Programme

Why Allegory Now?

A One-Day International Conference

International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 1^st April 2011

9.15 - 9.45        Registration

9.45 – 10.00    Welcome

10.00 - 11.00   Keynote Address

Dr. Roger Pooley (Keele University)

‘The Reformed Allegorist’

11.00 - 11.15     Break

11.15 - 12.45      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’

12.45 - 1.30      Lunch

1.30 – 3.00      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’

3.00 - 3.15        Break

3.15 - 5.15         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’

5.15 - 6.15         Keynote Address

                        Prof. Jeremy Tambling (University of Manchester)

‘Allegory, Caricature and the Egyptian Renaissance’

6.15 - 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