Date: 4th-5th June 2018
Location: University of Edinburgh, 50 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JU
The Literary Self: From Antiquity to the Digital Age, 4th-5th June 2018, Edinburgh, Scotland
An interdisciplinary postgraduate conference with collaboration between the University of St. Andrews, University of Edinburgh, and University of Strathclyde.
Throughout history, authors have grappled with how their texts are presented to their audience. Critics and theorists have responded to this in kind with a multitude of diverging approaches to the author in a text and the nature of the self generally. This conference considers how authorship can be identified, how the author constructs literary identity, and how this literary identity can be used as a mode of self-exploration for both the author and the audience. We will examine these from the various historical perspectives and culminate in a roundtable discussion on their applicability in a digital age.
Please register your interest at:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-literary-self-from-antiquity-to-the-digital-age-registration-43306513949
MONDAY 4 JUNE 2018
50 George Square, Screening Room G.04
12:00 – 13:00 Registration with Coffee and Tea
13:00 – 13:20 Welcome and Introduction
13:20 – 15:00 Session 1: Identifying Authorship
Chair: Consuelo Martino (St. Andrews)
13:20 – 13:40 Katharine Mawford (Manchester) Creating credibility: echoes of the composer in
Homer and Hesiod
13:40 – 14:00 Francesco Arena (Edinburgh) The Author(s) of the Book of Jeremiah
14:00 – 14:20 Lukas Spielhofer (Graz) ὑπ’ ἐμοῦ δὲ πρώτου τῆς θύρης ἀνοιχθείσης —
Reconstructing identity in Babrius’s Mythiamboi
14:20 – 14:40 Lisa Nais (Aberdeen) ‘It was all as though they had never been’: Constance Fletcher’s
Mirage as an attempt to blur together the concepts of autobiography, biographical fiction and
unreliable narration
14:40 – 15:00 Discussion Lead by Dr. Roger Rees (St. Andrews)
15:00 – 15:20 Coffee/Tea Break
15:20 – 17:00 Session 2: Reception
Chair: Caitlan Smith (St. Andrews)
15:20 – 15:40 Talitha Kearey (Cambridge) ‘The author’s voice: stories of performance and recitation
in Virgil’s ancient reception’
15:40 – 16:00 Alley Marie Jordan (Edinburgh) ‘Paint to me the day we went to St. Germains’: The
Year Thomas Jefferson Fell in Love in Paris, 1786.
16:00 – 16:20 Rossana Zetti (Edinburgh) The Case of Anouilh’s Antigone: the (hidden) Authorial
Voice
16:20 – 16:40 Alexandra Grunberg (Glasgow) CAinexile: A Story by Stephen King
16:40 – 17:00 Discussion Lead
17:00 – 18:00 Networking Drinks Reception
18:00 – 20:00 Conference Dinner
TUESDAY 5 JUNE 2018
50 George Square, Project Room
10:00 – 10:30 Coffee/Tea
10:30 – 12:10 Session 3: Exploration of the Self
Chair: Miles Beard (Strathclyde)
10:30 – 10:50 Salour Exaz Malayeri (St Andrews) ‘…Then I Arose’: The Persona of the Seeker in
Naser-e Khosrow’s Desired Narrative of Self
10:50 – 11:10 Natalya Sarana (Humboldt) A Portrait of The Emigrant as a Young Man: The Self in
The Russian Émigré Bildungsroman
11:10 – 11:30 George Cox (Nottingham) ‘Quicksilver Creatures’: The Internet and Emersonian
‘Becomings’ in Jennifer Egan’s Look at Me and ‘Black Box’
11:30 – 11:50 Ida Hummel Gabrielsen (Edinburgh) Autoreception of the Literary Self: The Function
of Re-reading and Re-writing in Karl Ove Knausgård’s Min kamp
11:50 – 12:10 Discussion lead by Prof. Simon James (Durham)
12:10 – 12:30 Coffee/Tea Break
12:30 – 13:30 Keynote Lecture: Prof. Simon James (Durham) Dickens, Autobiography and Mental Time Travel
13:30 – 14:30 Lunch and Roundtable Discussion
14:30 – 15:00 Conclusions
Travel Reimbursement
Due to our generous funding bodies we are able to provide compensation to postgraduate delegates
traveling to attend the conference. Expense forms will be available at the conference to reclaim travel
expenses.
*This is only available for those traveling from Scottish Universities.
Organisers:
Consuelo Martino (St. Andrews)
Caitlan Smith (St. Andrews) Generously Funded By:
Matthew Tibble (Edinburgh)
Miles Beard (Strathclyde)
literaryself2018@gmail.com