Date: 27 September 2019.
Location: Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London.
This event, to be held at University College London on 27 September 2019, builds on the symposium ‘Canons and Values in Contemporary Literary Studies’, held at the University of Southampton in June 2019. From the sense that recent British and American politics are beyond satire to intensified discussion about the power dynamics of intending humour and taking offense, comedy has assumed a central if fraught place in debates about value and canonicity in contemporary literary studies. Yet comedy’s relation to questions about canonicity and value is no quirk of recent history. Comedy, James Feiblman has written, ‘bear[s] always upon the contemporary world’: it is committed to ‘exhibiting current evaluations in light of their shortcomings’. This symposium asks: what can reflections on comedy tell us about the politics of value in contemporary literary studies today?
This symposium will reflect on the relationship between any aspect of comedy and ideas about canonicity and value in contemporary literary studies. It will feature three elements: 1) a workshop in which we will debate issues involved in researching and teaching comic texts, past and present; 2) flash papers (5-7 minutes max) presenting different perspectives on the politics and value of comedy and 3) a roundtable with scholars, critics, and writers who will reflect on their study and practice of comedy.
Attendees:
The event is free to attend and open to all. For purposes of catering, please RSVP to contemporarycanons@gmail.com. Lunch will be provided on the day so please specify dietary requirements in your email. Accessibility details are available here.
Flash Papers (*deadline extended!*)
We also invite flash-papers on any aspect of comedy today. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- The place of comedy in contemporary literature and its criticism
- The politics of satire, offense, and transgression
- The gendering and racialization of humour and/or humourlessness
- Dark or ‘black’ comedy
- The genres of comedy in the twenty-first century
- Comedy and ‘the literary’
- The affects of comedy
Please send an abstract (150 words max) and a short bio (50 words max) to contemporarycanons@gmail.com by 12 September.
Organisers:
This event is organised by Contemporary Studies Network (Rachel Sykes [University of Birmingham], Diletta De Cristofaro [University of Birmingham], Arin Keeble [Edinburgh Napier University]) in collaboration with Kevin Brazil (University of Southampton) and Andrew Dean (UCL).
Canons and Values in Contemporary Literary Studies 