Pre-Neo-Liberalisms and the Novel By: Jackie Kellish and Hannah Rogers The Symposium Our goal in planning this symposium was to convene a discussion among graduate students and faculty at Duke with invited speakers and roundtable participants from other universities in which consider how the novel takes and/or resists the turn from liberalism to neoliberalism. In the process, we hoped to unearth an alternative genealogy of neoliberalism. Some questions we hoped to take up were: At what… read more about Pre-Neo-Liberalisms Symposium Recap »
An Evening with Colson Whitehead By: Justin Mitchell On April 19th the Novel Project at Duke in collaboration with Novel: A Forum on Fiction, the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, the English Department, the Center for International Studies/Global Cities, and the Department of African-American Studies hosted author Colson Whithead at Duke University's Nasher Auditorium. Whitehead, whose celebrated works include the zombie novel Zone One and the essay collection The Colossus of… read more about An Evening with Colson Whitehead Recap »
Join the V21 Collective for festive libations in Pittsburgh! Thursday 12 May 8pm-10pm Fuel & Fuddle (basement room reserved) 212 Oakland Ave, a few blocks from the Wyndham Details and more at: http://v21collective.org For more information about SNS 2016: http://novel.trinity.duke.edu/sns/2016-conference read more about V21 Party at SNS Conference »
The Novel Project at Duke in collaboration with the journal Novel: A Forum on Fiction, the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, the English Department, the Center for International Studies/Global Cities, and the Department of African-American Studies would like to invite you to “An Evening with Colson Whitehead.” Please join us on April 19th at the Nasher Museum Auditorium, where award-winning novelist Colson Whitehead will speak about his latest work and… read more about An Evening with Colson Whitehead: April 19 »
Pre-Neo-Liberalisms and the Novel The fourth annual symposium of NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction Friday, April 8 Franklin Humanities Institute (Smith Warehouse, 114 S. Buchanan Blvd., Bay 4) Our goal in planning this symposium was to convene a discussion among graduate students and faculty at Duke with invited speakers and roundtable participants from other universities in which consider how the novel takes and/or resists the turn from liberalism to neoliberalism. In the process, we hope to unearth an… read more about Spring 2016 NOVEL Symposium at Duke: Pre-Neo-Liberalisms and the Novel »
NOVEL and The Novel Project are excited to announce that Bruce Robbins from Columbia will be visiting Duke on March 3-4. On Thursday, March 3rd at 5:30, he will give a talk titled “Atrocity and the Novel” in Allen 314. On Friday, March 4th, 12:00-1:30, he will lead a seminar with graduate students in Allen 314. In advance, Robbins will provide new or in-progress work to discuss. Lunch will be provided, and participants will be capped at 20. Please email novel.forum@duke.edu to secure a space, a lunch, and copies of… read more about Bruce Robbins: Atrocity and the Novel »
The Mellon Foundation Humanities Writ Large and Duke University Middle East Studies Center will host award-winning Syrian novelist, screenwriter, and poet Khaled Khalifa at Duke University from Feb. 10-12, 2016. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, see the schedule and/or flyer below for more information. Feb. 10-Writing Fiction When Your Country Is Falling Apart 5:00 p.m., Ahmadieh Family Conference Hall, Franklin Center 240 Feb. 11-In Praise of Hatred: A… read more about Khaled Khalifa: Duke University, Feb. 10-12 »
Written By: Tavid Mulder and Michelle Rada THE SYMPOSIUM A vital and constantly shifting form, the novel is technological in distinctive ways. Thus, the novel can be approached as a site that enables us to think about what technology is and how it functions. At the same time, the explosion of interest in new technologies throws into relief previously unnoticed aspects of the novel. Novel Technologies engages current discussions regarding novel form through the lens of the technological.… read more about NOVEL TECHNOLOGIES RECAP »
NOVEL TECHNOLOGIES November 6-7, 2015 at Brown University Location: Crystal Room, Alumnae Hall, 194 Meeting Street, Providence, RI 02912 That widely diffused representational technology known as the Novel. D. A. Miller, Jane Austen, or The Secret of Style A vital and constantly shifting form, the novel is technological in distinctive ways. Thus, the novel can be approached as a site that enables us to think about what technology is and how it functions; at the same… read more about Fall 2015 NOVEL Symposium at Brown: NOVEL TECHNOLOGIES »
Are the novel and world literature mutually constitutive, at least in part, or fundamentally opposed in important ways? How have the disparate politics, economics, translation practices, cultural institutions, and more of a global modernity stretching across centuries shaped the novel? This conference brings together over 150 scholars and three distinguished keynote speakers in order to probe these and other questions. We look forward to welcoming you to Pittsburgh for SNS 2016. Jonathan Arac and Gayle Rogers, co-… read more about Society for Novel Studies Biennial Conference: The Novel in or Against World Literature »
