Contact: Tom Durso, [email protected], 610.660.1532
THE CARLYLES IN AMERICA: MAJOR CONFERENCE AT SJU TO EXAMINE VICTORIAN WRITERS' INFLUENCE IN THE STATES
Philadelphia, Pa. (March 28, 2000) -- The Victorian writer, social critic, and historian Thomas Carlyle, along with his wife, the diarist and correspondent Jane Welsh Carlyle, enjoyed considerable influence on 19th century intellectual life in the United States, raising questions that remain relevant today.
That influence will be the subject of a major international conference, "Carlyle 2000," the first half of which will be held at Saint Joseph's University from April 6 to 8. More than half the participants will visit from outside the United States -- specifically, Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, and Scotland. The collected scholars will present papers on a wide range of topics, including the Carlyles and their American friendships, Thomas Carlyle and the American Civil War, Jane Welsh Carlyle and American feminism, Carlyle and Charles Eliot Norton, and the Carlyles and the Irish in America.
"The Carlyles dominated the 19th century to a remarkable degree, and in many respects, the issues they raised continue to haunt us in this new millennium," said conference coordinator Dr. David R. Sorensen, associate professor of English and associate director of the Honors Program at Saint Joseph's. "What are the consequences of living without God in a mechanized society? Has American democracy destroyed individualism and heroic ardor? Has industrialization created a new and more ominous form of slavery? Can we learn anything from the study of the past? Have the revolutions of the past 200 years sanctified violence as the only legitimate means of change?"
"Carlyle 2000" occurs in conjunction with the publication of Volume 26 of The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, published by Duke University Press and co-edited by K.J. Fielding, Aileen Christianson, Ian Campbell, Sheila McIntosh, and Dr. Sorensen. Begun in 1970, the Duke-Edinburgh edition of The Collected Letters is regarded by literary biographers, historians, and critics as one of the finest and most comprehensive literary archives of the 19th century.
Sponsoring the conference are Saint Joseph's Honors Program, the Department of English, and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
"I'm delighted that scholars from around the world will be meeting at Saint Joseph's to discuss these vital questions, and to pay tribute to the two great Victorians who first raised them," said Dr. Sorensen, who is co-editor both of the Duke-Edinburgh edition of The Collected Letters and of the California Strouse edition of Carlyle's great epic, The French Revolution.
The second half of "Carlyle 2000" will be held in April 2001 at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, and will examine the Carlyles in relation to Scotland, England, and Europe.
NOTE: For a complete schedule of events and presentations at "Carlyle 2000," contact Tom Durso in Saint Joseph's media relations office.
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