THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR MODERNIST STUDIES

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2014

MODERNISM NOW!

26–28 June 2014
Institute of English Studies
Senate House, London

Keynote Speakers

Tyrus Miller (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Jacqueline Rose (Queen Mary, London)

Modernism Now! is a three-day international, interdisciplinary conference organised by the British Association for Modernist Studies, designed to explore modernisms throughout the late nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The conference aims to discuss the past achievements of modernism, its possible futures, and to provide a review of current activity in the field. In Modernism and Theory, Neil Levi has recently suggested that in thinking about modernism we consider ‘the idea of a contemporary perpetuation of artistic modernism’ and that we see ‘modernist works as events whose implications demand continued investigation.’

Modernism Now! will explore these issues in three distinct ways:

• The conference aims to represent the diversity of modernisms, and calls for papers assessing modernist writers, artists, texts and performances from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, methodological standpoints, and theoretical perspectives.
• The conference will explore the ongoing use of ‘modernism’ as a cultural, philosophical, and artistic category, analysing how and where modernism functions as a continuing aesthetic in the twenty-first century, across multiple disciplines, geographies, and traditions.
• The conference hopes to provide a review of current research in modernist studies, inviting panels and papers (joint or individual) that report on the work of research projects, editions, exhibitions, societies, and institutions.

Topics might include (but are not restricted to):

• Modernist futures and legacies
• Past and previous modernisms
• The idea of a contemporary modernism e.g. how modernism informs the practice of contemporary artists/ writers/ performers
• Modernism as a continuing event
• Issues in presenting modernism today (new editions, exhibitions, etc)
• Current debates in world literature and global modernist studies that stretch the historical/geographical framework of modernism
• The ‘nowness’ (Jetztzeit) of modernism; the new and the now
• Assessments of individual writers, artists, performers, texts, works of art that explore their status and relevance today
• Historical assessments of the term ‘modernism’
• New trends in modernist studies
• Anachronism
• Disciplinary borders and boundaries around modernism today
• ‘Early’ and ‘late’ modernisms; periodizing modernism
• Current theorisations of modernism as a social/ cultural/ philosophical/ political category
• Modernism and the tradition of the avant-garde
• Singular and plural modernism(s)

The conference is open to anyone working on modernism, with reduced registration for BAMS members. Current annual membership rates (which include a subscription to Modernist Cultures) are £30 standard; £25 student; £45 international standard; £35 international student. Join BAMS here: https://bams.ac.uk/membership/

We will be offering some bursaries to enable postgraduate members of BAMS to attend the conference.

Proposals are welcomed for individual 20 minute papers, or panels of 3-4 speakers. Proposals for papers should be 250 words long. Panel proposals should include a short paragraph naming the organiser of the panel and explaining its rationale as well as a 250 word abstract for each paper. Panels from single institutions are acceptable. For all proposals, please also include a short biographical statement in the same document. Word format preferred.

Proposals should be emailed to modernismnow@bams.ac.uk by February 28th 2014. The organising committee will be in touch with delegates by mid-March.

Conference Organising Committee
Sarah Chadfield (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Suzanne Hobson (Queen Mary, University of London)
Chris Mourant (King’s College London)
Sophie Oliver (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Cathryn Setz (University of Oxford)
Andrew Thacker (Nottingham Trent University)