Allusions and echoes – cultural recycling and recirculation

An international colloquium at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK, June 16-17, 2012

Deadline for paper/panel submissions is March 30, 2012.

The many ways in which stories are recirculated is astounding – from relatively straightforward retellings of fairy tales and classical myths, to feminist, queer, postcolonial or ecocritical subversions of central themes, to fan fiction's adaptations of beloved characters and story worlds.

The international colloquium "Allusions and echoes – cultural recycling and recirculation" is an opportunity to explore the various ways in which texts communicate over borders of space, time, genre and medium. What themes, motifs, backgrounds and details capture the imagination of authors, readers and viewers? How are they recycled and recirculated from one period, or one audience, to another? How and why do they gain currency again and again? Contributors are invited to cast their net widely and consider not only contemporary works, such as The Canongate Myth Series (2005-2011) and Cinderfella (1960, 2013) but also older texts, such as Chaucer's The Physician's Tale and Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.

Among the topics that may be addressed at the symposium are:
•Recirculation and remediation
•Recirculation and transhistoricism
•Recirculation and cultural transmission
•Recirculation and ecocriticism
•Recirculation and class
•Recirculation and ethnicity
•Recirculation and gender
•Recirculation and queer studies
•Recirculation as political strategy

The colloquium, which is jointly organised by Dr. Berit Åström (Umeå University, Sweden) and Professor Sarah Annes Brown (Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK), is aimed at anyone working in the fields of English literature, cultural studies, film and media studies or related disciplines.

If you would like to present a paper (20 minutes), or have a suggestion for a panel, please send a 300-word abstract to berit.astrom@engelska.umu.se by March 30, 2012.