21 October 2009

Michaelmas Term Programme of Speakers:

All seminars start at 6.30pm

Martin Dubois Tuesday 20th October (Cambridge):

"Hopkins and The Burden of Security"

Emily Ridge Tuesday 3rd November (Durham):

"Elizabeth Bowen and The Case of Fiction"

Matthew Hayward Tuesday 17th November (Durham):

"-isms through Prisms: Lacan, Jameson, Nietzsche and Ulysses"

Donnchadh O’Conaill Tuesday 1st December (Durham, Philosophy Dept):

"Taming the Wild Profusion of Things: Some Thoughts on the Possibility of Metaphysics"

Natalie Pollard Tuesday 8th December (York):

"Lyric Violence: An Oppositional Audience with Geoffrey Hill"

17 August 2009

New Themes 2009/10

Dear All

Building on the success of the "Inventions of the Text" seminar series, we are currently organising the programme for the academic year 2009-10. We already have several external speakers lined up, and would like to involve as many Durham English Department postgraduates as possible. The seminars provide an excellent forum in which to improve presenting skills, test out ideas, and enjoy stimulating discussions, within the context of a peer group who can offer encouragement, criticism and practical advice. We anticipate a high demand for slots, so if you would like to give a paper, please contact the organisers at inventionsofthetext@gmail.com, sending a title and abstract of 250-400 words. The themes for next year are as follows:

* Theory - "And so the sick mind continues to infinity, creating gaps then dispersing them again, heaping up diverse similarities, destroying those that seem closest, splitting up things that are identical, superimposing different criteria, frenziedly beginning all over again, becoming more and more disturbed, and teetering finally on the brink of anxiety."

Papers are welcome on any related aspect of critical theory, to include:
• genre studies and the liminal text
• perio
disation and its relevance to theory
• -isms

* Poetry - "Poetry is that return of the mind upon itself."

Papers are welcome on any related aspect of poetry studies, to include:
• aestheticism and the relationship between art and culture/history
self-reflection and self-consciousness
• reception theory

* Narrative - "It is clear that a discontinuous structure suits a time of dangers and adventures, [and] that a more continuous linear structure suits a Bildungsroman where the themes of growth and metamorphosis predominate."

Papers are welcome on any related aspect of narratology and prose studies, to include:
• literary structure
• concepts of narrative time
• metamorphosis

Clara Dawson, Eleanor Chatburn, Amy Jordan
Organisers for 2009/10

5 June 2009

Opportunities to run "Inventions of the Text"



We are writing to advertise the three organiser positions of “Inventions of the Text.” The deadline for applications is 10 June 2009.

“Inventions of the Text” is a fortnightly staff-postgraduate forum in which postgraduate students and academics can present papers for discussion in a lively and stimulating session. Started this academic year, “Inventions of the Text” has been very successful and has attracted speakers both from within the department and from other universities. We hope to pass the organisation on to those who would work to see the forum thrive and enjoy an even greater level of success.

The structure of the group consists of three organising members who work together to guide, promote and organise the seminars. They are chosen by means of a transparent process each year, and would retain their positions for a year (unless resignation or unforeseeable complications would prevent this). One organiser is responsible for promoting the seminar group within Durham and to other institutions; another keeps minutes of meetings and take charge of the finances. The main organiser decides the themes of the year, liaises directly with the speakers and chairs the sessions. One of you (preferably the main organiser) must maintain the website, and email the staff and postgraduate students with the times and titles of the papers that will be given.

Applicants must specify which position they are applying for, and enclose a covering letter and an academic C.V. Please email all applications to:
m.f.callaghan@dur.ac.uk

All applicants must demonstrate that:

- They are committed to maintaining the forum
- They have good interpersonal skills and can work in a team
- They have excellent organisational skills
- They can devote time to the forum every week as a matter of course

Applications will be favoured from those who have frequently attended the group.

Best Wishes,

Madeleine Callaghan, Maebh Long and Paige Tovey

18 April 2009

Easter Term Timetable

We have the titles for papers to be presented over the Easter term. As usual, we will meet in the seminar room at Hallgarth House at 6:15pm. Looking forward to seeing you all there for more stimulating papers and discussions.

Monday 11 May

Richard Moss (Durham University): "Thomas Pynchon and Waste: Thoughts on the nature of the discarded in Gravity's Rainbow"

Monday 18 May

Ann-Marie Einhaus (Durham University): "Cultural Texts and Functional Memory: Aleida Assmann on Canonisation"

Monday 25 May

Naomi Banks (Durham University): "'Images and symbols adequate to our predicament': Seamus Heaney and the development of Northern Irish Elegy"

Monday 1 June

Clara Dawson (Durham University): "The Meaning of Sound: The Hidden Life of Voice in Tennyson's Poetry".

Monday 8 June

Marc Botha (Durham University): "Exemplarity - The Real: Autopoiesis and a Para-ontology of the Example"

Monday 15 June

Maebh Long (Durham University): "Fragments of a Life: Derrida, Aphorisms and Autobiography"



21 January 2009

Epiphany Term Timetable


We have the titles for the papers to be presented over the next term. As usual, we will meet in the seminar room at Hallgarth House at 6:15pm. Looking forward to seeing you all there for more interesting papers and discussions.

Monday 26 January

Amy Jordan (Durham University): '“The body’s state stable & labile”: Crises of Self and Society in John Berryman’s Early Poetry'

Monday 9 February

Dr Alexander Regier (Cambridge University): "Wordsworth and Repetition"

Mondary 23 February

Eleanor Chatburn (Durham University): "'In Search of Home': Form and Quest in the Poetry of Derek Mahon"

Monday 9 March -
CANCELLED
George Selmer (Anglia Ruskin University): "Paper or Wordsworth? The Medium is the Message"

Monday 16 March

Matthias Mosch (Durham University): “'Can Faustus Earn Redemption Still?' – Myth and Ideology: A Theoretical Approach"