Society News

The 2008 Juliet McLauchlan Prize

The Joseph Conrad Society (UK) is pleased to announce that A. M. Purssell has been awarded the McLauchlan Prize for 2008 for his essay "Of Other Spaces: Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, and Tourism."

The prize, in memory of The Society's long-serving and much loved first Chair, is normally awarded annually (none was awarded in 2007).

Mr Purssell is pursuing doctoral studies in Royal Holloway College, University of London.

The Conradian: Special Issue on Under Western Eyes

To commemorate the centenary of the publication of Under Western Eyes, the Editors and Editorial Board of The Conradian invite essays to be published in the journal's Autumn 2011 issue. Deadline for submission is 30 April 2011.

Special issues of the journal are published as monographs by Rodopi of Amsterdam.

Conrad Studies from Rodopi

Conrad in the Public Eye: Biography / Criticism / Publicity, edited by John G. Peters, the second volume of the Conrad Studies series, published by Rodopi of Amsterdam, is now available. The volume collects rare and difficult-to-obtain items documenting Conrad's career and critical reception.

The Joseph Conrad Society (UK) Conference: Lincoln in July 2008

The Conference Schedule and the Booking Form for the July 2008 conference in Lincoln and other details about the conference are now available through the Annual Conference page.

Conference participants planning to stay off campus must make their own arrangements and are urged to do so as soon as possible. Bookings for all meals on campus must be made by 23 June. No changes can be made thereafter, neither cancellations nor last-minute bookings.

An optional tour of The Cathedral, The Library, and The Tennyson Research Centre will be held on the morning of 4 July. Those wishing to take advantage of being in town for lunch should not book lunch in College.

Information about transportation to Lincoln is also found on the Annual Conference page.

June: Fifth Annual Arnold Bennett Conference: "The Old Wives’ Tale: Novel History”

A conference organized by The Arnold Bennett Society in association with the City of Stoke-on-Trent Council, will be held on Saturday, 7 June 2008, at The Forum Theatre, Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. The conference marks the centenary of publication of Bennett’s The Old Wives’ Tale.

The final programme and conference booking form are available here in pdf. forma Bennett Conference Booking Form and as an MS Word Document: Bennett Leaflet. Speakers include Margaret Drabble and Deborah Moggach, while Peter Preston will deliver the Keynote Address.

The call for papers is closed. For information contact John Shapcott ab.conference@btinternet.com

Accommodation for Scholars and Writers in Historic Rye

Visitors to England or writers wishing a retreat might be interested in renting a property in Rye for holidays or work. Farthing House comprises the two upper storeys of a Tudor townhouse in the heart of the citadel and just down the road from Henry James’s Lamb House.

The premises sleep six comfortably. Cleaning can be arranged. For specifics and photographs of the house, see Farthing House.

The property is available year round. Bookings are for a full week from Friday to Friday, with no minimum stay between November and March. Rents are £250 low season to £500 high season per week.

Shorter stays are worked out on a sliding scale rather than pro rata, depending upon the time of year. Bookings less than a week incur a £20 supplement. A 15% discount is offered to members of The Joseph Conrad Society (UK).

For enquiries and information, contact: Kate Colqhuonkate@f2s.co.uk

July: The Congo in Literature/Congo in de literatuur/Congo dans la littérature

Congress at the University of Hasselt, Belgium, 14-19 July 2008

2008 marks a hundred years since the crown property The Congo was handed over to the Belgian state by HM King Leopold II. This anniversary seems an appropriate occasion to take stock of the literary production of and about The Congo.

It is the aim of the congress by taking stock of the literary production in the different languages and in different periods to arrive at a bird’s-eye view on the literatures of and about the Congo.

The call for papers is closed. For information, contact: Luc Renders luc.rendersl@uhasselt.be

August: Heart of Darkness in London

On Friday, 8 August 2008, AOP's opera in development, Heart of Darkness, composed by Tarik O'Regan with a libretto by Tom Phillips, will have a workshop at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden's Lindbury Studio in association with The ROH2 initiative OperaGenesis.

The five-day workshop structured after AOP's First Chance series will feature tenor Robert Hoyt as Marlow, a role he has performed with AOP since the project's inception, and bass-baritone Kevin Burdette as the megalomaniac Kurtz.

The workshop will be led by Oliver Gooch, who recently conducted the New York premiere of Dangerous Liaisons at Dicapo Opera Theatre.

Call for Papers: International Ford Madox Ford Society Conference, Durham: "Ford as Editor,” September 2008

To celebrate the centenary of the founding of the English Review, this conference, held at St John's College, Durham on 12-13 September 2008, will seek to re-examine Ford’s impact as editor.

The conference will focus specifically on contextualizing Ford’s role on the English Review and the transatlantic review in the light of his editorial principles and his collaboration with many important writers of the age.

The conference will explore Ford’s associations with cosmopolitan and expatriate coteries in the service of building avant-garde networks. The conference particularly encourages re-assessments of Ford’s editorial influence on his collaborators: Conrad, Wells, Henry James, Hardy, Bennett, Galsworthy, Pound, Lewis, and Lawrence in the English Review and Joyce, Hemingway, Stein, Rhys, Williams and E. E. Cummings in the transatlantic review.

The conference also encourages papers examining the cross-cultural dimensions of Ford’s editorship, in terms of literary translation (for example, Constance Garnett’s Russian translations), Modernist internationalism, and expatriate communities.

The call for papers is closed. For information, contact Jason Harding jasonh90@hotmail.com.

Modern Language Association Convention, San Francisco, December 2008

The Joseph Conrad Society of America will host its usual two panels at the annual meeting of the MLA, as follows:

Conrad and Modernism Revisited Chairs: Carola Kaplan and Andrea White

What new knowledge and fresh perspectives can we bring to bear on our understanding of Conrad's literary Modernism?

Some topics papers may consider: globalization and the proliferation of Empire, new psychoanalytic perspectives, recent scientific developments, new constructions of the history of Modernism, and so forth.

For information, contact Carola Kaplan cmkaplan@verizon.net

Conrad's Haunted Imagination Chairs: Richard Ruppel and Vanessa Burrows Park

From Almayer's Folly (1895) to Victory (1915), Conrad's works are haunted by ghosts, ghouls, vampires, and other monsters of the imagination.

Papers are invited that explore where, how, and why he employs supernatural imagery and metaphors, as well as what their connections to Empire, modernity, or a fear of the feminine might be.

For information, contact Richard Ruppelruppel@chapman.edu

Proposals for these sessions are closed.