Extended CFP

Please see our updated and extended CFP below

Modernist Archives in Context: Periodicals and Performance

22-23 November 2018, University of Reading

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Whether it is the tracing of the evolution of Eliot’s The Waste Landor the centrality of Woolf to the Hogarth Press, the bi-lingual practices of Beckett or the role of mediums such as film and radio, the ‘archival turn’ has enabled new understandings of Modernism as a cultural and historical phenomenon. The University of Reading invites 20-minute contributions for a two-day conference aimed at two aspects of Modernism and the archive: Periodicals and Performance.

Periodicals (22nd November). How does the archival study of periodicals and their publishers enhance our understanding of Modernism? As made apparent by the publication of the Oxford Critical Cultural History of Modernist Magazines and by the ongoing work of the Modernist Journals Project, periodicals are one of the spaces in which Modernism can be witnessed happening ‘in action’. This can be found in the early attempts to make sense of shifts in the cultural climate during the late-Edwardian period in short-run publications such as Mansfield and Middleton Murray’s The Blue Review, through to Eliot’s The Criterion and Lewis’ Blast. In the rest of Europe, Modernism thrives in periodicals such as van Doesburg’s De Stijl, Ferro’s Orpheu, Prezzolini’s La Voce, Walden's Der Sturmand Delak's Tank. Even with Modernism well established, neo-modernist magazines such as Agendaand PN Review continue to carry forward its legacy while revising its ambitions, focus and scope with attention to unheard voices, matters of translation and non-Western European or American art. 

Performance (23rdNovember).Whilst Modernist theatre is often defined with reference to Jarry’s Ubu Roi (1896), theatre was and remains a site of wide-ranging experimentation. It has provided space for Yeats’s experimentations with Japanese Noh theatre, Anton Artaud’s ‘Theatre of Cruelty’ (which informed directors Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook), and the numerous iterations of Absurdist Theatre. Waiting for Godot (1953) and Samuel Beckett’s work with set designer Jocelyn Herbert, actor Billie Whitelaw and his use of technology in performance have become a touchstone of Modernist theatre and may be linked with  the video and sound amplification experimentations of the Wooster Group and Mabou Mines, the multimedia spectacles of Laurie Anderson and John Cage’s Europeras, Pina Bausch’s modern dance and use of mixed media, and more recently Forced Entertainment’s socio-political pieces. Through examination of the archives of institutions and individuals, the multifaceted aspects of Modernist drama can be understood in relation to the complex intersections of its creative and socio-political forces, and its continuing influence on theatre makers.

We encourage submissions focussed on, but not limited to, the following areas: 

• Archive and practice

• Archives and the marketplace

• Audiences and reception

• Creators and their networks

• Digital archives and databases

• Visualising the archive

Modernist Archives in Contextincludes research panels, hands-on workshops and keynotes. The Periodicalsevent will feature a keynote by Professor Andrew Thacker. The Performanceevent will host a Q&A with additional invited speaker(s).

Please submit abstracts of 200 words and a short biography to archivesincontext@gmail.comby 5 September 2018. Any inquiries can be made to the same e-mail address.

The conference will be followed by the annual Beckett International Foundation (BIF) seminar, hosted by co-directors Professor Anna McMullan and Dr Mark Nixon. We warmly welcome postgraduates, ECRs, and practitioners interested in the work of Samuel Beckett, literary modernism, and performance studies to attend both events. Further details can be found on the conference website.

The conference fee, which includes coffees and lunches, is as follows:

• Postgraduates and unwaged: £10 for one day or £15 for both days

• ECRs: £15 for one day or £25 for both days

• Fully waged:  £25 for one day or £40 for both days