‘Lewis Carroll and George MacDonald: An Influential Friendship’
Saturday, 1 September 2018
“While Dodgson, the … mathematician who hated inaccuracy, loved to question the very multiplication table’s veracity, my father, the poet, who hated any touch of irreverence, could laugh till tears ran at his friend’s ridicule of smug formalism and copy-book maxims.”
Greville MacDonald, George MacDonald and his Wife, 1924.
Call for Papers – deadline Friday 30 March 2018
The works of the Scottish author, poet and minister George MacDonald and the English polymath Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) have been among the strongest of influences on writers of fantasy for the past 150 years. The relationship between these two Victorians is both deep and fascinating and a close examination of that friendship reveals the significant influence they had on each other’s work.
This one-day symposium will examine the life and works of the two writers with particular reference to that friendship, which began in Hastings, and their interests in folklore, fairy tales and fantasy.
We invite proposals for 20-minute presentations on topics including, but not restricted to:
Please submit an abstract of approximately 200 words, together with a biographical note (up to 100 words) by 30 March 2018 to info [at] sussexfolktalecentre [dot] org. We will respond to all submissions by Friday 30 April 2018.