Coming Up ~~
From Canada to the World: The Cultural Influence of L.M. Montgomery.
October 23-26, 2008
In 2008, the University of Guelph will host a major conference
to celebrate the life and influence of Lucy Maud Montgomery, whose classic Anne of Green Gables was first published
in 1908. The university will showcase its extensive collection of Montgomery memorabilia — including her private journals,
scrapbooks, handiwork, photographs, and other records. Examine the collections first-hand and explore her impact on readers,
writers, and women in the 20th century. Join with Canada’s foremost Montgomery scholars, biographers, enthusiasts, and
fans to recognize her world-wide legacy and explore the mystery of her creativity.
L. M. Montgomery lived most of her adult life in Ontario, and our archival
holdings reveal the realities of her life. Her novels weave those realities into worlds that have enchanted millions of readers
and influenced later writers in Canada and around the world. Montgomery’s writings have indelibly shaped Canadian culture,
influencing how we see ourselves and how others see us.
A unique combination of lectures, performances, films, music, tours, and exhibitions
will make this conference a true reflection of the power of Montgomery’s pen. Join us October 23-26, 2008, for From
Canada to the World: The Cultural Influence of L.M. Montgomery.
L.M. Montgomery—Writer of the
World. International conference, Uppsala University, Sweden, August 20-23, 2009.
L.M. Montgomery’s world famous novel Anne of Green Gables
has continued to attract readers from all over the world for a century. Our centenary conference is a tribute to all of those
who have made 100 years of readership possible.
The main theme of the conference is “Reading Response.”
We will explore reading experiences of Anne of Green Gables and other works by L.M. Montgomery. One section will
be dedicated to Anne of Green Gables in Sweden. We also accept open proposals for papers on Montgomery’s works.
We invite you to send in one-page proposals for papers, together
with a short biographical note.
Deadline: October 1, 2008. Send in your proposals to Conference
Co-ordinator Gabriella Åhmansson at montgomery2009@ahmansson.com.
Queries? Please contact Conference Co-ordinator Åsa Warnqvist
More information on the conference will be published continuously
at www.ahmansson.com/montgomery2009.html.
L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature.
9th International conference, University of Prince Edward Island, June 2010.
In 2010 we invite you to consider L.M. Montgomery and the matter
of nature. While multiple romanticisms have informed L.M. Montgomery’s passionate views of nature, her descriptions
were complex as she wrote both of and for nature. What are the effects of the representations and images of nature that are
crafted and circulated in the fiction of Montgomery, and in that of other writers of literature (especially for children and
youth)? How do her narrations of nature shape children and adults within and across cultures? How do seasonality and place
function in her life writing? How do particular constructions of nature work in fiction, across such differences as gender,
race, culture, and class? What are the cultural and historical contingencies surrounding nature in Montgomery’s work?
In recent years, the matter of “nature” itself
has been the subject of much-contested debate and theoretical innovation across disciplines. Nature situates binary relationships
that are often represented as hierarchical and oppositional. These include nature and culture, child and adult, animal and
human, male and female, reason and emotion, mind and body, modern and traditional, raw and cooked, domestic and wild, urban
and rural—among others. How might any of these formulations be examined and challenged (or not) in the context of Montgomery’s
work? What does it mean to consider Montgomery as a “green” writer (Doody) or as a proto-ecofeminist (Holmes)?
What do Montgomery’s provocative readings of nature offer us at a time of environmental crises and ecological preoccupations?
Please send one-page abstracts and short biographical sketches
by June 30, 2009, to:
E-mail: lmminst@upei.ca.
The Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute (University of Prince Edward
Island)
550 University Avenue, Charlottetown,
Prince Edward Island,
CANADA, C1A 4P3
(902) 628-4335
http://www.lmmontgomery.ca/
