Reclamation and representation: the boundaries of the literary archive

International Conference, University of Exeter, 2-3rd October 2010
Supported by the Centre for South West Writing

"Even scholars who are able to globetrot from collection to collection end up relying heavily upon their inadequate memories, notes, photocopies, and photographs to compensate for the distances in time and space between collections. Seeing the original prints, paintings, manuscripts, and typographical works is good in itself; but seeing them in fine, trustworthy reproductions, in context and relation to one another is the scholarly ideal. Difficulty of access to original and reliance on inadequate reproductions has handicapped and distorted even the best efforts... the result has all too frequently been distortions of the record, misconstructions, and the waste of considerable scholarly labor."

(Joseph Viscom 2002)

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

Professor Helen Taylor (Dept. of English, University of Exeter)
Dr Wim Van Mierlo (University of London)

This two day event explores issues of reclamation and representation within literary archive. The event seeks to foreground original archival research into literary legacies and the processes of authorial representation through research. Our main objective is to explore the unique methodological challenges and questions that arise from archival investigation, and how research working with the varied archival materials can both reclaim and re-cast authorial personas and scholarly interpretations of their work.

The conference will include a central workshop showcasing literary papers held in the University of Exeter's Special Collections on writers of the South West region-such as Ted Hughes, Daphne du Maurier, Agatha Christie, Leonard Baskin, Henry Williamson, and TS Eliot.
The event brings together scholars, researchers, postgraduates and archivists presenting on the following subjects:
 
•  The challenges of recreating the draft in scholarly writing
•  The negotiation of biographical and textual difficulties and their impact upon how writers are known
•  Questions of authority surrounding pre-texts and printed texts, and the interface between them
•  The impact of ‘anecdotal' archival material and evidence upon the shaping of literary histories
•  Reconstituting ‘the canon' in the reclamation of lost authors
•  The location of newly discovered manuscripts within intertextual critical networks and literary histories
•  The search for authorial presence in the archive in attempts to reconstruct biographical histories
•  The fetishism of the document in archival studies
•  Archival silences
•  The details of archival acquisition and its impact upon authorial representation
•  The impact of archival restrictions upon research and scholarship
•  The development of digital archives and their influence upon literary scholarship

'Reclamation and Representation' - Conference Programme
 
Please direct enquiries to Lisa Stead (lrs204@ex.ac.uk) or Carrie Smith (crs202@ex.ac.uk)

Registration details and forms

Reclamation and representation - Registration form

Reclamation and representation - Credit card authorisation form

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