Asterisks and Obelisks. Classical Receptions in Children’s Literature
University of Wales, Lampeter July 6-10 2009
An international conference hosted by the University of Wales Lampeter
Organisers: Assoc. Prof. Helen Lovatt, University of Nottingham (email)
and Dr. Owen Hodkinson, University of Wales Lampeter (email)
Sponsors:
The Centre for Integrative Learning at the University of Nottingham
Ashgate Publishing, Orion Children’s Books, and Oxford University Press
Click on the play button below to play the slideshow
Keynote invited speakers (authors) :
Caroline Lawrence, author of the Roman Mysteries series
Michael Cadnum, author of several novels and short stories based on classical myth and literature
Lucy Coats, author of Atticus the Storyteller’s 100 Greek Myths - Talk Cancelled
Keynote invited speakers (academics) :
Prof. Edith Hall, Professor of Classics and Drama, Royal Holloway, University of London
Prof. Sheila Murnaghan, Professor of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Prof. Deborah Roberts, Professor of Comparative Literature and Classics, Haverford College
Prof. Jean Webb, Director of the International Centre for Research in Children's Literature, Literacy and Creativity; Professor of International Children’s Literature, University of Worcester
For a full list of speakers and titles, click here. Full programme and abstracts to follow.
Booking deadline: June 5th (late bookings subject to a £10 admin fee).
Please download a booking form here (word) (pdf)
Please dowloand a a credit/debit card payment form here (word) (pdf)
PG Bursaries
The organisers are pleased to announce five postgraduate bursaries to attend this conference, thanks to the generosity of the Classical Association. Bursaries cover the full conference fee, including all accommodation and meals. Please apply to Owen Hodkinson with a brief outline (not more than 200 words) stating why attendance at this conference will be beneficial to your studies, and whether any other sources of funding are available to you, as soon as possible and certainly by Friday 19th June.
For further information about the conference please contact the organisers; any queries concerning bookings should be addressed to Owen Hodkinson. For information on travelling to Lampeter, click here.
Background and aims of the conference
This international, interdisciplinary and practice-led conference is the first ever conference on Classical Receptions in Children’s Literature. It aims to stimulate research in this fruitful field and put this interdisciplinary subject on the scholarly and literary map. It has attracted over 40 speakers, from nine countries in four continents, and from various fields of research and employment: Children’s authors and educators, and academics in Classics and Ancient History, English and other Modern Languages, Children’s Literature, and Education.
Children’s Literature Studies has grown hugely in recent years; children’s literature has always been enchanted by Classical myth, history and literature, and works on these themes continue to flourish today (Caroline Lawrence’s Roman Mysteries, Michael Cadnum’s Ovid-inspired novels, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series). The conference aims to consider the reasons for this popularity for children’s authors and their readers in a wide range of cultures and periods, and to promote long-overdue exploration of such literature.
Reception Studies is now a well-established field within Classics, and is lately broadening its focus from the uses and reconstructions of the Classical past within ‘elite’ art to include a range of mass-media texts (such as television dramas or computer games); a focus on children’s literature, however, has been oddly lacking, both by Reception scholars in the more traditional vein and those currently expanding the field’s remit. Many first encounter and conceive a passion for Classics and Ancient History through such texts, now as in the past. The importance of children’s literature to the continued interest in classical heritage in Western society and thus to Classics as a subject means that it cannot be neglected any longer by scholars.
Questions: By bringing together literary scholars with authors and educators, we will have the best opportunity to consider issues such as: how the Classical past has been, is being, and should be (re)constructed, (mis)interpreted, censored, and (ab)used in children’s educational and leisure reading; what these receptions tell us both about the societies doing the receiving, and about the ‘received’ texts; what are the particular advantages (e.g. exposing children to cultures which are both like and very unlike their own) of children’s literature set in the classical world; and what are the particular difficulties for authors, educators, and scholars in communicating and interpreting the Classical past to audiences of various age groups.
A practice-led conference: We aim to get academics talking to children’s authors and authors involved in academic discourse. Some participants are both academics and authors. This will allow reflection on the practices of both writing and academia. What can we gain from talking to each other? How do authors of children’s literature use the ancient world? How does research influence their writing? What can academics learn from authors about communicating with different audiences, especially children?
Literature, Classics, and Education: The conference also has an interest in education, involving local schools, and aims to reflect on the relationships between children’s literature, education and classics outreach. Literature is an important tool for encouraging children to engage with the past, and for stimulating them to reflect on the workings of their own culture (panels on Museums and Audience Response especially will consider these issues). Slavery, gladiatorial games, the development of democracy: the classical world holds an enduring fascination because it contains our own roots, and yet it is an alien and troubling environment. Classical subjects also encourage children to learn languages, analyse and understand their own language, appreciate the importance of material culture and archaeology.