Researchers of folk narratives might be interested in the CFP below. The panel will be held in NeMLA (Northeast Modern Language Association) Conference, taking place in Pittsburgh, March 5–8, 2026. The chairs are Fanny Marchaisse (Northwestern University) and Charlotte Trinquet du Lys (University of Central Florida).
Panel Title:
(Re)Birthing the Crone: Old Age, Motherhood, and the Politics of Regeneration in Fairy and Folkloric Tales
Panel Description:
This panel explores how fairy and folkloric narratives represent older women—especially mothers, crones, and fairies—as complex agents of (re)generation, control, and care. Often sidelined in favor of youthful heroines and romantic ideals, these older female figures nonetheless anchor tales through their affective labor, moral authority, and symbolic power. Whether embittered, monstrous, or withdrawn, they shape the tale’s logic of transformation, inheritance, and survival. The panel welcomes papers engaging with feminist theory, age studies, queer temporality, or affect theory to examine how fairy tales imagine old age and motherhood as fraught but generative forces.
Submission Guidelines:
– Abstracts (max. 250 words) with a short bio should be submitted directly via the NeMLA CFP platform: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/22002
– Submission deadline: September 30, 2025
