CFP


ConVersify: Poetry, Politics and Form





At the University of Edinburgh

       Conference dates 10-11 September 2011

The distance between the universe of poetry and that of politics is so great, the mediations which validate the poetic truth and the rationality of imagination are so complex, that any shortcut between the two realities seems fatal to poetry / And yet, the radical denial of the Establishment and the communication of the new consciousness depend more and more fatefully on a language of their own as all communication is monopolized and validated by the one-dimensional society […] Today, the rupture with the linguistic universe of the Establishment is more radical: in the most militant areas of protest, it amounts to a methodical reversal of meaning.

Herbert Marcuse, An Essay on Liberation



This two day conference will bring together poets and researchers to engage in a conversation about experimental, innovative and alternative approaches to poetic form. While many poets self-report that political objectives underlie their practice, in the realm of, but not limited to, ideology critique, the assertion or negation of identity and/or a confrontation with mainstream publishing, charges of elitism, passivity and inaccessibility can be levelled. Taking this point of tension as our catalyst, and adopting a trans-historical perspective, we wish to consider what “experimental” poetry is, and what it is for.

We are calling for twenty minute papers which: discuss poetry of any period or genre which challenges or aims to challenge convention through formal innovation and/or interaction with political, social and cultural realities; explore the labels we use to denote “experimental”, “avant-garde” or particular stylistic modes of verse; question whether political objectives and/or antagonisms can be articulated or furthered through radical approaches to composition and language; consider how readers engage with experimental poetry. Inseparable from these themes is the issue of what we perceive as 'the political', what counts as a political act and whether the writer has a responsibility to assert political agency; we are particularly interested in papers in which this question is at the forefront of discussion.

 Possible topics for papers include, but are not limited to:
  • Methods of formal innovation in poetic practice; their motives, precedents and desired modes of engagement
  • The materiality of the poem, including work at the threshold of poetry and other mediums, such as media and hypertextual poetry, visual, sculptural and sound poetry
  • Experimental methods of production and dissemination
  • Different manifestations of the authorial subject in experimental poetry, including poetry whose “experimentalism” is rooted in the poet’s sense of their cultural identity
  • The interdependence of creative work and criticism in experimental poetic movements, and the boundaries between the two fields.
  • The definition and problematic of “political” and “experimental” poetry; the tension between formal introspection and political engagement in “experimental” poetry, and between political engagement through form and content
  • Sociological and historical analyses of poetic “avant-gardes”, including issues of the self-definition of schools, styles and movements, and cultural and economic ghettoisation.
  • Formally and politically subversive gestures in “conventional” poetry; retrospection and recuperation.
  • Readings of non-poetic material as poetry.
Please send 250-300 word abstracts as a Word attachment to conversifyconference@gmail.com by 16th May 2011.
We are also holding two poetry readings, one at the Scottish Poetry Library on Saturday, and the other at the Rowantree vaults on Sunday. Please mention when you submit your abstract whether you would be interested in reading.

We intend to keep the conference affordable and expect admission fees to be no more than £25 for delegates, possibly less.
Organised by Lila Matsumoto, Greg Thomas and Samantha Walton.