[Upcoming Conferences]
begin page 151 | ↑ back to topNEWSLETTER
Conference in Oxford
Blake, Gender, and Sexuality in the Twenty-First Century, organized by Helen Bruder and Tristanne Connolly, will take place 15-16 July 2010 at St. Aldate’s Church, Oxford.
According to the organizers, over the many years since Irene Tayler’s classic “The Woman Scaly” opened up feminist debate about Blake’s art, generations of critics have wrestled and struggled with, delighted in and savored, Blake’s provocative and abundant sexual visions. Throughout the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s, trends, tastes, and judgments shifted and swirled, from angry critique and searching psychoanalysis, through heavy theory and politicized interpretation, to wary appreciation and queer celebration. Outside academia, too, Blake’s reputation as a prophet of free love and naked beauty remained a nuanced yet perennial global presence. And yet, amazingly, there has to date never been a gathering of critics, artists, writers, and fans solely devoted to appreciation of and keen debate about these significant aspects of Blake’s work. Blake, Gender, and Sexuality in the Twenty-First Century aims to become that gathering, to celebrate and build upon past knowledge as it reaches toward likely concerns of the future.
For information and registration, please visit <http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~tjconnol/sexy.blake>.
... and in Toronto
Blake in Our Time will celebrate the future of Blake studies and the legacy of G. E. Bentley, Jr., on 28 August 2010 at Victoria University in the University of Toronto.
According to the organizers, the symposium will explore new directions and approaches to the study of Blake using manuscript archives, online resources, forgeries and oddities, variations in Blake’s illuminated books, and Blake’s commercial engravings, as well as studies of the major collections amassed by private scholar-collectors. The day will feature a series of short illustrated papers and then illustrated panel presentations in an open forum.
Victoria University Library houses the Northrop Frye papers and the G. E. Bentley, Jr., collection of nearly 3000 works by and about Blake and his contemporaries.
For information, or to make a proposal for the panel presentations (by 1 May), please contact Karen Mulhallen (kmulhall@ryerson.ca or karenmulhallen@rogers.com).