Last updated 30/07/2016

13th ESSE Conference: 22-26 August 2016

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SEMINAR S63 « BIOGRAPHY »

Conveners : Joanny MOULIN (The Biography Society, Aix-Marseille Université, France) joanny.moulin@univ-amu.fr & Hans RENDERS J.W.Renders@rug.nl (Biography Institute, University of Groningen, the Netherlands)

This seminar invites contributions to the study of biography as a genre, considering that it raises specific issues that distinguish it from autobiography. It would equally be interested in approaches to the practice of biography as a method of academic research, from microhistory to literature and cultural studies. For instance, individual papers may address theoretical questions, case studies of particular biographers’ works, the history and the poetics of biography, the impact of the biographical turn, the evolution of biographical dictionaries, or the innovative influences of the biopic and digital humanities.

Programme:

Tuesday 23rd August 17.00-19.00 — “Historical Perspectives”
1. RENDERS, Hans (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) — Biographies as Multipliers; The First World War as Turning Point in the Lives of Modernist Artists
2. RICHARDS Page (University of Hong Kong, China) — Biography, the Historical Lyric, and Rita Dove
3. BROCK Malin Lidström (Luleå University of Technology, Sweden)  — Mad, bad or (just) sad? Recent biofiction of Zelda Fitzgerald
4. WILSON COSTA Karyn (Aix-Marseille Université, France)  — “Auguste Angellier’s Life of Robert Burns: an Indulgent Biography”
5. POLLAND Imke (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany)  — Imaginary Biography? Portraying the public and private persona in the royal biopic The Queen.

Wednesday 24th August 14.00-16.00 — “Biographers”
6. MOULIN Joanny (Aix-Marseille Université, France)  — André Maurois, or the Aesthetic Advantage of Biography Over the Novel
7. DE HAAN Binne (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) — Richard Holmes: A biographer-historian par excellence
8. THIRRIARD Maryam (Aix-Marseille Université, France)  — Harold Nicolson, the “New Biographer”
9. TREMBLAY Alexandre (Aix-Marseille Université, France)  — Giles Lytton Strachey and Biography: The Oddity of True Interpretation
10. SABLAYROLLES François (Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas, France)  — The Silhouetted Figure of the Biographer

Thursday 25th August 11.00-13.00 — “Interdisciplinary perspectives”
11. DI MASCIO Patrick (Aix-Marseille Université, France)  – Biographying Freud
12. FAUSEL, Heidi (Aix-Marseille Université, France) — A Study in Time Travel: Writing the Life of William Caxton
13. RENSEN Marleen (University of Amsterdam the Netherlands)  — Biography, Cultural Mediation and Transnational Studies
14. HARMSMA Jonne (University of Groningen, the Netherlands)  — From Model to Vision: A Biographical Turn in Political Economy?
15. POULOMI Mitra (Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, India)  — “Cinematic (Mis)representation of Femininity: Virginia Woolf in The Hours”

 Also see : esse2016.org