INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE SCHEDULED ON LITERATURE AND CULTURE OF THE "SPACE BETWEEN" the WORLD WARS

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Scholars from the University of Arkansas, Yale, Cambridge, and as far away as the University of Vienna will gather May 17-19 for an interdisciplinary conference focused on the art, literature, and culture that emerged between the two World Wars of the 20th century. Participants will address the way issues of regionalism, nationalism, and internationalism reshaped the literature and culture of the period.

Titled "Representing Regionalism, Nationalism and Internationalism in the Space Between, 1914-1945," the conference will be held at the Center for Continuing Education. Jane Marcus of the City University of New York Graduate Center, the renowned Virginia Woolf critic and scholar of women in modernity, will deliver the keynote address, "Putting Down the White Woman’s Burden: Michael Arlen and Mulk Raj Anand," at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 18.

"At this particular conference, we will be examining how the concepts of regionalism and nationalism changed between the First and Second World Wars, how internationalism as a political ideal became represented in the arts and culture of the time. Although some scholars will focus on specific works of literature, the emphasis will be their significance in relation to the broader cultural contexts of nation, region, gender and class," said Debra Rae Cohen, conference organizer. The conference is being hosted by the department of English and the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

The conference marks the fourth annual meeting of The Space Between, an interdisciplinary group of scholars who study the culture of the period, moving beyond the narrowly defined canon of modern literature to discuss overlooked texts, neglected authors, and new approaches to understanding the interwar period.

Other featured sessions will include a panel on Marxism and Proletarianism featuring Keith Booker of the UA English department and Patrick Deane of the University of Western Ontario. On Saturday the 19th, Robert Brinkmeyer, chair of the UA English department, and Waldemar Zacharasiewicz of the University of Vienna will hold a panel discussion on "American Regionalism." Other subjects range from the "brawny bombshells" featured on the posters of WWI to suburban fantasies in interwar England.

All sessions will be held on the 4th floor of the Center for Continuing Education and will be open to the public. The conference opens Thursday afternoon, May 17, with a panel on Southern literature. A complete conference schedule is online at http://www.uark.edu/misc/spacebtw/