On Thursday, September 3, Duke University Middle East Studies Center, the Novel Project, the Franklin Humanities Institute, and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies sponsored the event “In Memoriam: Assia Djebar,” known for bringing a feminist perspective to the Arabic novel. Professor Ranjana Khanna (Duke University) was the featured speaker and Professor Bensmaia delivered the keynote. For more information about the day's events, please see the flyer below. Assia Djebar flyer read more about In Memoriam: Assia Djebar (1936-2015) »
Call for Papers The Novel in or against World Literature SNS at Pitt 2016 The Society for Novel Studies (SNS) invites proposals for fifteen-minute papers to be given at its biennial conference held at the University of Pittsburgh, May 13-14, 2016. For more information, visit http://novel.trinity.duke.edu/sns/2016-conference Proposals should not exceed 200 words and are due by September 7, 2015. They should be sent to individual panel organizers at the email… read more about SNS 2016 Call for Papers »
Society for Novel Studies Biennial Conference The Novel in or against World Literature May 13-14, 2016 Wyndham Pittsburgh University Center Hosted by the University of Pittsburgh Co-organizers: Jonathan Arac and Gayle Rogers Keynote speakers: Katie Trumpener, Professor of Comparative Literature and English, Yale University Jed Esty, Vartan Gregorian Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania Tom McCarthy, author of Remainder and Satin Island More details… read more about SNS 2016 Conference Annoucement: The Novel in or against World Literature »
"What is the Contemporary Novel?" is the second edition of the novel-centered symposium organized by graduate students at Duke University. The symposium took place on October 31st and November 1st and featured Jane Eliiott (King's College), Justin Neuman (Yale), and Hector Hoyos (Stanford) who presented papers on various aspects of the novel in its contemporary form. Here are a few photos from the event held at Duke University's Franklin Humanities Center… read more about PHOTOS: "What is the Contemporary Novel" Symposium »
A few weeks ago, graduate students in English and Literature at Duke University and UNC, Chapel Hill convened a two-day symposium on the contemporary novel. Jane Eliiott (King's College), Justin Neuman (Yale), and Hector Hoyos (Stanford) presented papers at the event, after which the floor was opened for graduate student responses and general discussion. Below is the description of the Symposium. What is contemporary about the contemporary novel? By no means all recent novels suggest that… read more about SYMPOSIUM: What is the Contemporary Novel? »
Members of the Society for Novel Studies convened this past weekend at the University of Utah for the society's bi-annual conference, titled Land and the Novel. In attendance were scholars of the novel from various institutions in the country. Ngugi wa Thiongo and Ursala Heise presented the plenary addresses. The Program Friday, April 4 10 am-‐12 noon 1. Working the Land (Alpine) Chair: Ellen Rooney (Brown University) Panelists: Mark Browning (Johnson County Community College), “‘How You Gonna Keep Em… read more about Photos From The 2014 SNS Conference »
On the 19th of October, the Brown and Duke offices of NOVEL hosted a symposium titled Novel and the Anthropocene. Matthew Taylor (English, UNC, Chapel Hill), Tobias Boes (German, Notre Dame) and Noah Heringman (English, University of Missouri) gave a series of talks on how the question of the anthropocene bears on the form, history, and theory of the novel. A total of six duke English grad students were on hand to respond to each talk, after which the floor was opened for… read more about PHOTOS--Novel and the Anthropocene Symposium »
Friday, April 4 10 am-‐12 noon 1. Working the Land (Alpine) Chair: Ellen Rooney (Brown University) Panelists: Mark Browning (Johnson County Community College), “‘How You Gonna Keep Em Down on the Farm’: Rural Life as Eden in American Fiction” Elizabeth Duquette (Gettysburg College), “Building on the Land in The Rise of Silas Lapham” Nick Young (St. John’s University) “‘Acting American’: American as a Lived Ontology” 2. Transnational Novels (City Creek) Chair: Kathryn Stockton (University of Utah) Panelists: Robert… read more about OFFICIAL PROGRAM: 2014 SNS Conference---Land and The Novel, April 4-6, University of Utah »
From July 1-4, University of Sidney will host a conference on the prosaic imaginary of the novel. See below for more info: CALL FOR PAPERS The conference will open up the nuances of the term ‘prosaic’ by exploring the privileged relationship between the novel genre and multiple and complex categories of the ‘everyday’. Building on John Plotz’s notion of the novel as exemplary ‘portable property’, the conference will address the relationship between novel-reading as everyday activity and the novel’s… read more about THE PROSAIC IMAGINARY: Novels and The Everyday, 1750-2000 »
