Department of English

• Friday, March 5, 2010 (All day)
• Saturday, March 6, 2010 (All day)

Fisher-Bennett Hall, 3340 Walnut Street

Featured Speakers: Kirstie Blair (Glasgow), Julia Carlson (Cincinnati), Max Cavitch (Penn), Michael Cohen (LSU), Michael Gamer (Penn), Jason Hall (Exeter), Virginia Jackson (Tufts), Charles LaPorte (Washington--Seattle), Tricia Lootens (Georgia), Meredith Martin (Princeton), Meredith McGill (Rutgers), Bob Perelman (Penn), Yopie Prins (Michigan), Elizabeth Renker (OSU), Eliza Richards (UNC--Chapel Hill), Jess Roberts (Albion), Catherine Robson (UC--Davis), Jason Rudy (Maryland), Paul Saint-Amour (Penn), Carolyn Williams (Rutgers)

Sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania English Department, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, the Rutgers Center for Cultural Analysis, and the Princeton University Council for the Humanities; additional support from the Louisiana State University English Department, the Rutgers University English Department, the Tufts University English Department, the University of Maryland English Department, the University of Michigan English Department, and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Department of English and Comparative Literature.

To register (free) or for more information write to cavitch@english.upenn.edu.

Event website: crossingthebar.wordpress.com

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Schedule:

Friday, March 5: McNeil Center for Early American Studies (MCEAS), 3355 Woodland Walk, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

3:00-4:30 Reading and Unreading Popular Verse

Chair: Max Cavitch (Penn)

Kirstie Blair (Glasgow), “Faith of Our Fathers: Victorian Religion and American Religious Verse”

Meredith McGill (Rutgers), “Form, Format, Medium”

Respondent: Tricia Lootens (Georgia)

4:45-6:15 Scanning the Bar: Why Do We Do Historical Prosody?

Max Cavitch (Penn)

Jason Hall (Exeter)

Meredith Martin (Princeton)

Jason Rudy (Maryland)

Moderator: Yopie Prins (Michigan)

6:15-7:00 Reception

7:00-8:30 Graduate Student Caucus Dinner (location tba)

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Saturday, March 6: Fisher-Bennett Hall, 3340 Walnut Street, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

9:30-11:00 Affecting Performances: Visual Aesthetics and Vocal Evocations

Chair: Michael Gamer (Penn)

Julia Carlson (Cincinnati), “The Thesis and Arsis of John Thelwall’s Physiological Poetics”

Michael Cohen (LSU), “The African Ballad in the Atlantic Triangle”

Respondent: Jess Roberts (Albion)

11:15-11:30 Coffee

11:30-1:00 The Poetic Apologia: “Invictus” and “Infelicia”

Chair: Paul Saint-Amour (Penn)

Eliza Richards (UNC-Chapel Hill), “‘Yes, dear love, I died!’: Adah Isaacs Menken’s Final Performances”

Catherine Robson (UC-Davis), “‘Invictus’ and the Oklahoma Bomber: The End(s) of Memorization”

Respondent: Carolyn Williams (Rutgers)

1:00-2:00 Buffet Lunch for all registered attendees

2:00-3:30 Before Modernity

Chair: Bob Perelman (Penn)

Virginia Jackson (Tufts), “Before Modernism”

Charles LaPorte (Washington-Seattle), “A. H. Clough’s Secular Modernity”

Respondent: Elizabeth Renker (OSU)

3:30-4:00 Meeting of the Graduate Student Caucus (FBH, room 112)

4:00-5:30 Measuring Up

Discussion leaders: representatives of the Graduate Student Caucus