Fourth International George Gissing Conference 2011
“Gissing’s World within the World: Art and the Artist”
Monday 28 to Wednesday 30 March 2011
University of York, UK
With the support of CECILLE Research Centre, University of Lille
- Conference focus
- Provisional timetable
- Booking
- Travelling to the University
- Location of the conference
- Registration and information about checking into your accommodation
Conference focus
The specific focus of the York Gissing Conference will be an often-overlooked aspect of Gissing’s artistic philosophy. While many readers have emphasized Gissing’s almost sociological engagement with material conditions, Gissing saw himself as a more detached devotee of art “pure & simple.” In a famous letter to his brother Algernon (22 September 1885), he observed that the artist should “keep apart, & preserve [his] soul alive” because the natural environment of the artist is “the shade,” where he “can make a world within the world.” Papers will br presented on all aspects of Gissing as an artist, notably his engagement with late Victorian aesthetics and obsessive “detachment from the vulgarities of the day.”
Provisional timetable
Monday 28 March
9.00-10.30: Commercialism, consumerism and the production of art 1
Richard Dennis
The place of art in Gissing’s early novels
Emanuela Ettore
Beyond the aesthetics of existence: the “nether world” and the negation of art
10.30-11.00: Break
11.00-12.30: Commercialism, consumerism and the production of art 2
Paola d'Ercole
Fashion and (Class) Identity in Late Nineteenth-Century Fiction: George Gissing’s In the Year of Jubilee
Brad MacDonald
“A Place for Dreaming:” Contemplation and Artistry in George Gissing’s The Emancipated
Frederick Nesta
In the Age of Advertisement: George Gissing Advertises Himself
12.30-1.30: Lunch
1.30-3.00: Cynicism and pessimism
Debbie Harrison
Aesthetic Vision and the Abyss in Workers in the Dawn and Demos
Roger Millbrandt
The Art of Gissing’s Philosophy: Fictional Features of “The Hope of Pessimism”
3.00-3.30: Tea
3.30-5.00: Aesthetics and mechanisms of narrative
Meredith Miller
'That Fine-Moulded Hand which Was the Symbol of Life Made Perfect': Aesthetics and Desire in the 1890s
Anja Müller-Wood
Detached Reportage or “Good Exciting Drama”? Rethinking Gissing’s Aesthetics
6.00-700: Supper
7.15-8.45: Panel discussion: Teaching Gissing in the 21st century
Followed by wine
Simon J James (chair), Debbie Harrison, William Greenslade, Richard Dennis, M.D. Allen, Christine Huguet, Paul Delany
Tuesday 29 March
9.00-11.00: Envisioning women 1
Emma Liggins
“A Life of Mild Bohemianism”: Gissing and the woman artist in The Crown of Life
Christine Ferguson
After Nature: Mimesis and the Artist’s Model in Gissing’s Workers in the Dawn
Paul Delany
The Visual World of the 1884 The Unclassed
11.00-11.30: Break
11.30-1.00: Envisioning women 2
Randy Jasmine
The Land Beyond the Literal: The Natural World and the Feminine in the Work of George Gissing
Akemi Yoshida
Women Singers in Gissing’s Novels: Thyrza Trent and Beatrice Redwing
Jennifer Hamilton
'A certain beauty': Assessing and Undressing Gissing's Female Aesthetic.
1.00-2.00: Lunch
2.00-4.00: Form and Narrative
William Greenslade
'This is a Terrible Harangue': Polemic and Form in Gissing’s Fiction
Lewis Moore
Experiment in Form: George Gissing’s The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
Tom Ue
First-Person Narrators in Gissing’s Short Fiction
Lawrence Rainey
The Oddities of Gissing's The Odd Women
4.00-4.30: Tea
4.30-6.30: Gissing's engagement with other writers
Constance Harsh
Reading Charlotte Brontë’s Mark on the Wall: Gissing’s Engagement with Brontë’s Artistic Example
M.D Allen
Gissing, Femmes d’Artistes and Artistes femmes
Rebecca Hutcheon
Tennyson and The Palace of Art: Aesthetics and Artistic Separation in the Works of George Gissing.
7.00: Conference dinner in Wentworth Private Dining Room
Wednesday 30 March
9.00-10.30: Gissing as critic
Christine Huguet
“Gissing and ‘Elaine’: Art Criticism and Self-Definition”
Maria Teresa Chialant
The Writer as Literary Critic: Gissing’s Works on Dickens
10.30 Depart for visit to Gissing house in Wakefield and Lunch
3.30 Leave Wakefield
5.00 Arrive York railway station, then on to University
The conference will also host Gissing-related bookstalls, notably The Idle Booksellers
Booking
Booking closes on 17 March 2011 at noon.
Clicking here takes you to a link to the online store. Here you will create an account, and then you can make your booking.
Travelling to the University
For information about getting to the University, click here.
Location of the conference
The conference will be held in the Music Department. This is signposted Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall and is at the far western end of the campus (see campus map). If you are coming on the bus, get off at the Wentworth Roundabout stop (this is the first of the university bus stops if you are coming from town). Cross the road, climb over the grass verge, walk across the car park, exit the car park, bear slightly left, take the path in front of you, and you will arrive at the department. There will be a conference table in the entrance hall. The conference will take place in room 106.
Registration
Registration will be held in the Music Department on Sunday 27th March from 5.30 to 6.30, and on Monday 28th March from 8.30 to 9.00.
Checking into your accommodation
Single rooms on campus: You will be housed in Vanbrugh College. This is staffed until 19.00 on Sunday 27 March. If you arrive after this time, you must collect your key from Wentworth College. c
Double rooms on campus: You will be housed in Franklin House. You should collect your key from Alcuin College, which is staffed 24 hours a day. Please note, Wentworth College is where you will get your supper. It closes at 19.00, so if you plan to arrive after this time, eat something in town before coming to the campus!
Conference Organiser
Dr Nicky Losseff (University of York) nicky.losseff@york.ac.uk
Advisory Committee
Prof M. D. Allen (University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley)
Prof Maria-Teresa Chialant (University of Salerno)
Prof Pierre Coustillas (University of Lille)
Prof Constance Harsh (Colgate University)
Dr Christine Huguet (University of Lille)
Dr Simon J. James (Durham University)
Anthony Petyt (The Gissing Trust, Wakefield)
Dr Bouwe Postmus (University of Amsterdam).