CFP: Literature in English Symposium (Poznan, Poland)

21 April 2013

'I am an exile from heaven beating on its closed doors'*:
Saints and Sinners: Postmodernism, Feminism and Medievalism in Literature in English

'I am a stranger in this world' says the nun, the narrator of a story of a forbidden book by Marguerite Porete. The year is 1340, thirty years after Marguerite was burned at the stake for writing and disseminating her heretical work, The Mirror of Simple Souls. The place is England, a Cistercian nunnery where she tells her story the night before her death, knowing that the book irretrievably changed but also shortened her life. But the idea of being a stranger in the world is not an uncommon one for many other Michele Roberts’ characters.

From the early feminists to postmodern protagonists her novels rewrite medieval saints and sinners, Victorian mediums and contemporary visionaries, offering us new perspectives on well known stories and motifs. As Michele Roberts herself will be our guest of honor at the Faculty of English, her work is the inspiration for our 2013 Literature in English Symposium but we welcome papers about topics related to postmodern rewriting of history and culture as well as the feminist standpoint on both contemporary and earlier literature in English.

The conference will take place at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland (Niepodleglosci Street). The deadline for abstract submissions is 15th December 2012. Please send your proposals and a short bio to Dr Katarzyna Bronk.

*The quotation comes from Michele Roberts, The Book of Mrs Noah (1999: 125). London: Vintage.

CFP: 10th Medieval English Studies Symposium

19-20 November 2011
Poznań, Poland

The 10th Medieval English Studies Symposium, organised by the School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, will be held in Poznan from 19-20 November, 2011. MESS10 will have as its aim bringing together specialists in the areas of medieval English literature and linguistics. Two plenary lectures, at least two parallel sessions and over twenty section meetings are planned.

Literature Section at MESS10

Princes and Paupers: Class, Money and (social and physical) Otherness in medieval and medievalist literature in English

The main aim of the literary section is that class and wealth and their literary representations appear in the form of endorsements as well as admonitions. Princes and Paupers feature in secular literature of advice as well as in religious works on sins and transgressions, both types offering insight into the nature of medieval social life. Early medieval penitentials outline not only ideas on penance (exile which meant social exclusion being one of the most frequently prescribed punishments), but first and foremost demonstrate how crimes were punished differently according to the social class of the perpetrators. Mess10 welcomes all papers dealing with the above mentioned aspects of medieval literature but we will also try to accommodate other papers, if need arises.

500-word abstracts should be submitted by the end of August 2011, preferably by email, in the .rtf or .doc format. As the number of paper slots is limited, all proposals will be reviewed by the organising committee and the authors will be notified about acceptance by mid-September 2011. Participants without papers are also welcome.

Venue

The conference will be held at Collegium Iuridicum Novum building, officially inaugurated in December 2010 to house the AMU Faculty of Law and Administration (Polish: Wydział Prawa i Administracji).

All the rooms offer audio and video equipment, including data projectors.

Registration

New registration forms will soon be available on the conference website.

All enquiries concerning the Symposium should be addressed to the organisers, preferably by e-mail.

For more information, see the main website here.