Registration Open

Registration for the 'Why Allegory Now?' international conference is now open.

The conference will take place on Friday 1st April 2011 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester.

Please email whyallegorynow@gmail.com for a copy of the registration form and information regarding travel, accommodation and eating out. There will be a conference meal following the event, details of which will be confirmed at a later date but we anticipate that this will cost around £15 - £20. Please tick the relevant box if you would like to attend this meal. The registration form can either be completed electronically and emailed to this address or completed by hand and returned to the address on page 1 of the form. Registration closes on Friday 25th March 2011.

Please note that there are 20 x £5 fee reduction bursaries available from the Royal Historical Society and 20 x £5 fee reduction bursaries available from the Society for Renaissance Studies. Postgraduates working in either History or Renaissance-related areas are eligible for these bursaries and they will be awarded on a first come, first served basis. Please tick the relevant box on the registration form if you would like to be considered for either of these fee reductions.

A provisional programme of the day's panels can be found below and if you have any queries regarding the conference please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Provisional Programme

Why Allegory Now?

A One-Day International Conference

International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 1^st April 2011

9.00 - 9.30      Registration

9.30 - 9.45       Welcome

9.45 - 10.45      Keynote Address

Dr. Roger Pooley (Keele University), ‘The Reformed Allegorist’

10.45 - 11.00    Break

11.00 - 12.30    Panel 1

History, Language and Allegory in Early Modern English Literature

Chair: Dr. Andrew Crome (University of Manchester)

Kathy Frances (University of Manchester), ‘Judging the Medieval Past in the Protestant Present: The Problem of Allegory in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure’

Prof. John Halbrooks (University of South Alabama), ‘Spenser, the Allegorical Hero and the Invention of the English Middles Ages’

Liam Haydon (University of Manchester), ‘“Thus they relate, erring”: Allegorical Competition in Paradise Lost’

12.30 - 1.15       Lunch

1.15 - 2.45         Panel 2

Readings of and Responses to Walter Benjamin’s Theory of Allegory

Chair: Dr. Andrew Frayn (University of Manchester)

James Smith (University of Manchester), ‘Freud, Shakespeare and “Superficial Allegorical Interpretation”’

Philip Homburg (University of Sussex), ‘Walter Benjamin’s Post-Hegelian Critique of Symbolism’

Grace Hellyer (University of New South Wales), ‘Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Gothic Romances: Allegory and Political Modernity’

2.45 - 3.00       Break

3.00 - 5.00      Panel 3

Allegory Now: Politics and Propaganda

Chair: Prof. Smadar Lavie (University of Minnesota)

Dr. Talinn Grigor (Brandeis University), ‘Allegory of Absence: The Green around the White Tower in Tehran’

Jacob Birken (Karlsruhe University), ‘Forbidden Transfers: Allegory and Propaganda’

Dr. Matthew Boswell (Salford University), ‘Holocaust Impiety in Art Spiegelman’s Maus’

Dr. Jonathan Olson (University of Liverpool), ‘The Allegories of Pixar’s Relationship to Disney (both Walt and Co.) in Ratatouille and WALL-E’

5.00 - 6.00      Keynote Address

                        Prof. Jeremy Tambling (University of Manchester), Title TBC

6.00 - 7.00      Wine reception

You are also invited to attend a meal following the wine reception.

For more information please email Jade and Matt at whyallegorynow@gmail.com