Lives in Relation:
An interdisciplinary conference on life writing
30 October 2009, University of Lincoln
This
conference responds to the burgeoning critical interest in life
writing over a range of disciplines. Life writing has recently been
considered not only as a literary form but also as a historical
source, a cinematic genre, and a key site for identity formation.
Within this discourse, there has been a shift away from the
traditional emphasis on the autonomous individual who stands out of
his or her milieu. Lives are considered in relation in order to
explore the communal function of self-representations, the impact of
group affiliations on personal identity, and life writing's status
as a social, political, or religious practice. In light of this
development, this conference seeks to address the relationship
between personal expression and representative selfhood,
individualism and social being, private histories and collective
memories in a range of both textual and visual modes.
Speakers
Speakers from a range of humanities disciplines, including English, History, Drama, Art History, and Religious Studies, will address the representation or use of relational lives in a diverse range of genres and periods. Panel topics include:
- lives in community
- biography and identification
- representative lives
- collective memories
- writing out of isolation
Keynote Speakers
Professor June Hannam, Department of History, University of the West of England (UWE)"Oh for a Wife": Reframing the Life of Ellen Wilkinson, MP
Professor Hannam is currently working on a study of Labour MPs Margaret Bondfield, Dorothy Jewson, Ellen Wilkinson and Lucy Middleton, which explores the meaning of politics for women in the inter-war years. She is the writer of a biography of Isabella Ford, 1855-1924 (1989) and is a co-writer of British Women's History: A Bibliographical Guide (1996), International Encyclopaedia of Women’s Suffrage (1999), and Socialist Women, Britain 1880s-c1920s (2002).
Professor Valerie Sanders, Department of English, University of HullPublic Pressures/Private Griefs: Victorian Fathers in Relation
Professor Sanders is currently working on a study of Victorian fatherhood, which focuses on fathers' own subjective view of their role. Her publications include The Private Lives of Victorian Women: Autobiography in Nineteenth-Century England (1989), Eve's Renegades: Victorian Anti-Feminist Women Novelists (1996), and The Brother-Sister Culture in Nineteenth-Century Literature (2002).
Programme
Enquires and Further Information
Please contact the organizers:
Dr Amy Culley aculley@lincoln.ac.uk
Dr Rebecca Styler rstyler@lincoln.ac.uk
Sponsors
Useful Links
- Lincoln Campus Information
- Lincolnshire Tourism - www.lincolnshiretourism.com
- Lincoln Today
- Lincolnshire County Council
- Lincoln City Council
- Lincolnshire - www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk
- BBC Lincolnshire
- lincsuk.com
Travel Information
Road
Road access is via the A1 with intersections at Newark (A46) from
the South and near Retford (A57) from the North. The city is 40
miles east of Nottingham on the A46 and 40 miles south of the Humber
Bridge on the A15.
Please note there is limited parking on campus. Further instructions
with regard to car parking will be sent with Conference joining
instructions.
Rail
Lincoln station is a few minutes walk from the campus.
London Kings Cross is less than two hours away.
Air
Humberside Airport is 40 minutes away with domestic, European flights and
international links available. If you fly into one of the London airports then
you will need to transfer to Kings Cross Station to catch the train to Lincoln.
If you are arriving at East Midlands airport you will need to take the Skylink
from East Midlands to Nottingham Train station, and then a train from Nottingham
to Lincoln Central.
- East Midlands Airport links
Skylink - www.skylink.co.uk
Directions and Maps:
Accommodation
Main Hotels in Lincoln:
The Lincoln Hotel
www.thelincolnhotel.com
Tel: +44 (0)1522 520348
The White Hart Hotel
www.whitehart-lincoln.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1522 526222
The Holiday Inn Lincoln
www.holidayinn.com
Tel: +44 (0)1522 544244
Holiday Inn Express
www.hiexpress.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 871 423489
Download the Lincoln Hotel & Guest House Association flyer (PDF 1Mb)