International Conference, Sponsored by The Elizabeth von Arnim Society and supported by The Open University (UK), King’s College (US), and Misericordia University (US). Online, 17-18 September 2022.
- About the conference
- Conference programme
- Keynote speaker Margaret Stetz
- Paper Abstracts
- Conference participant biographies
Conference programme
Saturday, 17 September 2022
Welcome and Introductions (10:00-10:15 am BST)
Panel 1 (10:30 am-12:00 pm BST): No Laughing Matter? Comedy and Feminist Politics
Moderator: Jennifer Shepherd
- Zhen Liu, “‘When a man speaks according to his thoughts in America—that is called a joke. That is a joke, is it not?’: Humour in Edith Eaton’s writing”
- Ann Heilman, “The Comedy of Misdirection: Militant Femininity, Laughter, and Reader Seduction in Edwardian Suffrage Narratives”
- Noreen O’Connor, “‘Pa, I have runned off with the boarder’: Early film and the feminist comedy of women who run away”
Panel 2 (12:30 – 2:00 pm BST): Laughter over the Lifespan
Moderator: Nick Turner
- Jennifer Shepherd, “‘Getting Old is No Joke’: Elizabeth von Arnim’s Mr. Skeffington and the Comedy of Female Aging”
- Ann Herndon Marshall, “The Age Wars: Intergenerational Comedy by Vita Sackville-West and Elizabeth von Arnim”
- Jane McVeigh, “Richmal Crompton’s Frankenstein and Her Monster, William Brown”
Panel 3 (2:30-4:00 pm BST): Inter-War Irony: Part I
Moderator: Jennifer Shepherd
- Richard Cappuccio, “‘The whole tone of the thing’: The Satiric Voice in Katherine Mansfield and Rose Macaulay”
- Diana Hirst, “Hunt the Thimble! Treasure Hunts! Jigsaw Puzzles! Elizabeth Bowen’s Party Games”
- Francesca Pierini, “The Garden and the Playground: The Italian Landscape as Catalyst of Change and Restorative Force in Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April“
Keynote Address (5:00 – 6:00 pm BST)
Introduction: Noreen O’Connor
- Margaret Stetz: “Ptomaine Street: Carolyn Wells and Long-Form Parody”
Elizabeth Von Arnim Society Business Meeting (6:30-7:30 pm BST)
*** See you tomorrow! ***
Sunday, 18 September 2022
Welcome (10:00-10:15 am BST)
Panel 4 (10:30 am – 12:00 pm BST): Post-War Humour
Moderator: Nick Turner
- Astyartha Das, “The disabled woman behind mischief-maker William: Examining Richmal Crompton’s comedy in Just William’s Luck (1948)”
- Anna Szirák, “The comic modes of girlhood in Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle“
- Edit Galla, “Indecent Exposure: Poking fun at impostors in Stevie Smith’s poems”
Panel 5 (12:30-2:00 pm BST): Interwar Irony: Part II
Moderator: Noreen O’Connor
- Tom Zille, “Austenian Irony in Women’s Fiction of the Interwar Years”
- Mario Valori, “Chimney’s a Fine and Private Play”
- Juliane Roemhild, “The Truth about Themselves’: The Diaries of Elizabeth and the Provincial Lady”
Panel 6 (2:30-4:00 pm BST): Laughter on stage and screen
Moderator: Jennifer Shepherd
- Zsófia Anna Tóth, “Mae West and ‘Charged Humour’”
- Sue Kennedy, “Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady (1925): ‘The Great American Novel’ or ‘a frivolous exercise written for a female audience’?”
- Brad Bigelow, “Virginia Faulkner and the Limits of Wisecracking”
- Katherine Murray, “‘Not Like Other Girls’: Confronting the Crisis of Masculinity
Panel 7 (4:30-6:00 pm BST): Early Twentieth-Century Humour
Moderator: Juliane Roemhild
- Judith Hendra, “Beatrice Hastings’s The Maid’s Comedy“
- Leslie de Bont, “Perhaps he thinks he’s Jupiter”: May Sinclair’s parody of the patriarchal self in Mr. Waddington of Wyck (1921)
- Nick Turner, “‘The Naked Seagull’: control versus absurdity in Barbara Pym’s early work”
Cocktails, Coffee, and Comedy Hour Discussion (6:30-7:30 pm BST)
Moderator: Nick Turner
