The Lessons of Academic English Conference
University of Melbourne, 29-30 September 2023
Keynote Speakers:
Helen Thaventhiran, University of Cambridge
Simon During, University of Melbourne
Call for Papers:
During the middle of the twentieth century, academic literary criticism developed a range of new techniques for how we read literature and the ‘literary intellectual’ enjoyed considerable prestige as a cultural figure. In the 1970s, however, the discipline of English was revolutionized with the development of cultural studies and the absorption of continental philosophy. Established critical approaches came to be regarded as outmoded and ideologically suspect. However, in the last few years scholars have begun to reappraise the energy and influence of these earlier movements and their methodological innovations.
Deriving from the ARC Discovery project ‘English: The History of a Discipline, 1920-70’ (CIs Simon During and Ronan McDonald), this symposium explores literary criticism in the middle-decades of the twentieth century with an emphasis on what lessons we might take from it in imagining the discipline of English in the twenty-first century.
We invite papers, provocations, panels and presentations related to this theme (max 20 minutes per individual speaker). Possible topics include:
- Examinations of individual critics or literary figures from 1920-70
- The relationship between academic criticism and higher journalism
- Genealogies of current concerns or issues within literary studies (such as postcritique, ecocriticism, decolonization)
- Reconsiderations of the practice and theory of close reading, formalism, hermeneutics, genre and myth criticism
- The politics and ideology of academic English
Please submit your proposals, no more than 300 words per individual/20 minute presentation, by 30 June 2023 to Prof Ronan McDonald, ronan.mcdonald@unimelb.edu.au
This conference will take place at the University of Melbourne on 29-30 September 2023. While we will favour in person presenters, we will also be able to accommodate a limited number of speakers via Zoom.