UPDATE: The Historical Novel (11/15/03; PCA/ACA, 4/7/04-4/10/04)

The 25th Annual Conference of the Southwest region of the Popular =
Culture

Association/American Culture Association will be held in San Antonio =
from April

7-10, 2004. The Southwestern region of PCA/ACA accepts scholarly papers =
from

academics, students, and professionals for presentation. The PCA's =
mission is "to promote an innovative and nontraditional academic =
movement in Humanities and Social Sciences, to provide an outlet for =
scholars, writers, and others interested in popular culture, to share =
ideas in a professional atmosphere, and to have papers presented at =
meetings."=20

 THE PAST IS JUST A GOOD BUY (pace Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young)

 I haven't divided these suggestions for papers into any particular =
categories, but you could of course think in terms of the ancient world, =
Egypt, Roman, Greece, prehistory; the middle ages; the long 18th =
century; the American (or Canadian or Australian) West. Or you could =
approach the works of one writer, e.g. Patrick O'Brien or Dorothy =
Dunnett.=20

Since this is the first year of this section, we are open to most =
approaches. I have suggested some possible topics. Feel free to propose =
one of your own. Deadline for submissions is 15 November, 2003. Please =
send your 200-300 word proposal to me as a text message ( I really don't =
open attachments) at holtfort_at_oswego.edu=20

 What do we expect of good historical fiction? Excellent stories, period =
accuracy, good characters?=20

 What is an historical novel?What makes one successful? Readership? =
Critical acclaim?=20

 How important is the geography of the story? What part does it play? =
Can it become a character?=20

 How does genre affect the product? Do we think less of the historical =
romance than we do of the historical mystery? Are both of them a =
'lesser' product compared to the straight historical novel. Why are all =
of them, for the most part, considered less serious than other fiction?

 The difficulty of putting oneself into the emotional and psychological =
reality of another time challenges the author to create or recreate an =
authenticity that the reader has no clear way of evaluating. How do =
various authors meet that challenge? Do readers care?=20

 Historical novel as history. Is it history?

 How might current critical theories (feminist, Marxist, post colonial, =
new historical, etc.) impact our readings of these texts?=20

 Historical detective fiction. Successful fusions of the two genres.What =
works? What doesn't? How do the historical detectives compare to modern =
ones?

Historical romance. What to do about those modern women stuck in the =
past? Can we make believable characters? Do we want to in this genre? =
What do women readers want in character and story?

 The importance of research and how to go about it. The librarian is =
your best friend.

Anachronism. Is it a problem?

Language-how to get it right. Who does? Who doesn't?

Dialog-how to make it sound real. This is different from the language of =
the narration.

 Truth vs a good story

 Emotions--culturally appropriate expression of them. Can we do it =
realistically? Should we even try?

 Papers should fit within a 15-minute reading time.

=20

 Cher Holt-Fortin

English Department

SUNY Oswego

Oswego, NY

=20

Basic information about the conference will soon replace last year's =
pages

on the PCA.ACA web site: http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~swpca/

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Received on Mon Sep 08 2003 - 00:56:00 EDT