Margaret Oliphant in Context
6 July 2015
Victorian Studies Centre
University of Leicester
A conference on the Victorian novelist, biographer, literary critic and historian Margaret Oliphant (1828-97) is being held at the Victorian Studies Centre, University of Leicester, to celebrate the publication of the 25 volume Selected Works of Margaret Oliphant, (Pickering and Chatto, 2011-16) under the general editorship of Joanne Shattock and Elisabeth Jay. See www.pickeringchatto.com/oliphant
Margaret Oliphant was a Victorian woman of letters, who wrote across multiple genres: fiction, literary criticism, history, travel writing, and biography. Her Autobiography (1899) is justly celebrated as a unique writing life. In her reviewing and in her wider journalism, her subjects included literature in English and European languages, philosophy, theology, art and current social issues, especially those affecting women. She was also a translator and a series editor.
Papers are invited on all aspects of Oliphant’s writing from her subject matter to her use of a variety of genres. Comparisons with other Victorian writers are encouraged. Topics might include but are not confined to:
serial fiction; the short story ; life writing; journalism; reviewing ; travel writing; translation; literary history; social history; the supernatural; independent women; Scotland; the prolific writer; the professionalization of literature
Deadline for paper and panel proposals 2 March 2015
Please submit a 250-300 word proposal to victorianstudies@le.ac.uk . Papers will be limited to 20 minutes. Proposals for panels of two or three papers are welcome.