The Frank Norris Society is excited to announce its 2016 panel for the American Literature Association’s 27th Annual Conference, which will be held May 26-29 in San Francisco, CA.

Conference Website: http://alaconf.org/

Panel Title: Frank Norris and American Literary Naturalism

Organized by the Frank Norris Society

Chair: Eric Carl Link, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

1. “’It Faces Every Child of Man’: Readers, Imagined Violence, and Culpability in American Literary Naturalism,” Adam Wood, Salisbury University

2. “’Erotic Economy’: Domesticity, Desire, and the Women of McTeague,” Nicole de Fee, Louisiana Tech University

3. “Foodways & Nation-Building: The Domestic Decline of The Octopus,” Lauren Navarro, LaGuardia Community College

4. “Frank Norris and the Legacy of Higher Biblical Criticism,” Steven Bembridge, University of East Anglia

American Literature Association 27th Annual Conference

May 26-29, 2016

San Francisco, CA

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Frank Norris Society

The Frank Norris Society will sponsor two sessions at the American Literature Association Conference at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco in Embarcadero Center on May 26-29, 2016.

Session One: Issues in American Literary Naturalism. This session will focus on broader treatments of American literary naturalism (whether directly related to Frank Norris or not). Possible topics might include definitional studies, treatments of American literary naturalism in the context of late nineteenth-century culture and history, examinations of literary naturalism in the twentieth century, and related topics.

Session Two: Open Topic. Any aspect of Frank Norris’s work or life will be considered.

Presentations will be limited to 20 minutes

Please email abstracts or papers of no more than ten double-spaced pages by January 15, 2016, to the program chair:

Eric Carl Link eric.link@ipfw.edu

For further information about the conference, please consult the ALA website at http://www.americanliteratureassociation.org or contact the conference director, Professor

Alfred Bendixen of Princeton University at ab23@princeton.edu with specific questions.

Please visit our newly added page Frank Norris Studies (1986-2004), which now provides access to PDF versions of each issue. The society is delighted to have these available on the site. Enjoy!

Welcome to the new website for the Frank Norris Society. The society is currently in a state of transition, but is always open to new members (membership is currently free–see “Membership” page for more information). Also, please see our “Links” page to check out other Norris-related organizations. Be sure to check back here for information on CFP’s and other Norris and Naturalism news!

Most recently, the Frank Norris Society had another successful year at the 2015 American Literature Association’s Conference in Boston, sponsoring the following two panels:

Subversion, Gender, and Physicality in Norris, Dreiser, and London
Chair: Eric Carl Link, University of Memphis
1. “’Feasting & Starving with Frank Norris,” Lauren Navarro, LaGuardia Community College
2. “Nonhuman Animals and the Naturalist Brute Within,” Jane Van Slembrouck, Fordham University
3. “A Sapphist Precedent: Lesbian Characters in the Naturalist Tradition,” Kathryn Klein, Vanderbilt University
4. “Jack London, Boxing, & the Naturalist Exercise in Physical Fitness,” Cara Erdheim, Sacred Heart University

Frank Norris and American Literary Naturalism
Chair: Steven Frye, California State University Bakersfield
1. “’The Thing That Isn’t Meant to Be Seen’: Violence and/as Form in American Literary Naturalism,” Adam Wood, Salisbury University
2. “Rethinking Frank Norris’s Vital Materialism,” Brandon Carr, University of Illinois
3. “Frank Norris’s McTeague: A Precursor to the Revisionist Western,” Hannah Huber, University of South Carolina
4. “From Los Muertos to The Cabin in the Woods: Naturalism’s Frontier Anxiety and Monstrous Obsessions,” Nicole de Fee, Louisiana Tech University