Professional Notes and Announcements

Call for Papers: Midwest Modern Language Association

A session entitled "The Critical Limitations of Defining Genre in/of Children's Literature" will be held at the thirty-sixth annual conference of the Midwest Modern Language Association (M/MLA), November 11-13, 1994, Palmer House, Chicago, Illinois.

This session will investigate the critical construction of genre in children's literature. As a relatively young field, children's literature scholarship has devoted a large percentage of its energies to asking "What is Children's Literature, Anyway?" Critics such as Peter Hunt, Aidan Chambers, Peter Hollindale, C. S. Lewis, Lissa Paul, and John Rowe Townsend have tried to sort through this difficult issue. We might hear accounts of past attempts at definition or question the usefulness of such an act.

Possibilities include a look at how the field has been defined by critics in the past, how different groups choose to define it, or how it cannot be defined (or defies definition). How is defining our field different or similar to defining genres designated by history, culture, readership, or structure? How do (or don't) the genre divisions within children's literature correspond to adult literature's demarcations, values, and trends?

Papers should correspond to the M/MLA format for the thirty-sixth annual conference, be single spaced, and not exceed eight pages including notes and works cited. Accepted papers will be distributed beforehand and discussed during the session. Deadline: May 15, 1994.

Papers or detailed abstracts should be sent to:

Michael J. Cadden

Department of English

Illinois State University

Normal, IL 61790-4240

Hollins College Children's Literature Program

Hollins College offers a summer master's degree program in the study and writing of children's literature. Dates for the Summer 94 session are June 20-July 29. Six courses will be offered. Application deadline is February 15, 1994. For more information, contact:

Amanda Cockrell

Director

Graduate Program in Children's Literature

Hollins College

P.O. Box 9678

Roanoke, VA 24020-1678

(703) 362-6024

Call for Papers, Modern Language Association, December 1994, San Diego

MLA Children's Literature Division: "Literary History and Children's Literature"

As we rethink literary history and the canon, we also need to rethink our conceptualizations of the child and children's literature. What can children's literary studies learn from a new literary history, and what can "adult" literary history learn from revision "the child"? Abstracts and inquiries to the chair:

Mitzi Myers (UCLA)

2206 Bedford Drive

Fullerton, CA 92163-1504