‘The F Word in Contemporary Women’s Writing’ was the fourth biennial conference of the PG CWWN. It was held at Queen’s University, Belfast on the 4 – 5 April 2013.
Keynote Speaker: Professor Diane Negra
Diane Negra is Professor of Film Studies and Screen Culture and Head of Film Studies at University College Dublin. She is the author, editor or co-editor of eight books, among them In the Limelight and Under the Microscope: Forms and Functions of Female Celebrity, (Continuum, 2011), What a Girl Wants?: Fantasizing the Reclamation of Self in Postfeminism (Routledge, 2008), Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture (Duke, 2007), and most recently Gendering the Recession (forthcoming, Duke 2013).
Her keynote was be titled ‘Claiming Feminism: Commentary, Autobiography and Advice Literature for Women in the Recession’.
PhD & Early Career Workshop, led by Dr Helen Davies: Publishing on Contemporary Women’s Writing
Associate Lecturer in English Literature at Leeds Metropolitan University, Helen is an early career researcher with an impressive publication record. Her first book, Gender and Ventriloquism in Victorian and Neo-Victorian Fiction shall be published by Palgrave Macmillan in September 2012 and she has already published several articles and book chapters on queer studies, Oscar Wilde and contemporary women’s writing.
Feminism has always found significant expression in creative and critical literature, from poetry and pamphlets to modes of the digital age: Twittering and blogging. Yet with its shifting social and political manifestations, the term feminism itself has frequently been seen to raise as many questions as supposed answers, leaving it open to revision, contestation and new expression. This conference seeks to examine the varied and diverse ways in which contemporary women’s writing since 1970 has engaged with and continues to respond to the ‘the f word’.
Marking the centenary of Emily Wilding Davison’s legacy on the women’s movement, this two-day conference will investigate how feminisms are particularly represented within contemporary women’s writing in its broadest sense: from novels and short stories through to journalism and children’s literature. This cross-genre approach aims to consider the wider social and cultural impact of feminist politics, including the influence of new media and social networks.
‘The F Word in Contemporary Women’s Writing’ seeks responses which examine the generational implications of first, second and third wave feminism(s) and postfeminism upon contemporary literary culture. How might contemporary women’s writing emphasise the legacy and continuing relevancy of feminism? And how might literature effect possible feminist futures?
Download the conference programme.
Visualisation of digital conference activities.
Read a Conference Report on the event.
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