b><\/p>\n

In 2026, two of our Welty panels profitably focused on a number of weird and seemingly minor characters scattered across her work. These incidents and understudied figures were repeatedly revealed to be major in the roles they played, significantly altering their fictions. Together, the panelists' papers began to suggest some curious questions. Are Welty's \"minor\" characters always major? Are there patterns to be found in her uses of the weird? Does Welty innovate by colliding uncanny oddity with character development? Does she vaunt and flaunt a technique of the bizarre? Is this a technique that she uses in developing her major as well as her minor characters? Do her patterns suggest techniques we can identify, name, and examine? This panel will reenter and recenter our discussion of character and quirk.<\/p>\n

In addition to any of the above questions, topics may include, but are not limited to:<\/p>\n

\u00b7 specific character's weirdness, uncanniness, or quirkiness<\/p>\n

\u00b7 quirky characters who speak to\/for\/with\/against dominant social or narrative structures<\/p>\n

\u00b7 close reading of a fleeting moment or revelatory passage in which odd\/weird\/bizarre\/uncanny\/eerie framing and\/or language brings understanding of a character and\/or a fiction<\/p>\n

\u00b7 readings of weird detail or plot turns<\/p>\n

\u00b7 uses of the uncanny, fantasy, or dream in developing characters<\/p>\n

\u00b7 also welcome\u2014papers that approach understudied characters such as the MacLain brothers or underdiscussed characters relationships such as the MacLain boys as brothers<\/p>\n

Statements of interest are requested asap. Please send ~250 word abstracts and ~100 word bios by\u00a0December 4th<\/b>\u00a0to Harriet Pollack pollackh@cofc.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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