Subject: Re: Re: CFP: Special Issue of Modernism/Modernity on T.S. Eliot
From: "Cassandra Laity" <claity-AT-drew.edu>
Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 11:06:22 -0400


Dear Neil,
  I've now read through your three documents. I think this is fine for a preliminary description of the project and you should go ahead and send it. 

Perhaps I am wrong, but I think he'll see that the introduction is a fleshing out of the prospectus and that the prospectus is to a dissertation rather than a book. The final introduction would need to be longer, would need to suggest more the conceptual density of your book (which I know from reading your essay) and be more densely footnoted and located in all the relevant scholarship, etc. At present it seems geared to a dissertation committee.  I don't think you have the time or focus to undertake the kind of introduction that would lead to an advance contract (which he rarely gives anyway) until you've started revising the ms.and are re-immersed in the book. But I do think the originality of the project is definitely evident, that you are using very exciting figures--Adorno, Benjamin, Lewis, Joyce, Beckett, etc.-- in new ways, and that you do need to get your foot in the door right now!  So, I think you should say in your letter to him that you are sending him some materials--a book description and brief introduction-- in the hope that he might be interested in seeing more of the project. Perhaps I am wrong and he will ask for the mss. right now!! 

Some suggestions: I think you should put up front in all your documents the theorists you are working with such as Adorno, Benjamin, etc. and the literary figures--Beckett, Joyce, Lewis, etc. In your book description and elsewhere the mention of Mary Douglas and Kristeva might give the reader the false impression that you are simply writing a book based on the seminal but outdated theories of these two figures *even though* I know that you are not using "the abject" the way Kristeva does (indeed you do not accept her methodology) and that Mary Douglas is important because she first formalized the notion of the clean and the dirty. While these names should be in there, they should be flanked by the more recent and exciting work you are engaging--Adorno, Benjamin, the Frankfurt school are "hot" right now (to be brashly commercial) and they should be highlighted. And one small thing: On p. 1, you slip and write "dissertation" (12 lines from bottom). 

A suggestion for the cover letter. Ray is a modernist himself with a recent book on modernism (and Irish and scots writing) at Oxford. You don't need to tell him who Dominick LaCapra is or where he teaches. But keep the reference to him there. 

Let me know when you plan to send this out and I'll write you a rave review to Ray.
Best,
Cassandra





-----Original Message-----
From: "Neil J. Levi" <nlevi-AT-drew.edu>
To: modernism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 12:04:49 -0400
Subject: Re: CFP: Special Issue of Modernism/Modernity on T.S. Eliot

Hi Cassandra,

This special issue sounds like a good idea! Are you still thinking about a Jewish Studies section on the Schuchard?

I'm guessing you've been too busy to get to the CUP materials: no worries, I've gotten some feedback from a couple of other friends. But I'd like to send the stuff off next week--and if you don't mind, I'd like to keep that plan in which I tell you when I'm sending, and you email Ryan to remind him who I am, please!

With thanks and best wishes,

Neil

-----Original Message-----
From: Cassandra Laity <claity-AT-drew.edu>
To: hdsoc-l-AT-uconnvm.uconn.edu, tse-AT-po.missouri.edu, poetics-AT-listserv.buffalo.edu, modbrits-AT-listserv.indian.edu, modernism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu, h-amstdy-AT-h-net.msu.edu
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 09:50:00 -0400
Subject: CFP: Special Issue of Modernism/Modernity on T.S. Eliot

CFP: Special Issue of Modernism/Modernity on T.S. Eliot

"T.S. Eliot in the 21st Century"

Please submit essays (25-30 pp) by January 31st, 2004 to appear in M/M 11:3.  Mail two hard copies with disk
(MS WD or WD Perfect) to:

Professor Cassandra Laity
Department of English
Editor, _Modernism/Modernity_
Drew University
Madison, NJ 07960


Professor Cassandra Laity
Co-Editor, _Modernism/Modernity_
English Department
Drew University
Madison, NJ 07940
Phone: 973-408-3141
Fax: 973-408-3040



Professor Cassandra Laity
Co-Editor, _Modernism/Modernity_
English Department
Drew University
Madison, NJ 07940
Phone: 973-408-3141
Fax: 973-408-3040






Professor Cassandra Laity
Co-Editor, _Modernism/Modernity_
English Department
Drew University
Madison, NJ 07940
Phone: 973-408-3141
Fax: 973-408-3040