Events

Coming up

Images of Witches: History, Fairy Tales, Films

  • Wednesday 21 March 2012 5.15pm-6:30pm, Cloisters, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester

  • Willem de Blécourt is Honorary Research Fellow at the Huizinga Institute, Amsterdam, and author of Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe and Werewolves.

Folklore and Fantasy

The Folklore Society and the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy are delighted to announce a joint conference on “Folklore and Fantasy” at the University of Chichester on Friday 13th to Sunday 15th April 2012.

CALL FOR PAPERS Deadline 27 January 2012

Many folktales are closely related to the fantastic – through subject matter, content and impulse. Folklore often deals with the fantastic, or turns to the supernatural to provide explanations for extraordinary events. Similarly, folklore has long been a major source of inspiration for fantasy literature, from authors like Kevin Crossley-Holland and Angela Carter and graphic novelists like Neil Gaiman and Bill Willingham who take on and re-present traditional stories, to authors like Lloyd Alexander Susan Cooper, Kate Thompson who draw on established tropes, to authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Susanna Clarke and Terry Pratchett who invent their own folk traditions. This three-day conf will explore, investigate and celebrate the relationship between folklore and fantasy. We welcome papers on all aspects of folklore and fantasy from the medieval to the modern and the post-modern. Topics may include but are not limited to: Folklore of the fantastic * Invented Folklore in Epic Fantasy * Graphic novels * Urban Legends * Superstitions * The Gothic Tradition * Monsters, Bogies and Boggarts * Real and invented folk history * Medieval and Modern Travellers’ Tales * Folklore in Children’s Literature * World Folklore in American Fantasy * Celtic folklore in Popular Culture * Folklore on the Stage or on the Screen * The Commodification and ‘Disneyfication’ of Traditional Stories * Folklore in Art

Abstracts of 250 words for 20-minute papers should be sent to enquiries@folklore-society.com and to b.gray@chi.ac.uk

Postgraduate Symposium at Return of the Ring

Tolkien Society conference 2012 As part of the larger Return of the Ring conference at Loughborough University (16th-20th August 2012), celebrating 75 years of The Hobbit, The Tolkien Society is hosting a dedicated postgraduate symposium on Tolkien studies on Friday 17th August 2012.

The interdisciplinary symposium is the first of its kind and serves to map current scholarship inspired by Tolkien by bringing together emerging scholars across disciplines of art, cultural studies, fantasy studies, gaming, linguistics, medieval studies, literature, film studies, fan studies etc. Post-doctoral or other early career stages scholars are also welcome. It is hoped that a selection of papers will be published as an edited collection following the symposium.

The symposium is led by an internationally renowned team of academics including Professor Martin Barker (International Lord of the Rings audience survey), Dr Dimitra Fimi (Tolkien, Race and Cultural History) and Professor Corey Olsen (‘the Tolkien Professor’). The format of the symposium is based around panels of postgraduate papers and so presents a unique opportunity to hear and be heard by one’s peers across the full range of Tolkien-related study. A networking lunch and an interactive group session, led by the academic team, complement the interdisciplinary approach and students will also have the opportunity to attend the keynote speech by Tom Shippey that evening.

We currently seek proposals for papers (20 mins) on any aspect of Tolkien related research. Proposals relating to gaming, fan films, adaptation, audience cultures etc. are welcome as well as more traditional areas of Tolkien study such as literature, linguistics and fantasy. Students should submit an abstract (max 300 words) and short biography paragraph to: symposium@returnofthering.org New extended deadline for abstracts: 29th February 2012

Tolkien: The Forest and the City

  • The School of English, Trinity College Dublin, September 21-22, 2012

  • Keynote Address: Professor Tom Shippey (St Louis University, emeritus): ‘The Goths and the Romans in Tolkien’s Imagination’’

  • Invited Lecturers: Professor Michael D. C. Drout (Wheaton College): ‘The Tower and the Ruin: The Past in Tolkien’ Professor Verlyn Flieger (University of Maryland): ‘Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Sentient Landscape in Tolkien’s Fiction.’ Professor Thomas Honegger (University of Jena): ‘”Raw Forest” and the “Cooked City” Lévi-Strauss in Middle-earth’ Professor Alison Milbank (University of Nottingham): ‘In a Dark Wood: Tolkien and Dante’’

