The 2008 Wordsworth Summer Conference

Wednesday 30 July to Saturday 9 August, 2008

in Grasmere, Cumbria

Fleetwith Pike and the Buttermere Pines: photo Richard Gravil

The Wordsworth Summer Conference remains the least utilitarian, most congenial,
most conversational, and least sedentary conference in the academic world. It offers a unique blend of full-scale lectures, well-spaced papers with generous discussion time, and a significant experience of Grasmere and the Lakeland fells.
 

12 Keynote Lectures

Part 1 (30 July to 4 August) : "Wordsworth and Romanticism" 

John Beer (Cambridge) – Coleridge's Paradoxical Nature
Paul Betz (Georgetown) – The Artist in Kings Bench Prison. Unpublished Letters of B. R. Haydon to Tom Monkhouse Concerning Art, Victimization, Wordsworth and Keats
Christoph Bode (Munich) – Discursive Constructions of the Romantic Subject
Angela Esterhammer (Zürich) - Translating the Ruins of Empire: Byron, Hemans, Keats
David Fairer (Leeds) – Wordsworth’s Green Language: ‘Tintern Abbey’ and ‘The Ruined Cottage’
Kasahara Yorimichi (Meisei University) – Byron’s Gladiator: Its Source and Tradition

Part 2 (4 to 9 August) : "Romanticism and Polity"

 David Bromwich (Yale) – ‘Ode to Duty’ and the idea of human solidarity
Anthony Harding (Saskatechewan) – Harriet Martineau's (Anti-) Romanticism
Mark Haywood (Cumbria) – Romantic Viewpoints and Picturesque Viewing Stations
Karen O'Brien (Warwick) – Wordsworth and Scotland
David Simpson (UC Davis) – Wordsworth at the Limits of Civil Society
Julia Wright (Dalhousie) - Outlaws or Immigrants? Atlantic Exile and the Stateless Citizen in Irish Romanticism

Features

•   A full 9 days in Grasmere [two parts of 4 days each with a changeover day]
•   Non-resident fee £185 including all excursions (or £155 for one part only)
•   Inclusive rates for 10 nights: £500 (Youth Hostel), £685, £785 (Hotel)*
•   Inclusive rates for 5 nights: £312.50 (Youth Hostel) £405, £455 (Hotel)*
•   Private viewings of Dove Cottage and the Turner Exhibition
•   Excursions to such places as Rydal Mount, Dalemain, Brougham Castle, Levens Hall and Furness Abbey – or up to seventy miles of fell walking including some major fells

*surcharges apply for sole use of some twin rooms at the conference hotel

Registration

All participants must register for the whole of Part 1, or Part 2, or both and should do so by 19 April 2008. Fees rise to £200 (both parts) and £170 (one part) on 20 April. Because both resident and non-resident places are limited, early registration is advised.

Accommodation costs are payable in full by 25 May, after which date no refunds of fees or other costs can be guaranteed (participants are therefore advised to take out travel insurance). 

Contributions may take the form of single papers (2750 words) or single workshops (short handout-based presentations leading into an hour or more of discussion). Papers or workshops may address any aspect of British Romantic Studies, including comparative studies, though for Part 2, papers acknowledging the bicentenary of Wordsworth's Convention of Cintra, or of Leigh Hunt's Examiner, would be especially timely. Proposals (250–500 words) will be considered by two members of the steering committee and should be submitted by email attachment to the Convenor by 15 March 2008.

The advisory board may also recommend papers for immediate publication by Humanities-Ebooks with any income donated to the conference bursary fund and copyright retained by the author.

Bursaries. For details of the bursaries and the application process please click Bursaries.

For full details of costs and structure please see the downloadable PDF prospectus

Further information about the conference may be obtained from

The Academic Convenor, Richard Gravil ◘ richardgravil@hotmail.com

The Conference Administrator, Fiona Gravil ◘ wordsworth_conferences@hotmail.co.uk

 For and on behalf of The Wordsworth Conference Steering Committee:

John Beer, Paul Betz, Frederick Burwick, Christoph Bode, David Chandler, Angela Esterhammer,
Richard Gravil, Anthony Harding, Michael O’Neill, Nicholas Roe, Duncan Wu