Fractured Images / Broken Words

Multi-Disciplinary Postgraduate Symposium hosted by the Department of English & Creative Writing, Lancaster University 12th June 2010

Keynote Speakers: Professor Terry Eagleton (Lancaster University - http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/english/profiles/Terry-Eagleton/) and Andy Diggle (http://www.andydiggle.com).
Featuring art installations by Christine Dawson (http://www.lancasterluminary.com/contents/statement.htm).

Call for Papers:
Visual and multi-modal texts are an integral element of both popular and literary culture, contemporary and past. This conference invites papers which engage with the notion of text and image, through, for example critical examination of graphic novels, television, film, illustrated texts or adaptations. We actively welcome papers with an interdisciplinary approach, allowing for a collision of meaning and interpretations of both text and image. We're particularly interested in – but not limiting our remit to – topics which focus on the fusion of word and image, and perhaps on the gaps which can be perceived between, and within, visual and textual representation. Where do textual spaces exist? Where do word and image meet? Where do they separate? Where does meaning fuse? Where does it disintegrate?

As the conference title suggests, we're also interested in the duplicitous and unstable nature of texts and images and would also like to explore issues such as: How words and / or images be
misappropriated, misused or misdirected to create alternative and
divergent meanings; The fragility of meaning created by words and / or images; Problems of reading and interpretation.
This conference will provide a stimulating environment for postgraduate students and other researchers to present work and to share and discuss ideas stemming from the examination of texts employing varied representational modes, adaptations and interactions between text and image. We hope to encourage speakers from multiple disciplines, working across historical, cultural and literary periods, and with a wide range of texts.

Suggested topics, themes and disciplinary approaches include:
- Film Studies
- Cultural Studies
- Literary Studies
- Language
- Propaganda Texts
- Journalism/Photo-Journalism
- Graphic Novels & Picture Books
- Children & Young Adult Literature
- Television
- Identity
- Ownership of Truth
- Authenticity
- Biographical Texts
- Gender
- Ethnicity
- Sexuality
- Translation
- Gaps and Silences
- Absences
Or, any other topic which the conference title inspires.

To download our Call for Papers as a poster:
http://www.lancasterluminary.com/images/updated%20CFP.gif

Abstracts of no more than 300 words for papers not exceeding 20 minutes should be submitted by 15th February 2010, to the organisers at:
conference@lancasterluminary.com. Please include the title of your paper, your name, e-mail address, institutional affiliation, and a brief summary of your research interests.

Conference Fees:
£40 for speakers
£20 for other delegates

Registration forms are available to download at
http://www.lancasterluminary.com/contents/registration%20form.doc. You may send forms through the post to the address given, or alternatively, you
can email them to: conference@lancasterluminary.com. Payment for the conference will be handled via our online system. Please check back for details on this, which will be available shortly.