  • Further details

Previous events

Fantasy, Ecocriticism and the Place of the Romantic Imagination

  • Wednesday 23 November 2011 5.15pm-6:30pm, Cloisters, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester

  • Professor Bill Gray will give a talk based on material from Fantasy, Art and Life, the recently published third volume in his trilogy of books on fantasy literature (the others being Fantasy, Myth and the Measure of Truth and Death and Fantasy). Fantasy, Art and Life has just been issued in paperback, and will be available at a 25% discount at the talk.

Illustrating Fables

  • Wednesday 12 October 2011 5.15pm-6:30pm, Cloisters, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester
  • John Vernon Lord, illustrator, author and teacher, has illustrated many classical texts, including Aesop’s Fables, The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear; the Folio Society’s Myths and Legends of the British Isles, and Epics of the Middle Ages. In addition, he has illustrated many classics of children’s literature including Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark. He has made extensive contributions to the world of contemporary poetry and narrative, and has written and illustrated several children’s books, which have been published widely and translated into several languages. His book The Giant Jam Sandwich has been in print for over thirty years. As a university professor John Vernon Lord has lectured on the art of illustration for over 40 years and is pre-eminent in the field. Most recently he has been working on Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass.

Mervyn Peake Centenary Events in Chichester

  • July, 2011 University of Chichester
    • A conference entitled “Mervyn Peake and the Fantasy Tradition” to be held in the University of Chichester on 15 – 17th July 2011, to mark Peake’s 100th birthday and the publication of Titus Awakes, Maeve Gilmore’s conclusion, as she envisaged it, of her husband’s Titus Groan or Gormenghast trilogy. For further details and the Call for Papers for this conference—organised by the University in association with the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy—see under News and at the Chichester University website Mervyn Peake Conference
    • Speakers to include Joanne Harris, Peter Winnington, Brian Sibley, Colin Manlove, Farah Mendlesohn, Katherine Langrish and Sebastian Peake.
    • Two exhibitions of Peake’s illustrative works to be held in Chichester’s Pallant House Gallery and The Otter Gallery concurrently with the conference.

“Enter Caelia, the Fairy Queen in her night attire”: Shakespeare and the Fairies

  • 24 May 2011 5.15pm-6:30pm, Room tbc, Bishop Otter Campus, College Lane, University of Chichester
  • Michael Hattaway, Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of Sheffield, is editor of A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture; The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s History Plays and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama and Shakespeare in the New Europe.

Fairy Tales in Print. A Troubled History

  • 1 March 2011 5.15pm-6:30pm, Room tbc, Bishop Otter Campus, College Lane, University of Chichester
  • Nicholas Tucker, honorary Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies, University of Sussex. His books include: The Child and the Book: Psychological and Literary Exploration; Family Fictions: Contemporary Classics of Children’s Literature; The Rough Guide to Children’s Books; and Darkness Visible: Inside the World of Philip Pullman

From translation to rewriting: text and image in Angela Carter’s The Fairy Tales of Perrault and The Bloody Chamber

“The Cave” by Mervyn Peake, World Premiere, Blue Elephant Theatre, Camberwell

  • 19 October-6 November 8:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
  • This unsettling and powerful play by Mervyn Peake – author of Gormenghast – is a dark, inquisitive look at the nature of authority and its effect on the human condition.
  • There will be a post-show discussion with the writer’s son, Sebastian Peake, chaired by writer Neil Norman on Tuesday 26 October.
  • More details at The Cave

The Legend of Spring-heeled Jack: Urban Folklore in Victorian Popular Culture

Terry Pratchett: A Vast Consumer of Folklore

  • 12 October, 2010 5.15pm-6:30 pm, Mitre Lecture Theatre, Bishop Otter Campus, College Lane, University of Chichester
    • Dr. Jacqueline Simpson
    • This will be Jacqueline’s Inaugural Lecture as Professor of Folklore at the University of Chichester

