Call for Papers
Conference on ‘Lord Byron and the Margins of Romanticism’
University of Vechta, 19-21 June 2014


In the context of Romanticism, Byron is one the most liminal writers constantly wavering between his Classicist roots and his aspiration to transcend the Romantic age and to usher in a new period of relentless realism. Lambasting his Romantic contemporaries and ostensibly show¬ing them for what they were – Cockneys, drooling sentimentalists, muddle-brained meta¬physicians – Byron not only reverted to genres that originated in the early modern period, but also created characters that should only marginally be called Romantic.
It is only in Canto III, under the influence of strong doses of Wordsworth physic, that Childe Harold is a Romantic anti-hero; more often than not he is a sceptic in the tradition of Montaigne who clearly goes beyond the Romantic convention of melancholy and anticipates writers of 20th-century existentialism. Don Juan, by contrast, is a modern picaro who is flung into an absurd world in which doctors turn into vampiristic monsters, in which diseases are “saving clauses” and rainbows conjure up pugilistic associations of bruised eyes. 
It is certainly one of the merits of Byron’s epic poems that they refuse to be categorised, that they straddle generic boundaries and that they are remarkable anachronisms, which show the Byronic form of Romanticism constantly on the verge of absurdity, nihilism, and modernist humeur noir.    

This conference to be held in the rural (almost pastoral) north of Germany, close to Bremen, invites 30-minute papers on Byron’s strained relationship with Romanticism, on his precarious position within and without the Romantic circles, and on the phenomenon of Byronism, an unpre¬cedented celebrity cult which was always at odds with Romantic ideas of solipsistic ingenuity. 

The papers might deal with, but are not confined to

Byron and early modern literature
Byron’s re-definitions of Classicism
Byron and 19th-century traditions of realism and naturalism
Byron and the criticism of Romanticism
Byron and the absurd
Byron and the deconstruction of Romantic poetry

Proposals of about 300 words, accompanied with a short CV should be sent to the local organiser:

Prof. Dr. Norbert Lennartz
Department of English
University of Vechta
Driverstrasse 22
D-49377 Vechta 
[log in to unmask]


The deadline for proposals is May 31, 2013.

*********************************************************
British Association for Romantic Studies
http://www.bars.ac.uk<http://www.bars.ac.uk/>

To advertise Romantic literature conferences, publications, jobs, or
other events that the BARS members would be interested in, please
contact Neil Ramsey <[log in to unmask]>

Also use this address to register any change in your e-mail address,
or to be removed from the list.

Messages are held in archives, along with other information about the
Mailbase at: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/bars.html
*********************************************************