New British Fiction: Innovations in Literature & Criticism

A one-day postgraduate conference, School of English, University of
Leeds, Friday 22 June 2007

Looking beyond the legacy of the 'best young novelists' of Granta's
lists – writers who, over the last thirty years, have helped to
nurture a new cultural politics which engages rather than suppresses
difference – this conference focuses on the emerging voices of British
fiction and the new critical axes along which we are reading them.
What kinds of thematic, generic, and formal tensions are at play in
the fictions of post-1990 Britain? How are its writers negotiating
cultural identities, new ethnicities, notions of the dissident, the
subcultural; what narratives of history, nationness, self are being
(re)written? How is contemporary fiction challenging or extending
existing theoretical discourses; and how might we, as critical
readers, respond? Which texts will we still be reading, theorising,
teaching in ten years' time?

Addressing these and many other questions, this day will bring
together postgraduate researchers from across the UK, whose work on
contemporary British fiction is revaluating existing critical
frameworks. You might want to bring to attention an underrated or
emerging literary talent, or the role of small presses; you might
shift the focus on more familiar texts; or set out alternative
approaches to reading and criticism. We invite text- and/or
theory-based papers, but please note that deliberate emphasis is
placed here on new writers (i.e., those who have published all or
almost all of their work in the nineties and noughties). The
conference is designed as a productive forum for the exploration of
ideas, and we hope that what will emerge will be the mapping of some
of the innovative new directions for 20th- and 21st-century literature
studies in the UK.

We are pleased to confirm that the day will feature an opening address
by Professor Ed Larrissy (University of Leeds), and an evening reading
by Ali Smith, whose novels and short stories include, most recently,
'The Whole Story and other stories' (2003) and the Booker shortlisted
'The Accidental' (2004).

Please email a 300-word abstract plus a short bio (including current
research, level of study, institutional affiliation and contact
details) by January 26th 2007 to newbritishfiction_at_googlemail.com
(enquiries to this address too). Alternatively, write to conference
organisers, Paul McGarry or Emma Smith, School of English, University
of Leeds, LS2 9JT.

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Received on Sun Nov 12 2006 - 23:13:02 EST