Call for Papers

BYRON: the poetry of politics and the politics of poetry

The 39th International Byron Conference
1-6 July 2013, King’s College London, Strand Campus

This conference will examine Byron’s engagement with politics in the widest sense: as a poet, as a member of the House of Lords, as a commentator on his time, and latterly as a would-be revolutionary.

Academic sessions might include:

Byron and the politics of culture
Political style in Byron’s writing
Byron and the politics of the ‘Other’
Byron and the politics of emergent nations (Italy, Greece, the Americas)
Byron and the House of Lords
Byron and Napoleon
Byron as social satirist
Byron and revolution
Byron as liberal and/or libertine
Byron and religion
Byron and social class
Byron and gender/sexual politics
Byron and British political parties
Byron and imperialism
Byron and celebrity
Byron’s posthumous political influence
The ‘Byron legend’ (construction and/or appropriation)
‘Words and things’ (literature versus action in Byron’s life and work)

Proposals for papers on these and other aspects of Byron and politics, or the politics of Byron’s poetry, are welcome. Please send 250-word proposals by 28 February 2013 to byron.conference@kcl.ac.uk.

Individual presentations must not exceed 20 minutes in length. In order to accommodate the maximum number of presentations in the programme, the organisers hope to include one or more ‘round-table’ discussions around specific themes. Individual contributions to these discussions would typically be of 5-10 minutes. If you would be willing for your proposal to be included in a ‘round-table’ session, please indicate this when you send it. Ready-formed proposals for such sessions, based on a particular theme, timed to last either 90 or 120 minutes, and including a minimum of 4 speakers, will be particularly welcome.

Please note that you should normally be a current member of a national Byron Society in order to present a paper at the conference. For a list of Byron societies worldwide see www.internationalbyronsociety.org

Bursaries for student presenters
Limited funds are available to help selected students meet the cost of presenting a paper at the conference (either as individual speakers or as Round Table participants). If you wish to be considered for one of these, please indicate this clearly in your proposal. Applicants will be contacted in late March and can expect to know the decision of the Academic Committee by mid-April 2013.

Academic committee
Roderick Beaton (King’s College London)
Bernard Beatty (University of Liverpool)
Peter Graham (Virginia Tech)
Christine Kenyon Jones (King’s College London)
Alan Rawes (University of Manchester)
Jane Stabler (University of St Andrews)

Highlights of the Conference Programme include:
• a special exhibition ‘Byron and politics’: manuscripts, printed books and memorabilia from the John Murray Archive and the Foyle Special Collections Library, King’s College London, curated by David McClay (National Library of Scotland), Stephanie Breen and Katie Sambrook (King’s College London)
• ‘Byron, Elgin and the Marbles’: readings and reception hosted by the British Museum (including a private viewing of the Parthenon Sculptures)
• Byron, The Two Foscari: a dramatised reading, with excerpts from Verdi’s opera, I Due Foscari, performed by students of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
• Debate on the motion: ‘that Lord Byron has had no meaningful impact on European history or politics’ (proposed by Peter Cochran, opposed by Jack Gumpert Wasserman)
• Orthodox Vespers in King’s College London Chapel, sung by members of the renowned King’s College London Choir
• Reception and dinner in the Peers’ Dining Room at the House of Lords, with an optional guided tour of the Palace of Westminster
• Excursion to Harrow School (optional)