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Forthcoming BCLA or BCLA-related events

British Comparative Literature Association (BCLA) XIII International Conference
University of Essex, United Kingdom
July 8-11 2013
Fulll information available on the official conference site

In collaboration with the British School at Rome and the School for Libyan Studies, the BCLA Migration conference will include a dedicated strand of panels, readings, and performances entitled “Through Dido’s Eyes: The Arab Spring in Literature and the Arts”. Dido, an exile, woman, ruler, builder, symbol of the complexity of northern Africa, and the interconnectedness of the Mediterranean, presides over the collaboration between the Society for Libyan Studies, the British School at Rome, the BCLA, and the University of Essex. The aim is to create new links between BASIS institutions and the Arab world, and to explore with colleagues from the areas affected by the Arab Spring some of the cultural resonance of this remarkable historical moment.

For further information please contact bcla2013@essex.ac.uk.

Comparative Criticism: Histories and Methods
25th- 26th September 2013
St Anne’s College, Oxford
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An open meeting of the Oxford University Research Network New Grounds for Comparative Criticism (oxfordcomparativeliterature.com), held in collaboration with the British Comparative Literature Association and funded by The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities, the John Fell Fund, and St Anne’s College.

The way we do comparative criticism affects the histories we tell of it; and the histories we tell affect our practice. Our conference aims to explore this interaction. We will resurrect moments from the history of comparative literature, tracing its relation to national and regional literatures, comparative philology and classical traditions. There will be discussion of the role played by institutions, including Oxford, in shaping the discipline. We will consider the different forms that  comparative study assumes in different locations, and we will explore its connections to translation and area studies, and world literature. Attention will be given to the interplay between the comparative criticism of written texts and that of film, music and visual art. Is ‘comparative criticism’ a distinct formulation that might usefully join ‘comparative literature’, ‘world literature’ and the rest?

The following contributions have been confirmed. Prof Joep Leerssen (Amsterdam) will talk about his work on his soon-to-be-published history of comparative literary study in Britain (Leerssen and Shaffer, Comparative Literature in Britain: National Identities, Transnational Dynamics 1800-2000). Prof Ritchie Robertson (Oxford) will discuss ideas of world literature before Goethe. Prof Mihály Szegedy-Maszák (Budapest and Indiana) will give his view of the challenges of comparative work, and Prof Ahmad Etman (Cairo) will describe the state of the discipline in the Arab world. Members of the Oxford research network will explore matters such as translation and comparison, comparison beyond influence, and metaphors of comparison. Representatives of the BCLA will describe the state of the discipline in Britain today.

We now invite proposals for short papers on the following topics:
- Comparative literature and film, music and the visual arts
- The construction of interpretive contexts in comparative criticism
- Methodological intersections between comparative literature, area studies and world literature

We want to arrange the contributions to prompt constructive debate so please make clear what the methodological interest of your paper will be. Please send a 200 word proposal and a short biog to matthew.reynolds@ell.ox.ac.uk by Friday 14th June. If you would like to contribute in some other way, for instance in a group presentation or planned discussion, please write to the same address by the same date.

The programme will be finalised in early July, and registration will open thereafter.

Organisers: Elinor Shaffer (BCLA); Matthew Reynolds, Mohamed-Salah Omri, Ben Morgan, Céline Sabiron (Oxford).   

Other Events of Interest to Comparatists

Perspectives on Brazilian Culture
University of Bristol
23 May from 14.00, Link 1 Entrance via 3 - 5 Woodland Road
Featuring the award-winning writer Adriana Lisboa
Download poster and further information here