QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking

QUIET

We live in a world of people who seemingly cannot stop talking! Oft times it presents a competition of who is able to attract the most attention. This session will explore the premise of Susan Cain’s book,Quiet. People who prefer reading to partying or listening to speaking are considered introverts. They are innovative and make significant contributions, but dislike self-promotion. They are often labeled “quiet” and sometimes this description alludes to negative connotations. Perhaps their being quiet is a personality characteristic or a product of their environment; perhaps their reserved nature is due to the hesitation of self-expression. However, from Van Gogh’s Sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer, the “quiet ones” have made immeasurable and invaluable contributions to our society and life as we know it. This panel will discuss the effect of introverts and quiet people on and in our world, and the philosophies associated with this type of labeling. Analyzed literary works, as well as personal experience papers (i.e., creative non-fiction pieces or personal narratives) are welcome. By June 25, 2013, please submit a 250-word abstract to Smyrna@nova.edu or ESLCARE@aol.com.

Conference website: https://samla.memberclicks.net/conference

Céilidh

This year the SVP Society Liverpool is proud to present their annual Céilidh, Friday 10 May (7pm), Casa, Hope Street, Liverpool.

 

Come along and help them raise some money for charity by having a fantastic evening with live music, dancing and fundraising games and quizzes. All proceeds will be going towards a twinnage scheme that provides money to a baby feeding clinic in Sudan. 

 

If you’ve never taken part in a Ceilidh before come along and give it a go – most people say they never will and end up having a… brilliant night! No experience necessary, in fact almost better if you have none as it makes the evening even more fun!

All dances called with runthroughs and to the beat provided by our very own ceilidh band along with Trivia Quiz, Raffle and Hit the Bottle to earn a few nifty prizes. Feel free to bring friends. The more the merrier…

 

Only £3 entry!

Scotland and Children’s Literature in the Nineteenth Century

Nineteenth-century Scotland holds a unique place in the history of children’s literature, the birthplace of celebrated émigré writers, including R. L. Stevenson, George MacDonald, and J. M. Barrie. It was also the home of publishers and printers who produced prodigious amounts of books and other reading material for children, many of which are now considered classics. However, the subject of nineteenth-century Scottish children’s literature remains a relatively untold story, despite the individual fame of those celebrated writers and sporadic attempts to uncover more regional writers. The figure of the child as reader, consumer, and imaginative subject ‘in Scotland’ pre-twentieth century is yet to be investigated in depth and detail. The idea or possibility of (a) ‘Scottish children’s literature’ is frequently subsumed into the twin critical histories of British and European children’s literature. How might it be conceptualised as a distinctive and cohesive cultural and artistic phenomenon? How might we reconsider or recontextualise the work of individual writers in a diversity of genres and mediums (poets, short story writers, journalists etc.)? The proposed volume, Scotland and Children’s Literature in the Nineteenth Century, aims to freshly reconfigure the imaginative and cultural narratives of Scotland and children’s literature in the long nineteenth century. The editors therefore invite scholarly essays which explore Scottish children’s writing, the literary construction of ‘the child’, and the culture of childhood in the nineteenth century. Topics may include but are not limited to the following:

Children’s Story Books, Chapbooks, Picture Books, Magazines, and School Books Produced in or Related to Scotland in the 19th Century Children and Childhood in 19th Century Scottish Periodicals History of Children’s Books in 19th Century Scotland Didactic, Instructional, and Pedagogical Approaches Fantastic, Fanciful, or Fin-de-siècle Writing for Children Scottish Writer, Publisher, or Illustrator for Children and Youth Scots Language Writing for Children The Representation of Childhood Experience in Scotland

Interested contributors should please send a 500-word abstract (as an attachment in Word), short biography and contact information to Dr Sarah Dunnigan (English Literature, University of Edinburgh, UK; s.m.dunnigan@ed.ac.uk) or Dr Shu-Fang Lai (Foreign Languages and Literature, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan; sflai@mail.nsysu.edu.tw) by 15th July 2013.

