Category Archives: Howells Society

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The William Dean Howells Society will host two panels at the 29th Annual American Literature Association Conference to be held in San Francisco, May 24-27, 2018.

William Dean Howells and Democracy Thursday, 9-10:20am

1. “Democracy and Trust in the Oeuvre of William Dean Howells,” Margit Peterfy, University of Heidelberg

2. “Utopian Visions, Realist Plans: William Dean Howells and the Birth of American Urban Planning,” Michael Gastiger, Brown University

3.“Will and Walt: Urbanism, Democracy, Aesthetics,” John Sampson, Johns Hopkins University

Howells and the Politics of Subjectivity: Gender, Class, and Race
Thursday, 1:30-2:50

1. “’I tried to see her as you do’: Gendered Subjectivity and William Dean Howells’s The Coast of Bohemia,” Jennifer Leigh Moffitt, Florida Southern College

2. “Democracy and American Girls: Gender, Class, and ‘Race’ in William Dean Howells’ International Novels,” Naoko Sugiyama, Japan Women’s University

3. “’The Instinct of Righteous Shame’: Liberal Guilt in Annie Kilburn,” Harry Wonham, University of Oregon

Howells Society Business & Planning Meeting Thursday, 3-4:20 Everyone is welcome! Take part in planning upcoming Society events, including next year’s ALA panel topics and the centenary of Howells’ death in 1920.

Howells Society Panels at ALA 2017 (Boston)

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Thursday, May 25

Session 1-J 9:00-10:20

On the Neglected Works of William Dean Howells (Helilcon, 7th Floor)

Organized by the William Dean Howells Society

Chair: Andrew Ball, Lindenwood University

1. “Howells’s Critical Poetic Engagement with Race and Lynching,” Patricia Chaudron, University at Buffalo

2. “‘The slow martyrdom of her sickness malady’: William Dean Howells’ ‘Sketch of Winnie’s Life’,” Lindsey Grubbs, Emory University

3. “Howells’s The Whole Family: A Collaborative Failure?,” Gregory J. Stratman, American Public University

Session 2-F, 10:30-11:50

Howells on Race and Class in the Gilded Age (Essex North Center, 3rd Floor)

Organized by the William Dean Howells Society

Chair: Andrew Ball, Lindenwood University

1. “A Farce and Failure of a Novel: Farcical Realism in William Dean Howells’s An Imperative Duty,” Lisa McGunigal, The Pennsylvania State University

2. “An Imperative Duty and the Idea of Race in the Late 19th Century,” Naoko Sugiyama, Japan Women’s University

3. “Marble Halls and Tenement Houses: Proxemics between the Middle Class and Working Class During the Gilded Age,” Kirsten Clemens, Appalachian State University

4. “An Innocent Abroad: Mr. Homos, the Altrurian Traveler,” M.M. Dawley, Boston University

Session 3-L 12:00 – 1:20 pm

Business Meeting: William Dean Howells Society (Essex Center, 3rd Floor)

W. D. Howells Panels at ALA 2014 in Washington, D. C.

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Thursday, May 22, 2014

Session 4-J William Dean Howells & Ethical Values
1:30-2:50 p.m.
Organized by the William Dean Howells Society

Chair: Dan Mrozowski, Trinity College
1. “A Hazard of New Entitlements: The Politics of Pensions in William Dean Howells’s A Hazard of
New Fortunes,” Daniel Graham, University Connecticut-Storrs
2. “Redemptive Realism: Liberation Soteriology in the Novels of William Dean Howells,” Andrew Ball,
Lindenwood University
3. “Howells’ Christian Faith in ‘A World Come of Age’,” Thomas Wortham, UCLA

Session 5-G William Dean Howells in the 1890s
3:00-4:20
Organized by the William Dean Howells Society

Chair: Dan Mrozowski, Trinity College

1. “William Dean Howells, a Realist Poetics, and the Limits of 1890s American Democracy,” Patricia
Chaudron, University of Buffalo
2. “William Dean Howells’s Failed Utopia from the Feminine Narrative View,” Margaret Jay Jessee,
University of Alabama-Birmingham
3. “Our ‘Imperative Duty’: Why Teach Howells’s Novella Now,” Charles Baraw, Southern Connecticut
State University

Session 6-L Business Meeting: William Dean Howells Society
4:30-5:50