Surreal Friends

19 June – 12 September 2010 Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK See Surreal Friends

Deloitte Ignite 2010: A Three Day Festival of Contemporary Arts

  • 3-5 September, 2010 Royal Opera House, London
    • Curated by internationally renowned pianist, composer and auteur Joanna MacGregor
    • Inspired by the theme of forests: forests as a place of quiet, reflective beauty, mystery and discovery, as places of fairytale narrative, as well as metaphorical spaces
    • Features an event by writer and cultural historian Professor Marina Warner, entitled “Into the Woods,” a series of films, animations and performances exploring the light and darkness of fairytales

Festival in the Shire

13-15 August, 2010

Pafiliwn Bont, Pontrhydfendigaid, Ystrad Meurig, Ceredigion, SW 25 6BB
See Festival in the Shire The Festival in the Shire will be the most comprehensive event ever held for the fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, with a conference, a fan exposition of original art, rare books and memorabilia as well as a large festival with stalls and entertainment.

Anti-Tales: The Uses of Disenchantment Symposium

  • 12-13 August, 2010 University of Glasgow Arts and Humanities Graduate School
  • An interdisciplinary research forum and subsequent publication of proceedings (Cambridge Scholars Publishing) based around the currently under-researched notion of the ‘anti-tale.’ The anti-fairy tale has long existed as a shadow of the traditional fairy tale genre.
  • Plenary speakers include Dr. Anna Kérchy (Senior Assistant Professor, University of Szeged) and Professor Aidan Day (Professor of English, University of Dundee)

Leonora Carrington’s Magic Tales (Talk at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester)

Thursday 29th July, 6:00pm * Alongside her paintings Leonora Carrington has also produced an extensive body of writing such as ‘The Debutante’, ‘Little Francis’, ‘The Hearing Trumpet’ and ‘The Invention of Mole’. Her stories are imaginative, surreal, and often funny. The distinguished writer, critic and historian Professor Marina Warner introduces Carrington as a writer. See Leonora Carrington’s Magic Tales

George MacDonald: Master of Fantasy, Seer of Arundel

The Case for Owen Barfield

  • 3 June, 2010 6:00pm – Magdalen College, University of Oxford
    • “Not only a decisive influence on both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, but also in his own right an original interpreter of Coleridge’s thought, Owen Barfield is highly relevant to the aims of the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy.”
    • Prof. Fanfan Chen (Professor, Department of English, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan)
    • Owen A. Barfield (only grandchild of Owen Barfield, presently publishing both existing and previously unavailable works by Barfield)
    • The event is organized by the Owen Barfield Literary Estate to mark the opening of the Owen Barfield archive at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University

England – the land without folklore?

The Supernatural, Folklore Society Conference

The Rose on the Ash-Heap

  • 25 March 2010, 1.30-5.30 pm – St. Ethelburga’s, 78 Bishopsgate, London
    • Owen Barfield, Independent Scholar
    • More information at event flyer

Race and the Fantastic

Dragon Tails or Tales of Gragons and Woodland Wyrms (A Folk-Arts Theatre Production for Children)

  • 6 March 2010, 2:00 pm – Clair Hall Studio, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DN

The Dragons of England

Exhibition on illustrations by Mervyn Peake

De-Disneyfying the Fairy-Tale Film

  • 3 February, 2010, 4:00-6:00 pm – House Auditorium in Mary Allan Building, Homerton College, University of Cambridge
    • Professor Jack Zipes (University of Minnesota, USA) “De-Disneyfying the Fairy-Tale Film”

The Undomestic Witch: Scottish Witches, Fairies, and Old Religions

  • 9 February, 2010, 5:15-6:30 pm – Mitre Lecture Theatre, University of Chichester
    • Dr. Diane Purkiss (Faculty of English, University of Oxford/ Fellow and Tutor, Keble College Diane Purkiss) “The Undomestic Witch: Scottish Witches, Fairies, and Old Religions”

At the Back of George MacDonald

From Fata to Fairies