Call for Papers: When Private Talk Goes Public: Gossip in United States History

From: "Feeley, Kathleen" <[email protected]>

Call for Papers
When Private Talk Goes Public: Gossip in United States History
Edited by
Kathleen Feeley and Jennifer Frost

Abstracts due: 1-1-12

Essays due: 7-1-12

We are seeking contributions to a co-edited anthology addressing the  
functions and impact of gossip in a variety of settings and moments in  
United States history. We welcome submissions from a range of fields,  
including history, cultural studies, film and media studies, literary  
studies, and gender studies.

Gossip has a long history, but this anthology will focus on gossip’s  
role in family and community life, the media, and national culture and  
politics in the United States.  By spanning American history and  
addressing the multiple functions of gossip in public, in private, and  
“in-between,” this book will make a unique contribution to the  
scholarly literature and have wide appeal, as demonstrated by the  
interest of publisher Palgrave MacMillan.

Although formerly overlooked or trivialized, gossip is increasing  
recognized as an important and influential means of communication.   
While scholars in fields such as anthropology, sociology, and literary  
studies variously define gossip as “trivial” or “idle” talk or any  
conversation about “social relationships,” we define gossip as  
“private talk”—true or false talk about private life—voiced, often  
illegitimately, in the public realm.  Gossip is a powerful discourse  
precisely because it blurs the imaginary yet influential boundary  
between what is considered “public” and “private.”  Gossip also is and  
historically has been seen as the private talk of women, and this  
gendering of gossip has contributed to negative evaluations of gossip  
as trivial, inaccurate, or damaging.  Yet, historical studies and  
sociological surveys tell us both men and women participate, because  
gossip provides guilty private pleasures and fulfills important public  
functions.  It results in shared information and knowledge, allows for  
discussion and exchange, and contributes to relationships and a sense  
of community among participants.  Gossip can be wielded as “a weapon  
of the weak” to assail the powerful in society but also by social and  
political elites to expand or defend their power.

We call for potential contributors to submit a 500-word abstract to us  
by January 1, 2012 (see email addresses below).  Please include a  
brief bio and a full c.v.  We would expect full papers (9,000 words  
including references) by July 1 2012.

As co-editors, Kathleen Feeley and Jennifer Frost bring scholarly  
expertise gained from their work in the history of gossip and  
journalism, women’s history, film history, and the history of politics  
and social movements.  Kathleen Feeley, University of Redlands, is the  
author of “Classical Hollywood as Public Sphere: The Case of Citizen  
Kane” in Imagination and the Public Sphere, ed. Susan Cumings  
(Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publications, 2012); “Gossip as  
News: On Modern U.S. Celebrity Culture and Journalism History,”  
History Compass (Blackwell Publishing, 2011); and is at work on the  
manuscript “The Mightiest Publicity Powers on Earth”: The Rise of the  
Hollywood Press Corps in Mid-Twentieth-Century America.  Jennifer  
Frost, University of Auckland, New Zealand, has written two books:  
Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism  
(NYU, 2011) and “An Interracial Movement of the Poor”: Community  
Organizing and the New Left in the 1960s (NYU, 2001).  While our  
research and scholarship has focused on the twentieth century, we’ve  
read widely in order to situate our studies of gossip historically and  
have familiarized ourselves with much of the literature on gossip in  
earlier periods in United States history.  Our aim with this  
anthology, then, is to offer a broad picture of gossip’s significance  
for Americans.

For more information and for submissions, please contact Kathleen  
Feeley ([email protected]) or Jennifer Frost ([email protected] 
).


Kathleen Feeley
Associate Professor of History
University of Redlands
1200 E. Colton Ave.
Redlands CA 92373
909-748-8606
http://www.redlands.edu/academics/college-of-arts-sciences/undergraduate-studies/history/2290.aspx