Convalescence in 19th- and 20th-Century Anglophone Literature
Location: Nantes Université, FLCE, Château du Tertre (room 104) and online
Full programme with abstracts: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/7bd5dbdd77.html#page/1
Registration link for attending the conference online: https://forms.gle/Rcr9Z5WDbhqw3yLG7
All talks will be broadcasted on Zoom.
Day 1 – 26th June 2025
Welcome address 9.00-9.15am Nantes – 12.30-12.45pm Delhi
Session 1: The 19th century Chair: Dr. Aude PETIT-MARQUIS
9.15-10.00am Nantes / 12.45-1.30pm Delhi
- Avril TYNAN: The Liminal Body in Convalescence
- Beatrice FUGA: The Convalescent Muse: Elizabeth Siddal’s Recovered Verse
(Short break – 30 minutes)
Session 2: Convalescence across the centuries Chair: Dr. Sanna SCHYLLERT
10.30-11.45am Nantes / 2.00-3.15pm Delhi
- Ananya PUNYATOYA: Recovery in Repetition: Negotiating Temporalities in Women’s Convalescence Narratives
- Eva M. PÉREZ-RODRÍGUEZ: George Eliot’s “The Lifted Veil” and Ian McEwan’s The Children Act: Transfusions, Convalescence and Ethics 150 Years Apart
- Eptisum LASKAR: Healing Beyond Humanity: Non-human Care and Ecological Convalescence in Anglophone Literature
(Short break – 15 minutes)
Session 3: The early 20th century and the modernists (1) Chair: Dr. Leslie de BONT
12.00-12.45pm Nantes / 3.30-4.15pm Delhi
- Sruthi VENKATESWARAN: Death by Convalescence: The Recovering Body and Ideology in Detective Fiction
- Denis LEROY: The Convalescence of Spanish Flu Patients in American Fictions: An Indirect Representation of the 1918 Pandemic
(Long break – 1h15)
Session 4: The early 20th century and the modernists (2) Chair: Dr Sanna SCHYLLERT
2.00-2.45pm Nantes / 5.30-6.15pm Delhi
- Apala DAS: H.D.’s Helen in Egypt as a Convalescent Epic
- Alejandro NADAL-RUIZ: Convalescence, Trauma, and the Empowering Potential of Solitary Reflection in Jean Rhys’s Modernist Novels
(Short break – 15 minutes)
Session 5: Nonfiction Chair : Dr. Leslie de BONT
3.00-3.45pm Nantes / 6.30-7.15pm Delhi
- Marion LETELLIER: Animals and Convalescence in 19th- and 20th-Century Anglophone Literature: a ‘Zoopoetical’ Approach
- Maëlle NAGOT: ‘Shut in on all sides by infirmities’: the Daily Work of Convalescence in the Diaries of Katherine Mansfield and Louisa May Alcott
(Short break – 15 minutes)
Keynote: Dr. Hosanna KRIENKE 4.00-5.00pm Nantes – 7.30-8.30pm Delhi
Chair : Dr. Aude PETIT-MARQUIS
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Day 2 – 27th June 2025
Introductory session 9.00-9.15am Nantes – 12.30-12.45pm Delhi
Session 1: 19th century Chair: Prof. Meetu KHOSLA
9.15-10.30am Nantes / 12.45-2.00pm Delhi
- Anne KORFMACHER/ “[H]er mind had lost its elasticity” – The Resilience of Caregiving in Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South
- Harini PATOWARY DAS: Healing through Isolation: Rereading Brontë’s Wuthering Heights as a 19th-Century Narrative of Convalescence
- Aditi BASU: ‘Herbal Convalescence’ through Spirituality in Medical Literature: A Departure from Colonial Healthcare Systems in India
(Short break – 30 minutes)
Session 2: Nonfiction Chair: Dr. Violina BORAH
11.00-12.15pm Nantes / 2.30-3.45pm Delhi
- Ahana MAITRA: Bengalis’ “Paschim”: Convalescence and Identity-Formation in Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century Bengal
- Krushna DANDE: An Attack of Anamnesis: Sickness and Recovery in the Letters of Philip K Dick's Exegesis
- Olga SZMIDT: “Attack of Vertigo and Nausea”. Subjectivity and Convalescence in Joan Didion’s Essays
Parallel session 2: The Mid-20th century Chair: Prof. Deepshikha MAHANTA BORTAMULY
11.00-12.15pm Nantes / 2.30-3.45pm Delhi
- Marta MIQUEL-BALDELLOU: ‘Then came the languid monotony of convalescence’: Intertextualities in Victorian and Neo-Victorian Gothic Narratives of Illness
- Vedika KAUSHAL: A Modernist Convalescence in The Little Black Box by Shakuntala Shrinagesh: Exploring Aesthetics of Illness and Isolation in early Indian English Fiction
- Hongliang ZHOU: The Art of Recovery: Exploring Convalescence in the Novels of Eileen Chang
(Long break – 1h30)
Session 3: The Late 20th century Chair: Dr. Swetha ANTONY
1.45-3.00pm Nantes / 5.15-6.30pm Delhi
- Emmanuel ROLLIN: Convalescence and psychological growth in J. Fowles’s The Magus
- Mohammad BAGHER SHABAMPOUR: Convalescence in Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time Spatial and Temporal Dimensions
- Jacob WILKENFELD: The Writer as Patient: Convalescence in Philip Roth’s The Anatomy Lesson
(Short break – 30 minutes)
Keynote: Prof. Talia SCHAFFER 3.30-4.30pm Nantes – 7.00-8.00pm Delhi
Chair: Prof. Anjana SHARMA
Valedictory session 4.30-5.00pm Nantes – 8.00-8.30pm Delhi