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

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

CFP

Call for Papers: Why Allegory Now?

Supported by SAGE, Society for Renaissance Studies, Royal Historical Society and Routledge

Venue: The International Anthony Burgess Foundation

Friday April 1^st 2011

Confirmed plenary speakers:

Prof. Jeremy Tambling, English and American Studies, University of Manchester

Dr. Roger Pooley, English, Keele University

The University of Manchester invites scholars and early researchers to submit papers for the conference ‘Why Allegory Now?’, an interdisciplinary event which will allow a forum of discussion on the disparate ways in which allegory has been used throughout history, and consider how such an elusive yet prominent form can be interpreted today.

The conference asks: What is allegory and why is it relevant today? Can allegory be best understood as a genre, a technique, a mode, a rhetorical device or a trope? Is allegory the practice of writing, interpreting or representing?  Can allegory only be understood in relation to its history? Is all allegory ideological?  Is all language allegorical?

From early Greek examples, such as Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, through to Renaissance poetry, Orwell’s Animal Farm and The Matrix trilogy, allegories have been used by philosophers, theologians, artists and authors to express complex ideas in simplified and universal terms.  Despite Maureen Quilligan’s suggestion that ‘the status of allegory has been low since the early nineteenth century’ (Quilligan, 1992), it underpins many aspects of modern life, as Brenda Machosky points out: ‘embedded in museum displays, providing structure for scientific thought, underlying the legal system, evading the hegemony of the idea, allegory is thriving in the twenty-first century’ (Machosky, ed., 2010). Machosky’s argument is potent given the number of recent studies on the topic (Machosky, ed., 2010; Tambling, 2004 and 2010; Struck and Copeland, eds., 2010), which have served to renew interest in the various forms and uses of allegory across the arts, humanities and languages. As such, this event will consider allegory in fictional and non-fictional literature, film, art, history, religion and cultural theory.

We warmly invite proposals for twenty minute papers from postgraduates and early career researchers from any branch of arts and humanities. Key topics may include (but are not limited to):

• Myths and fables from Ancient Greece to modern film
• National allegories in colonial and postcolonial contexts
• Medieval and Renaissance secular or religious allegories
• Allegorical concepts of history
• Theories of allegory and allegoresis
• Sign, symbol, emblem and allegory

Please send your abstract of 250-300 words to whyallegorynow@gmail.com along with your name, affiliation and title of paper.

The deadline for submissions is Monday January 3^rd 2011. Acknowledgement of receipt of proposal will be sent. Selection of papers will be done by Monday January 24^th 2011.

We are also delighted to offer two bursaries of £100 which will be awarded to postgraduate speakers on any Renaissance-related topics courtesy of the Society for Renaissance Studies, www.rensoc.org.uk and two bursaries of £50 to postgraduate speakers on history-related topics courtesy of the Royal Historical Society www.royalhistoricalsociety.org.

If you have any questions regarding the conference and/or proposal, please direct all enquiries to Jade Munslow Ong and Matthew Whittle at whyallegorynow@gmail.com. Registration will open from January 31^st 2011.