The conference was spread over three days, with four plenary lectures and seven panel sessions. Below is a breakdown of the panel sessions and the plenary lectures.
The conference also included the launch of The Lunar Attic which was held at the Arts Centre bookshop. The launch was a huge success with over fifty people in attendance. We were treated to readings from a number of contributors to the publication – the first time many of these pieces have been read publicly, but certainly not the last. The Lunar Attic showcases a particularly good crop of creative writers from the English and Creative Writing department this year, so don’t forget to pick up a copy. The launch concluded on a high with Dr. Tiffany Atkinson reading a number of striking poems from Kink and Particle, and Tyler Keevil reading two engaging extracts from his debut novel, Fireball.
Besides hosting the event, The National Library led a behind the scenes tour. All of the delegates were privy to seeing such treasures as ancient versions of the King James Bible along with the very first translation of the Bible into Welsh, at the demand of Elizabeth I. There was also a tour of the Clive James Hicks exhibition which had been recently installed in the gallery.
All told, the conference drew more than 60 attendees over the three days, included many of the faculty members who stepped in to chair panels. The conference set a good example for years to come, and hopefully later conferences will continue down the path that this year’s committee has started.
Panel Sessions:
Wednesday 11 May
Panel Session 1:
Textual Regionalism - Mary Chadwick spoke of the ‘Fashionably Welsh: Felicia Browne Heman’s Early Poetry.’ Much of her research came from the National Library archives, so our location was pertinent.
Mysticism, Magic and Poetry - Faisal Al-Doori talked us through the significance of ‘Symbolism in W.B.Yeats’s “The Phases of the Moon”’ followed by Aberystwyth-based PhD candidate Stephanie Churms ‘“The Mariner hath his will”: The Interdisciplinary Incantation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’.
Panel Session 2:
Reconsidering Theory 1 - Lila Matsumoto, from Edinburgh University, gave a paper titled: ‘The Little Magazine “Migrant”: Perspectives for Transnational and Collaborative Literary Spaces’. Information about the magazine Scree edited by Ms Matsumoto can be found here. http://screemagazine.wordpress.com
Semiotics and Performance - Rosie Sheppard, London based writer completing a PhD at Glamorgan, spoke about ‘The Vocabulary of Proximity: The Poetry of Raymond Carver’. The final postgraduate paper of the day was Nik Wakefield’s ‘This One Goes to Eleven: Postdramatic Signs in bobrauschenbergamerica,’ a fascinating look at a performance by Charles Mee.
Prof. Mark Willhardt
Plenary 1:
The afternoon was concluded with Professor Mark Willhardt from Monmoth College, Illinois giving his plenary lecture, ‘Covering Authenticity: A Few Words on Pop Music and Morality, in Three Movements and (two) False Starts.’ Prof. Willhardt discussed how most arguments over popular music can be discusses in terms of artistic authenticity. Britney Spears was a happy addition to the presentation - if you missed it, you missed a treat!
Thursday 12 May
Panel Session 3:
Literature and the Environment – ‘This is the New World. This is Tech City: Women, Science and the Environment in The Stone Gods,’ by Rebecca Curtis of Aberystwyth University, considered the way in which Jeanette Winterson’s novel and the author’s role and responsibility to influence the reader on an ethical level in relation to Environmentalism. ‘The Visual and the Literary in the Welsh Ecopoetry in English,’ by William Welstead also of Aberystwyth University, looked at the work of three poets, Phillip Gross, Stephen Spender and Gillian Clarke and the way in which they juxtapose the natural imagery of the Welsh landscape against images of industrialism, leading to debates about the devastation of the natural to facilitate technological and industrial advancement.
Writing Wales – ‘A Proper Adventure: Writing a Bilingual Wales,’ by Lowri Emlyn of Aberystwyth University, presented the issues and inspirations behind her MA dissertation project, a novel called A Proper Adventure, and the consequences of presenting the Welsh language within an English Text. ‘Horses Heads and Spirit-Listening; Welsh Christmas Rituals Re-Interpreted,’ by Matthew Bearne, Aberystwyth University, discussed the Mari Lwyd Christmas ritual, and how he has used this odd ritual in his forthcoming poetry sequence.
Tyler Keevil
Plenary 2
Tyler Keevil gave an extremely insightful talk titled ‘Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?: Blending Philosophy, Experience and Literary Influence in the Bildungsroman Novel.’ This paper focused on his own creative process during the composition of his novel Fireball, which has been long listed for the Welsh book of the year 2011. During his talk, Tyler discussed why the theme of the ‘coming of age’ novel is so popular, and how in many ways, these novels represent a rite of passage for the reader as well as the characters. Tyler discussed the works which had influenced the characters in Fireball which included The Outsider (Camus, 1942), Foxfire (Oates, 1993) and The Outsiders (Hinton, 1967).