Le Petit Prince

The little prince crossed the desert and met with only one flower. It was a flower with three petals, a flower of no account at all.

“Good morning,” said the little prince.

“Good morning,” said the flower.

“Where are the men?” the little prince asked, politely.

The flower had once seen a caravan passing.

“Men?” she echoed. “I think there are six or seven of them in existence. I saw them, several years ago. But one never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult.”

“Goodbye,” said the little prince.

“Goodbye,” said the flower.

To read or re-read the whole book, visit http://home.pacific.net.hk/~rebylee/text/prince/

The Art of Walking

The Art of Walking: Pedestrian Mobility in Literature, Philosophy, and the Arts from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century

International Conference – École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, October 10-12, 2013

Organizers: Klaus Benesch (LMU Munich) and François Specq (École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS LIRE)

Walking is one of man’s fundamental modes of relating to the environment, of creating a sense of place and space. In the modern period, this human practice has also become a literary theme, a genre or mode of writing as much as a form of movement in space. Hence it can be said to represent a twofold mediation between man and the world at large: the corporeal movement in space and time, and the reflection of that movement in literature and the arts. It is from this double perspective that we seek to explore how walking has been turned into both an aesthetic project and a form of ‘mobile’ thinking, from John Gay to Paul Auster, from Wordsworth and Thoreau to Richard Long and Harriet Tarlo, from Rousseau to Rimbaud and André Breton.

We are looking for papers that engage the conceptual, cultural, textual, and visual dimensions of walking. Contributions may deal with how walking has become an aesthetic program, a form of reflection or a complex, frequently ambivalent metaphor; they may also discuss walking in light of its historical, ideological, aesthetic, philosophical, and poetical implications, or investigate two or more of these aspects jointly. Or they may ask how one can delineate the semantic field of ‘walking,’ which may evoke, among others, the notions of ‘rambling,’ ‘sauntering,’ ‘roaming,’ ‘hiking,’ or ‘perambulating,’ but also of the Aristotelian ‘peripatetic’ and, following Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin, of the “flâneur.” What are the values attached to these practices? How does walking
enhance our knowledge of a specific place or environment? Are there differences between walking in ‘nature’ and walking in an urban environment? To what extent has walking reinforced or, perhaps, questioned the distinction between the rural and the urban? If major texts in this tradition, such as Rousseau’s Reveries of a Solitary Walker and Wordsworth’s The Excursion, focus on the countryside, walking is not only, nor even primarily, a rural phenomenon, but is also typical of urban modernity. How has walking as a literary genre evolved throughout the modern period, and, how, following its heyday during the Romantic period, has it been redefined in connection to modernist issues? To what extent does the aesthetics of the ordinary and of chance, which seem to be associated with walking, relate to aspects of postmodern nomadology? Is walking gendered?

We also encourage approaches that are not limited to either cultural or literary history, but conjoin poetological, phenomenological, and philosophical aspects of walking. Put another way, while analyzing representations and practices of walking, we are equally interested in studying instances of (inter)textuality and cross-disciplinary fertilization. For example, how is the activity of walking related to literary genres: are aesthetic depictions or representations of walking intrinsically narrative or poetical? The various links between walking and writing or reading, the connection between walking and creativity, or the diverse ‘textual transcriptions’ of walking might also be considered. Furthermore, the complex temporality of walking, next to its relation to space, is also crucial. This temporality is usually marked by an ‘intensified’ temporal awareness, which is antithetical to the modern emphasis on speed as a symbol of modernity, and which privileges a sense of place over that of space. One may also think of the connection or analogy between the rhythm of walking and that of a poetic text (as in the notion of ‘foot,’ traditionally the basic unit of poetic scansion). In all of these different senses, walking encapsulates both the physical and spiritual dimensions of human existence; it thus turns into an important cultural symbol, a site where the outside world meets with the intimate realm of human reflection and creativity. We encourage submissions from scholars in a variety of fields and disciplines. Interdisciplinary approaches are especially welcome.

