CALL FOR PAPERS
'TENNYSON'S FUTURES'
27-28 MARCH 2009
ENGLISH FACULTY, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be.
-'Locksley Hall'
I remember once in London the realization coming over me, of the whole
of
its inhabitants lying horizontal a hundred years hence.
-Letters
Tennyson was acutely aware of his place in time, and the future, with
all of
the uncertainties and certainties that it holds, is one of the central
preoccupations of his poetry. The bicentenary of Tennyson's birth in
2009
provides an ideal opportunity to consider the poet's position both in
relation to his future and to ours. This two-day conference will explore
possible future directions in Tennyson studies and ask vital questions
about
Tennyson's conception of and relationship to the future. How does
Tennyson
imagine the various futures that he describes in his poetry? How is his
role
as a poet affected by his need to look forward? How have later writers
and
artists responded to Tennyson's work? And how might the emergence of new
critical trends affect assessments of Tennyson in the future? Proposals
are
invited on any aspect of the conference theme, including but not limited
to:
Tennyson's representations of personal and historical futures; his
revisions
and re-imaginings of his own poems; his cultural status and posthumous
reputation; literary (and other) responses to Tennyson; new theoretical
and
critical approaches to Tennyson.
Confirmed speakers include: Matthew Campbell, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst,
Eric
Griffiths, Seamus Perry, Christopher Ricks, Nicholas Shrimpton, Helen
Small,
Herbert F. Tucker.
Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words, together with your
name
and institutional affiliation, to [log in to unmask] The
deadline
for proposals is 17 October 2008.
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