Panel Session 4:
Exploring Truth and Beauty – Aberystwyth Poet Dan Shelley-Smith explored the interesting poetry that the juxtaposition of physics and poetry can create. His paper, ‘Physics and Poetry: Translating Theory into Beauty,’ gave an overview of dominant theories in theoretical physics that pervade his poetry. Fiction writer Fiona Caldwell, also from Aberystwyth, explored the ways fairy tales can be relevant in today’s fiction with her paper, ‘For Every Person There is an Original in a Fairy-Tale: Looking at the Self in Fairy Tales.’
Machines and Literature – Shawn Mitchell, from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, examined the way that machines and computers can be used to aid the creative process in his presentation, ‘Machines of Love and Grace: Hacking the Subconscious in Creative Writing.’ On the opposite spectrum, Shawn Major, from Aberystwyth, examined Steampunk’s anxieties over increased mechanization. Her presentation was titled ‘Steampunk: Examining the Boundaries of Humanity.’
Panel Session 5:
Collectors and Collections – In an excellent example of the similarities between disciplines, this panel brought together Ben Lang from Information Studies and Lisa Smith from Theatre, Film and Television Studies. Mr. Lang’s paper, ‘Children's Artwork in the Archive: Towards a Developmental Archival Theory,’ examined a trend in which parents higher archivists to appreciate and archive their children’s art work, while Ms Smith’s ‘Collecting Memories, Collector Nostalgia and Object Theatre,’ explored the relationship between the collector and the nostalgic by interrogating the value of poor object, specifically Smurf collectibles.
Reading the Visual – This panel explored the narrative elements of more visual and often derided mediums. Tarek Robertson’s ‘From Asteroids to Art: Establishing a Discourse of Video Games’ argued for videogames as a narrative art, while Keegan Lannon’s ‘Please Mind the Gap: The Semiotic Temporality of the Frame and the Gutter’ looked at how pictures and words comingle to create a sense of time passing in comics.
Prof. Peter Barry
Plenary 3
In one of the most well-attended talks of the conference, Prof. Peter Barry of Aberystwyth discussed asemic poetry, or poetry that pushes the limits and definitions of poetry. His paper, ‘“A Country Difficult to Find”: Exploring the Asemic Hinterland of Poetry,’ focused on the poetry of blank pages, images that are essentially poems, and other unexpected locations of poetry. This emerging new poetic, and Prof. Barry’s discussion of it, keyed into an important aspect of the conference: the spaces between typically defined fields of study. The poems Prof. Barry used as demonstrations blended visual and literary theories; crossed boundaries of photographic art and the written word; and forced a recognition of the materiality of all forms of art. The committee and all those attending were extremely pleased to have Prof. Barry share his talk with us.
Friday 13 May
Panel Session 6:
Reconsidering Theory 2 – Aberystwyth University’s own Stephanie Jones presented her paper entitled ‘Invading Media: Intertextuality and Christine Brook-Rose’s Textermination,’ being extremely well received by all accounts. Karl Schlobohm, also from Aberystwyth University, followed Ms Jones with his paper, ‘An “Uncanny” Home: The Interrelationship Between Architecture and Psychology in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves.’
Literature and Politics – contrasting nicely with the modernity of its opposing session, Panel B proceeded with an examination of authors and texts from the Restoration to the early 19th Century. SooMin Kim, of Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea, presented her cross examination of women and economics, ‘Woman, Born Free? Space and Virtue in Daniel Defoe’s Roxana.’ Ashley Hill continued this theme with her entertaining and insightful presentation ‘“She Works Hard for the Money”: Economic Influences in Aphra Behn’s Writing.’ The session was concluded by Glen Curren with ‘John Keats and the King of the Cockney’s: Re-politicising “Ode to Autumn”.’
Panel Session 7:
Contemporary Writers in New Light – This panel heard papers on ‘Queer Modernism and the Politics of Loss’ by Ery Shin of Oxford Univeristy, which examined the conflicting arguments in queer criticism. Another by Jemma King from Aberystwyth University, ‘How Ted Hughes Became “The Folk Devil”,’ examined Ted Hughes popularity, and how that popularity shaped his public personae.
Contemporary Fiction – The second panel of this session enjoyed a spirited, lively and stimulating presentation by David Hucklesby, ‘“What a Load of Old Rubbish! No Story About It. Boring.” B.S. Johnson and a Novel Form in Crisis,’ closely followed by the sombre and thought provoking Nigel Rodenhurst with his psychologically based ‘Trauma, History and Gender: Discrepancies in Psychoanalytic Ways of Reading Holocaust Testimony.’
Tiffany Atkinson
Plenary 4:
Ending the conference was the final plenary speaker, award winning poet and literary critic Dr. Tiffany Atkinson with “Embarrassment in Poetry,” based around her upcoming collection of poetry Catulla Et Al, featuring both intellectually original and thought provoking critical commentary and an entertaining reading of her creative work. In the talk, Dr. Atkinson argued that embarrassment could be used for poetic effects, manipulating the reader. She examined poems which used language and images that put the reader in an uncomfortable position, and how she was using this discomfort to draw the reader’s attention for certain aims.
