Happy Birthday, Frank Norris!

Even after 148 years, Frank Norris continues to provoke interesting conversation!

Check out a March 1st article by Slate Magazine, which provides scientific viability for Norris’s argument about the colonizing power of the octopus:

“Frank Norris’ 1901 novel about the California railroads described the robber barons’ monopoly as ‘the leviathan, with tentacles of steel clutching into the soil, the soulless Force, the iron-hearted Power, the monster, the Colossus, the Octopus.’ . . . This sinister interpretation of the octopus isn’t all made-up, in a scientific sense. Cephalopods are indeed colonizing species: They’re weedy ecosystem opportunists . . . ”

Read more at https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/against-the-octopus-the-overrated-cephalopod.html

 

Announcing Frank Norris Society Roundtable and Panels, ALA 2018

The Frank Norris Society is happy to announce that a roundtable discussion and two panels will be sponsored at this year’s American Literature Association’s 29th Annual Conference in San Francisco, which will be held May 24th to the 27th.

Literary Naturalism and Social Protest: A Roundtable Discussion

Moderator: Eric Carl Link, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

Panelists:

• Donna Campbell, Washington State University
• Anita Duneer, Rhode Island College
• Steve Frye, California State University Bakersfield
• Lauren Navarro, LaGuardia Community College
• Keith Newlin, University of North Carolina Wilmington
• Jeanne Reesman, University of Texas San Antonio
• Adam Wood, Salisbury University

Panel 1: Frank Norris

Chair: Eric Carl Link, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

1. “Looking at ‘Wheat’ in the Blink of an Eye,” Toby Widdicombe, University of Alaska Anchorage
2. “Design for Determinism: Norris, Nansen, and A Man’s Woman,” Patti Luedecke, Western University Ontario
3. “An Octopus of Data: Cyberspace and the Golden Spike,” Zach Mann, University of Southern California

Panel 2: Frank Norris’s McTeague: New Perspectives

Chair: Steve Frye, California State University Bakersfield

1. “’Bottled Lightning’: McTeague and the Gospel of Relaxation,” Jeffrey W. Miller, Gonzaga University
2. “Scales of Force and Power in Frank Norris and N. K. Jemisin,” Chuck Robinson, University of Nevada Reno
3.  “’Spit ut out’: The Role of Dialect in Frank Norris’s McTeague,” Scott Shumaker, University of Nevada Reno

CFP: Two Panel Sessions, ALA 2018

The Frank Norris Society will sponsor two sessions at the American Literature Association Conference at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco on May 24-27, 2018.

Papers on any aspect of Frank Norris’s work or life will be considered.  Broader treatments of American literary naturalism (whether directly related to Frank Norris or not) will also be considered. Presentations will be limited to 20 minutes. Please email abstracts or papers of no more than ten double-spaced pages by January 15, 2018, to the program chair:

Eric Carl Link, eric.link@ipfw.edu

For further information about the conference, please consult the ALA website at www.americanliteratureassociation.org or contact the conference director, Professor Leslie Petty, at pettyL@rhodes.edu, or the Executive Director of the ALA, Professor Alfred Bendixen, at ab23@princeton.edu.

Ten little-known facts about Frank Norris for his birthday

Happy birthday to Frank Norris (March 5, 1870-October 25, 1902)! Reading through the reminiscences in Frank Norris Remembered, edited by Jesse S. Crisler and Joseph R. McElrath, Jr. (University of …

Source: Ten little-known facts about Frank Norris for his birthday

Announcing the Frank Norris Society Panels for ALA 2017

The Frank Norris Society is happy to announce the two panels it will be sponsoring at this year’s American Literature Association’s 28th Annual Conference in Boston, which will be held May 25th to the 28th.

Frank Norris and Popular Representation

• Chair: Eric Carl Link, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

1. “Contingency, Contagion, and Pleasure in the Food Economies of The Pit and The Jungle,” Justin Rogers-Cooper, LaGuardia Community College
2. “Temperance, Slovenliness, and the Domestic Food Economies of McTeague,” Lauren Navarro, LaGuardia Community College
3. “Norris, Naturalism, and Sport,” Cara Erdheim Kilgallen, Sacred Heart University
4. “Norris’s Domestic Discomfort in Vandover and the Brute,” Nicole de Fee, Louisiana Tech University

American Literary Naturalism: New Scholarship

• Chair: Steve Frye, California State University Bakersfield

1. “A Cat and Mr. Corkle: Frank Norris and the Narration of Species Difference,” Victoria Googasian, Stanford University
2. “‘A Significance That No Words Could Attain’: Frank Norris’s ‘A Memorandum of Sudden Death’ and the Limits of Representation,” Adam Wood, Salisbury University
3. “’A Vivid Wakeful Fatigue, a Wan Lucidity of Mind’: Paradoxical Wakefulness and the Naturalist New Woman,” Hannah Huber, University of South Carolina

Recently Published: The Oxford Handbook of Jack London

An interesting new addition to Jack London studies has just been published. The following announcement is shared from Dr. Donna Campbell, whose essay is featured in the handbook.

The Oxford Handbook of Jack London, edited by Jay Williams, has just been published.  My essay in it is called “Women’s Rights, Women’s Lives.”  Here’s the full Table …

Source: Recently Published: The Oxford Handbook of Jack London

Announcing an Exciting New Publication in Norris Studies!

We are excited to announce a recent publication in the study of Norris and literary naturalism:

The most recent volume of the journal Excavatio has published an article by Dr. Myrto Drizou of Valdosta State University entitled “The Politics of Time in Frank Norris’s Criticism and Fiction.”

The Frank Norris Society sends much thanks to Dr. Drizou for her contribution to Norris studies!

ALA 2017 Call for Papers

American Literature Association 28th Annual Conference

May 25-28, 2017 in Boston, MA

CALL FOR PAPERS–The Frank Norris Society

 The Frank Norris Society will sponsor two sessions at the American Literature Association Conference at the Westin Copley Place, Boston, MA, on May 25-28, 2017.

Papers on any aspect of Frank Norris’s work or life will be considered.  Broader treatments of American literary naturalism (whether directly related to Frank Norris or not) will also be considered.

Presentations will be limited to 20 minutes.
Please email abstracts or papers of no more than ten double-spaced pages by January 15, 2017, to the program chair:

Eric Carl Link eric.link@ipfw.edu

For further information about the conference, please consult the ALA website at www.americanliteratureassociation.org or contact the conference director, Professor Olivia Carr Edenfield of Georgia Southern University at carr@georgiasouthern.edu with specific questions.

Naturalism Panels at ALA 2016

Source: Naturalism Panels at ALA 2016

Announcing the FNS Panel for 2016 ALA

The Frank Norris Society is excited to announce its 2016 panel for the American Literature Association’s 27th Annual Conference, which will be held May 26-29 in San Francisco, CA.

Conference Website: http://alaconf.org/

Panel Title: Frank Norris and American Literary Naturalism

Organized by the Frank Norris Society

Chair: Eric Carl Link, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

1. “’It Faces Every Child of Man’: Readers, Imagined Violence, and Culpability in American Literary Naturalism,” Adam Wood, Salisbury University

2. “’Erotic Economy’: Domesticity, Desire, and the Women of McTeague,” Nicole de Fee, Louisiana Tech University

3. “Foodways & Nation-Building: The Domestic Decline of The Octopus,” Lauren Navarro, LaGuardia Community College

4. “Frank Norris and the Legacy of Higher Biblical Criticism,” Steven Bembridge, University of East Anglia