11 Literature in English Symposium: Poetry and Beyond

full name / name of organization: 
Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland

LIES 2015 asks the fundamental questions of contemporary culture: What is the stance of poetry today? Can poets still be venerated as leaders of nations? Is poetry "relegated" to universities? Muldoon's Oxford Lectures in Poetry (2006) are entitled The End of the Poem, yet like in John Donne's Holy Sonnets, the end of one poem is the beginning of the next one.

The guests of honour at LIES 2015 (15-16th May 2015) are Paul Muldoon as well as Nick Hayes, a political cartoonist and the author of the graphic novel, Rime of the Modern Mariner – and thus we are going through Poetry into the Beyond!

The Faculty of English at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, invites papers on all aspects related to poetry and poets. The topics include but are not limited to the following:

Poetry:
•Paul Muldoon and his poetry
•Irish and Northern Irish poetry
•English poetry
•Scottish poetry
•Canadian poetry
•American poetry
•Poems as cultural artefacts
•Poetry and tradition; poetry and theory
•Narrative poetry
•Poetry and the avant-garde
•The power of poetry: the ways and means of changing the world through poetry, etc.
•Poetry and revolution; poetry and social conformity
•The poet(ess) as the leader of nations; as a solitary figure; a prophet; etc.
•The poet(ess) or his/her poetry: the value of biography
•Poetry and individual/national/cultural identities
•Postcolonial poetry and "Othering" poetry
•Poetry and ethnicities
•(Auto)biographical poetry
•Masculine/feminine poetry; gender(ed) poetry

…and Beyond:

•Poets and poetry in the 21st century
•New means of poetic expression: digitalization, hyperlinked poetry, kindle-version, etc.
•Visualising poetry: graphic novels, ekphrasis, word-image relations, painterly poets, etc
•Word-less poetry
•Teaching (about) poetry
•The struggle of poetic translation and/or untranslatability
•Slam poetry and amateurship
•Poetry and/for children
•Poetry and music
•Poetry and politics
•Poetry and the non-poetic
•Poetry and eroticism
•Poetry and war
•Poetry and healing: Working through trauma
•Poetry and religion; religious poetry
•Sound poetry
•Poetry and the reader
•Poetry and ideology

The deadline for abstract submissions is 15th January 2015. Please send your proposals and a short bio to lies2015poetry@gmail.com. More information at: http://wa.amu.edu.pl/lies/.