Riots and Representation: The Role of the Capital in Civil Unrest.
The May Day 'riots' in London were not isolated phenomena. As well as
forming part of a synchronic global protest against contemporary
capitalism, they fall into a diachronic record of such disturbances in the
metropolitan centre. The capital is, of course, the seat of authority in
Britain, whether it be royal or parliamentary. As a result it is doubly
positioned as both the location of power and the site for its contest,
both symbolically and in actuality. Because of this signifying potential,
challenges to authority in the capital do not end with their violent
suppression, but continue to be acted out at the level of discourse and
thus their representations become potential combatants in an ideological
struggle.
One way of viewing this struggle is to intertextualise their narrative
representations. 'Authoritative' accounts such as court proceedings,
parliamentary reports, journalism and public records for example, might be
read in relation to 'unofficial' accounts such as fictional narratives,
folk ballads, autobiographies or diaries. In the interstices between these
accounts, the power of narrative to shape the historical significance of
events may be discerned.
The proposed edited volume will focus upon the representation of riots in
London from the Early Modern period to the present day. In particular, the
editors will welcome contributions which analyse the relationship between
journalistic or 'official' records of such events and their corresponding
literary representations. The implicit project will be to contribute to
current scholarship which seeks to interrogate and contest the traditional
discursive boundaries of (among others) Literature and History.
Current contributions include work on the Evil May Day riot (1517), the
West End Riots (1886), the Cable Street Riots (1936) and the Notting Hill
riots (1958).
300 word abstracts from all disciplines of study and covering any
historical period are welcome and should be submitted to:
pre- 1850:
Dr T. Hill
School of English and Creative Studies
Bathspa University College
Newton Park
Newton St Loe
Bath
BA 2 9BN
t.hill@bathspa.ac.uk
post-1850:
Dr D. Ellis
School of Education, Human Sciences and Law.
University of Derby
Kedleston Road
Derby
DE22 1GB.
D.Ellis@derby.ac.uk
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