Call
for Papers: Feminism Revisits Shaw
At
a rally protesting the forcible feeding of hunger-striking suffragists, Shaw
boldly declared:
I am
not a Suffragette speaker. … I have not come here to speak on behalf of the
women. My reason for never having done
that…is that after a very careful study of public meetings held on the subject
I came to the conclusion that the women were exceedingly well able to take care
of themselves.
Yet
despite his apparent belief that there was no need to “speak on behalf of the
women,” Shaw seems to have made a successful career doing exactly that, on stage
and off. Shaw’s plays, diaries, reviews, correspondence, and political writings frequently
and eloquently testify to his “reluctance” to speak on women’s behalf.
It has been 30 years since Rodelle Weintraub’s
landmark book, Fabian Feminist,
collected a substantial body of work on Shaw and feminism into one volume.
Since then, theories of feminism, gender, and representation have evolved
significantly, as has the picture of women in Victorian and Edwardian theatre. A
number of more recent books and articles have reconsidered Shaw and feminism, but
there is no single volume that brings varying views into dialogue with each
other. It is time to collect the ideas, reassess Shaw, and determine how well
his Fabian feminism holds up in the 21st century.
To that end, we invite the submission of essays that
address the relationships between Shaw, women, and feminism, both in his plays
and in his larger place in history. Of what use is Shaw to contemporary
considerations of feminism and gender? To what extent can we still applaud Shaw
or his characters as feminist? Is producing or performing Shaw still a
radically feminist act? How do his plays compare to those written by women during
the same period? Were women indeed “exceedingly well able to take care of
themselves,” or was Shaw’s intervention in women’s lives a theatrical or
historical necessity?
Please submit a 750-word abstract and a short
biographical note (preferably via email) by January 31, 2008 to:
Dorothy
Hadfield (dhadfiel@uoguelph.ca) or Jean
Reynolds (ballroom16@aol.com)