One-day conference, Saturday 7th December 2019
Commemorating the bicentennial of the publication of Don Juan Cantos I and II
Antenna Media Centre (Nottingham Trent University), Nottingham
For more details of the conference, click here.
Keynote speaker Professor Jerome McGann (University of Virginia), ‘Byron and his Language’
Professor McGann, one of the world’s leading Byron scholars for over thirty years, is not only editor of Byron’s Complete Poetical Works, but has also written a huge range of critical essays and books on Byron and his poems.
The Byron Society invite proposals for 20-minute papers on Don Juan.
Published anonymously in the summer of 1819, the first two cantos of Byron’s ‘satirical epic’ Don Juan provided the reading public with a work which self-consciously raised and challenged received ideas about fame, originality, and literary merit and was admired and reviled in almost equal measure. The first two cantos became an overnight sensation, inspiring countless attacks against their sexual and religious infidelities, the bitingly acerbic social and political commentaries, the horrifying burlesquing of scenes of death and destruction, and the generalised irreverence. While some were shuddering with outrage, others saw the significant commercial opportunities offered by Byron’s ‘Donny Jonny’, with parodies, musical adaptations, and ‘new’ Cantos flooding the market alongside the numerous pirated copies.
Submissions relating to any aspect of Don Juan are welcome, however papers connected with the first two cantos are of particular interest. Suggested topics include but are not limited to:
- Byron’s sources, influences and inspirations for Don Juan
- Techniques, conventions and tropes used in Don Juan
- The contemporary reception of Don Juan (critical reception popular and
- working-class reception, male vs female reception, metropolitan vs rural
- reception, reception in Britain and other countries) and Byron’s responses
- Later critical and creative responses to Don Juan
- Imitations and adaptations of the poem
- Questions of ownership, piracy and anonymous publication
- The poem’s place in Byron’s oeuvre with an especial emphasis on its continuing
- value in the modern era.
Proposals of no more than 300 words should be submitted by email no later than Friday 30th August to byrondonjuan2019@gmail.com.
We welcome 10 and 20-minute proposals from PGs and ECRs for a special panel and round table.
We hope to collect selected papers for a special edition of The Byron Journal.
Conference fees:
- Students – £20.00
- Speakers – £40.00
- Byron Society Members – £40.00
- Non-Members – £60.00
Conference fees include lunch and a champagne reception.
There will be an optional conference dinner on the evening of the 7th, and an optional trip to Newstead Abbey on the Sunday.
We are pleased to announce that this conference is organised in affiliation with BARS and Romantic Bicentennials