We are happy to announce that Ngugi wa Thiong'o is a plenary speaker at the 2014 SNS conference titled Land and the Novel. Ngugi wa Thiong'o is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. Born in Kenya in 1938 into a large peasant family, he is recipient of seven Honorary Doctorates and is also Honorary Member of the American Academy of Letters. He lived through the Mau Mau War of Independence (1952-1962), and burst onto the literary scene in East Africa with the… read more about Ngugi wa Thiong'o to Speak at the 2014 SNS Conference »
We are pleased to announce that Ursula Heise is billed to speak at the 2014 SNS Conference on land and the novel. Ursula K. Heise teaches in the Department of English and at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. She is a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow and served as President of ASLE (Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment) in 2011. Her research and teaching focus on contemporary literature, environmental culture in the Americas, Western Europe and Japan, literature and science,… read more about Ursula K. Heise is a Plenary Speaker at the 2014 SNS Conference »
1. Complete the online registration form HERE. 2. Make University Guest House reservation HERE and use the following Group ID and Password: Group ID: 2782 Group Password: 37000444 3. Hotel reservation instructions will also be included in each participant’s event registration confirmation email. 4. Hotel reservations may also be made by calling 1-888-416-4075 and mentioning the event name. 5. All reservations should be made by March 3… read more about Register for the 2014 SNS Conference »
Friday, October 18th 2013 Duke University, FHI Garage, 1st Floor, Smith Warehouse, Durham, NC 27708 10:00 – 5:30 “The Anthropocene” is a recently coined, as-of-yet informal geologic period intended to mark the moment when human activities began to have significant global impacts on earth’s ecosystems. This forum proposes to gather three speakers across a range of fields to think about how novelistic form, from the 18th century to the 21st, has enabled a variety of… read more about SCHEDULE---2013 NOVEL Fall Conference: The Novel and the Anthropocene »
Call For Papers Society for Novel Studies Conference at the University of Utah April 4-6, 2014 Organizers: Vincent Pecora, Scott Black, Jeremy Rosen Land and the Novel The history of the novel is in some ways a history of how populations left the land, and their political-theological connection to it, behind—or at least tried to. The novel never really left its chthonic roots behind, however. Like the ancient Greek tragedies,… read more about Call For Papers: Society for Novel Studies Conference at the University of Utah April 4-6, 2014 »
Panel Topics for SNS Conference, April 4-6, 2014, University of Utah Conference Title: Land and the Novel 1. Land, Territory, Nation, Empire 2. Genres of Land: Saga, Pastoral, Georgic and the Novel 3. Land, Law, and Property 4. Working the Land 5. Blood and Soil/Race and Land/Autochthony and Strangers 6. Country and City, Redux 7. Manifest Destinies 8. Promised Lands, Sacred Lands, and Political Theology 9. Homelands, Real and Imaginary 10.… read more about Panel Topics for the 2014 SNS Conference »
1. 2014 SNS CONFERENCE It's almost two years since the highly successful 2012 Novel Worlds Conference took place at Duke University. (See photos from the conference HERE). The second annual conference, "Land and the Novel," is now in the planning stages. It is scheduled to take place in Salt Lake City, 4-6 April, 2014 and is sponsored by the Society for Novel Studies (SNS). PLEASE SAVE THESE DATES. We will post announcements of this event on this website as soon as we receive more information from… read more about Upcoming Events »
From April 27-28 last year, Duke University was abuzz with one of the biggest literary conferences that ever took place on its grounds. International and local literary scholars gathered at the lovely Washingtong Duke Inn to think and talk about the novel's "capacity to fabricate specific models of the world." The highlights of the 27th were talks given by two keynote speakers. Columbia University's Rebecca Walkowitz gave a lecture on translation and cosmopolitan style. Later that day, Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh (… read more about Photos From The 2012 Novel Worlds Conference »
Amitav Ghosh was at Duke University for the 2012 Novel Worlds Conference as a keynote speaker. The morning after his lecture, Azeen Khan, a graduate student of English here at Duke, had a chance to chat with him about everything from the opium war and the history of free trade to the relationship between the novel, history, and anthropology. It's a fun and illuminating read. Enjoy! This conversation took place on April 28, 2012 at the Washington Duke Inn. Amitav Ghosh was invited to speak at the “Novel Worlds”… read more about NOVEL INTERVIEW | Ghosh -- "History is at the Heart of the Novel." »