Mark Twain Circle sessions at the 2007 MLA Convention in Chicago

The Mark Twain Circle sponsored two sessions at the Modern Language
Association National Convention.  Both of these meetings were graced
with strong presentations and a lively audience.

"Mark Twain and the Blues" was a panel discussion including Robert
O'Meally (Columbia University), Jonathan Arac (University of
Pittsburgh), and David Lionel Smith (Williams College).  The
interaction was informal but sophisticated, centering on the
possibility of deep cultural connections between the temperament,
cadences, and ethos of the American blues tradition, and Mark Twain's
voices and creative processes as a writer.   Though the session was
at 7:15 on a Saturday night, in direct competition with the holiday
allurements of Chicago, we had a full room, and a lot of good
questions and observations from the attendees.

The second session, "Mark Twain and the City" was scheduled by MLA
into the final time-slot of the Convention, in the middle of Sunday
afternoon -- about four hours after the check-out time for the
hotels.  We were also positioned in one of the worst and
least-accessible meeting rooms imaginable -- two stories below ground
level in the Hyatt annex, behind two metal-clad and swipe-carded
doors, adjacent to a vast and menacing underground garage.    Though
the time and the place raised our anxieties about how the meeting
would go, things went very well indeed:  detailed and vigorous papers
by Harold Bush (St. Louis University), Ann Ryan (LeMoyne College),
and Joe Csicsila (Eastern Michigan University).  We had sixteen in
attendance -- a good turnout for any MLA special session -- including
some advanced graduate students with special interests relating to
Mark Twain, and the interactions made the planning and worrying
entirely worthwhile.

We will hope to see you at the American Literature Association
sessions in May, and at the 2008 MLA Convention next December -- both
of these are set for San Francisco.

-- Bruce Michelson, University of Illinois
Vice President, MT Circle