Proposals for 20-minute papers (title and 200-word summary) should be sent to both Klaus Benesch and François Specq, by email before April 15,
2013.
klaus.benesch@lmu.de
Francois.Specq@ens-lyon.fr

Intercontinental Cross-Currents: Women’s (Net-)Works across Europe and the Americas (1789-1939)

Intercontinental Cross-Currents: Women’s (Net-)Works across Europe and the Americas (1789-1939)

“Intercontinental Cross-Currents: Women’s (Net-)Works across Europe and the Americas (1789-1939).” Dec. 5-7, 2013, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Wittenberg, Germany. We invite abstracts from literary, historical and cultural studies perspectives focusing on the literal and metaphorical networks created and navigated by women from the American Revolution to the onset of the Second World War. We are interested in papers on a wide range of transatlantic themes, including the history of ideas, the migration of texts, identity formation, literary production and reception, feminism and emancipation, immigration, and social reform. How and in what forms did ideas, bodies, and texts travel across oceans and continents? How did women’s lives adapt and change as a result of such networks? What were the consequences of such intellectual and social engagements on the literary and socio-political milieus of these women? Which cooperative strategies enabled and emanated from such relationships? We especially invite participants whose projects focus on relations between women in the Americas and Scandinavia, and in eastern and southern Europe. In addition to examining the historical networks of our nineteenth- and twentieth-century predecessors, we anticipate establishing a global web of contemporary researchers engaged in transatlantic studies. At the conference, we will discuss future events and other venues for continued collaboration.

Organized by Dr. Julia Nitz (MLU Halle-Wittenberg), Dr. Sandra H. Petrulionis (Penn State University, Altoona), and Theresa Schön (MLU Halle-Wittenberg) and hosted by the Center for US Studies at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, the conference will be held at the Leucorea in Wittenberg, a 1-hour train ride from central Berlin. Lodging will be available at the Leucorea Foundation building. Confirmed guest speakers include Dr. Thavolia Glymph, Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Duke University (Durham, North Carolina USA), and Dr. Jutta Gsoels-Lorensen, Associate Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University (Altoona, Pennsylvania USA). We expect to publish selected conference proceedings; participants whose proposals are accepted will be eligible to apply for a travel grant.

Please send 300-word abstracts and a brief biographical sketch by June 15, 2013, to Dr. Julia Nitz at julia.nitz@zusas.uni-halle.de.

A Deep-Sworn Vow

A Deep-Sworn Vow

Others because you did not keep

That deep-sworn vow have been friends of mine;

Yet always when I look death in the face,

When I clamber to the heights of sleep,

Or when I grow excited with wine,

Suddenly I meet your face.

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Illness Narratives

The Work of Collaborative Illness Narratives

Dr. Stella Bolaki
University of Kent

Date: Wednesday 24 April 2013
Time: 2.15pm–3.45pm
Place: Eden 109, Liverpool Hope University, UK

Dr. Stella Bolaki uses a recent memoir, Patrick and Henry Cockburn’s Henry’s Demons: Living with Schizophrenia, A Father and Son’s Story (2011), as a vehicle to address broader theoretical inquiries and cultural debates related to the study of illness narratives, disability studies, and approaches to mental health. Reading the book as a collaborative narrative of illness, Dr. Bolaki starts by examining its formal composition and the ethical dimensions of collaborative life writing more generally. The rest of the paper assesses the strategies used in the memoir to construct a positive identity for the person who is ill and whether they have the capacity to reshape cultural knowledge and static models of schizophrenia that resort to either the pathologizing discourses of medicine or the metaphoric invocations of the “exceptional” schizophrenic (as in the work of the modernist avant-garde and some postmodern theorists, for example). Dr. Bolaki thus raises questions as to the kind of work illness narratives do for people who are ill and for those who seek to understand illness.

Stella Bolaki is a lecturer in the School of English at the University of Kent. Her publications in the field of disability studies and medical humanities include articles on race and disability, textual and photographic cancer narratives, illness and aesthetics, and artists’ books in the medical community. She is currently working on a monograph provisionally entitled Illness as Many Narratives: Aesthetics, Witnessing and the Politics of Representation.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. David Bolt

http://www.qmul.ac.uk/emotions

Keywords

Words stay the same but their use often changes.

