Scholars to Flock to First International Meredith Conference

 24/07/2015

Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln will welcome scholars from across the globe during the first international conference on the work of novelist and poet George Meredith this weekend.

Part-funded by the British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS), the two-day conference – George Meredith and His Circle: Intellectual Communities and Literary Networks – will take place on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th July 2015 at BGU.

The keynote speaker and newly elected Fellow of the British Academy, Professor Sally Shuttleworth from the University of Oxford, is one of the foremost scholars reaffirming Meredith’s position in Victorian studies. Her current project, The Diseases of Modern Life, supported by the European Commission, continues to enhance the understanding of Meredith’s role in the Victorian age.

Organised by Dr Claudia Capancioni and Dr Alice Crossley, senior lecturers in the English department at BGU, the conference is a landmark event in Meredith studies. Dr Claudia Capancioni said: “It is an honour for the university to host the first international conference on George Meredith’s work and critical reputation. The event will highlight debates on the circulation and exchange of ideas between Meredith and his contemporaries.

“I’m looking forward to the keynote address by Professor Shuttleworth and am interested to hear the opinions of our visiting scholars as they enthuse about Meredith’s work on this scale.”

The conference will bring together established and emerging scholars working on Meredith, and consider more broadly his position at the centre of a wider network of prominent 19th and 20th-century figures, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Alfred Lord Tennyson, James Joyce, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, E M Forster and Siegfried Sassoon.

As a writer of both the Victorian and Modern periods, Meredith was awarded the Order of Merit and followed Tennyson as President of the Society of Authors. His work remains consistently at the forefront of 19th-century literary studies.

As a part of the conference, delegates will be able to visit the archives of the Tennyson Research Centre in Lincoln, where Collections Access Officer Grace Timmins will be curating a mini-exhibition specifically for the event.

There will also be a paper presented on the poetry of Meredith and Tennyson in the Tennyson archive exhibition space in the Hardy Building at BGU.

During the reception session there will also be a poetry reading by local Pimento Poets, Maureen Sutton and Nic Lance, who will read poems by Tennyson written in Lincolnshire dialect along with their own responses to Meredith's poetry.

If you would like to attend this conference, please contact Dr Claudia Capancioni and Dr Alice Crossley via meredithconference@bishopg.ac.uk. Visit the website at https://www.meredithcircle.wordpress.com/ and follow them on Twitter: @Meredith_BGU