The Feuilleton Project, an initiative organized by faculty at Michigan State University, the Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, invites papers from scholars based in Europe and Israel for a conference on the Feuilleton, the Public Sphere and Modern Jewish Cultures. The conference will be held on November 18-19, 2019 at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

In the nineteenth century, the feuilleton became a major cultural, literary and political genre in newspapers across Europe and beyond. Feuilletons appeared in French, German, Russian, Polish, as well as Jewish languages like Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino and Judeo-Arabic. By the early twentieth century, the feuilleton was a key site for discussions of national character, portraits of urban life, and aesthetic innovations. It was also increasingly perceived as a Jewish form by Jewish, non-Jewish, and anti-Semitic writers.

This conference will explore the feuilleton as a meeting place for journalism, politics and literature; a locus of urban culture; a site of negotiation for transnational identities; and a rich topic for the digital humanities. We welcome papers from history, literary studies, cultural studies, journalism and other related fields and encourage a wide range of geographic locations, theoretical, disciplinary and linguistic approaches.

All presentations should focus on a specific text or set of texts that are related to the feuilleton. The conference will include sessions with 20 minute papers, and workshop sessions with 10-minute presentations about specific texts followed by extensive discussion. Texts will be presented in the original language, with selections translated into English. Organizers will cover the costs of travel and lodging.

Please submit an abstract of 250 words, including details about the feuilleton text(s), to Naomi Brenner (brenner.108@osu.edu) by September 20, 2019.