A dynamic exhibition and lecture programme looking at how changes in the meaning of words reflect the cultural shifts in society. Keywords is presented in partnership with Tate Liverpool and is based on Raymond Williams’ seminal text – Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society

These cultural shifts in society fascinated Raymond Williams, who in 1976 published the seminal book, Keywords – a vocabulary of culture and society, in which he analysed the use and meanings of over a hundred words such as anarchism, originality, genius and democracy.

This March, Iniva presents an expansive programme of exhibitions, lectures, film and learning projects in partnership with Tate Liverpool, expanding on Williams’ studies of words into three-dimensional form.

Keywords draws on loans from Tate Collection and explores words through works of art. The works date from 1976 focusing on material from the 1980s and early 1990s, including a frieze commission by Luca Frei and Will Holder.

Keyword Lectures examine terms such as Equality, Theory and Sex, and Keywords Investigations invites you to explore your own words as part of a 10-week workshop.

Keywords continues at Tate Liverpool in 2014.

Location:	Rivington Place
Time:	27 Mar – 18 May 2013 Tues, Weds, Fri 11am – 6pm, Thursday late opening 11am until 9pm, Saturday 12-6pm
Admission:	Free

ARC Scholarship Competition

ARC Scholarship Competition

ARC will be accepting applications for the 2013 ARC Scholarship Competition starting May 1st, with a deadline of May 31st, 2013.

They will be awarding $30,000 in scholarship funds this year to support talented students study at ARC Approved Atelier and Academy Schools ™. The application is now posted on the ARC website and you can access relevant information including application forms and other particulars in the following link: http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/scholarshipapplication.php

To be eligible for an ARC Scholarship you must be accepted or presently enrolled in an ARC approved program for the 2013 fall term. There is a list of approved programs available on the website at the ARC Approved™ Ateliers page.

The applicant should be intent on becoming a career artist. The scholarship is not intended for individuals who are only studying art as a hobby. ARC reserves the right to disburse funds in whole or in part after evaluation of the merits of applicant entries as exhibited by their work and proof of enrollment at an atelier, academy, studio-school or program approved by ARC. Please check with Kara Ross, the Director of Operations, to determine if the program or apprenticeship in which you are currently enrolled, or wish to enroll, qualifies for this competition.

The decision of the Judges shall be final. ARC reserves the right of sole discretion to withhold awards if, in its judgment, the work submitted fails to comply with the standards as noted herein.

Awardees must use scholarship funds to further his/her art education, i.e. tuition and art materials. Scholarship funds must be used at ARC Approved™ institutions who teach proper methods of training. In all cases, funds will be paid directly to the studio or institutions where the winners will be working. ARC reserves the right to make recommendations regarding the disbursement of funds, or to request that the use of scholarship funds be monitored by a representative of the faculty or staff of the institution where the student is enrolled. Scholarship winners must claim their award within one year of the time it is awarded. This is done by enrolling in the ARC Approved™ course(s) he/she desires and having the bill sent from the school on his/her behalf to The Art Renewal Center as proof of enrollment. ARC will then pay the bill on the student’s behalf up to the sum of the award amount.

This competition is not open to students inspired by abstract, conceptualist, neo-conceptual or non-traditional forms of constructions. Also excluded are examples of commercial design arts such as fashion and interior design, crafts, architecture, collage, photography, computer graphics and animation, commercial illustration or related genres. It is the determination of the Board of Trustees that illustration clearly can rise to the level of fine art; therefore example illustrative works will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Incomplete applications will not be submitted to the judges for evaluation.

Announcement of the awards will be made by mail as soon as a decision has been made. The names of winners will be announced on the ARC Website.

Suggested Entries: Portraits rendered from life, landscapes, still lifes, paintings from life, drawings or paintings from the figure (nude), cast studies in charcoal or grisaille palette, or completed thematic works.