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CALL FOR PAPERS SPACE AND PLACE IN MIDDLEBROW: 1900-1950Institute of English Studies, University of London, 13-14 September 2012The parameters and interiors of British middlebrow  writing and reading have increasingly received scholarly attention in  recent years. Middlebrow writing, in fiction in particular, has been  identified in terms of a particular kind of novel, produced by a  combination of particular conditions: the writer, the market, the  reader, the publisher, the critics, the period, the theme, the setting,  and the message. Middlebrow is now understood as a highly complex  sociological phenomenon, with boundaries that are almost too flexible.  It is getting harder to be able to say: 'this, and not this, is  middlebrow', since in a certain sense, middlebrow can be demonstrated to  permeate all aspects of creative production and consumption from the  early twentieth century. While accepting that definitions are useful, it  is important to recognise that a precise definition of the boundaries  of 'the middlebrow' may in reality be unhelpful for its exploration. By  focusing too fixedly on the interfaces between middlebrow and that which  is clearly, or not so clearly, not middlebrow, we lose sight of the  fluid nature of the middlebrow state of mind, and of the social and  literary contributory conditions that enabled such texts to evolve.This conference aims to investigate the complex  relationship between middlebrow writing and categories of space and  place. For the exploration of this topic we seek to encourage discussion  along two main trajectories: firstly, we would like to invite  participants to consider the spaces and places where middlebrow writing  was supported. This includes the social geographies of middlebrow as  well as the topography and archaeology of middlebrow production and  consumption. We are interested in hearing about research on middlebrow  culture that encompasses spaces of refuge, spaces of social power, and  spaces of industry and production. We want to hear about loci for  writing: areas in a country, a county, a town, a village, even of a  building. Where did middlebrow happen?Secondly, we invite papers that explore the literary  representation of place and space in middlebrow writing. Participants  are invited to discuss contribution of middlebrow writers to the spatial  discourses that harbour the collective's sense of national, cultural  and social identity. How do middlebrow writers image the places of  gender, ethnicity, and class? What are their strategies for the  appropriation of space and place for generating cultural meaning? We are  particularly interested to learn about the experience of Empire in the  first half of the twentieth century and middlebrow conceptions of home  and exile, the country and city, the centre and the margins. How does  middlebrow reflect and negotiate the spatial practices of society?AbstractsThe conference will be organised by Professor Christoph Ehland  of the University of Paderborn, Germany, and Dr Kate Macdonald, Ghent  University, Belgium. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent  to kate.macdonald@skynet.be  and cornelia.waechter@uni-padeborn.de  by 15 February 2012. Those abstracts selected for presentation will be announced not later than 5 March 2012.