CFP: Sex and the Erotic in English Poetry (Netherlands) (5/1/03; 10/30/03-10/31/03)

CALL FOR PAPERS
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, LEIDEN UNIVERSITY
SEVENTEENTH LEIDEN OCTOBER CONFERENCE: THURSDAY AND FRIDAY, 30 AND 31 OCTOBER 2003

"AND NEVER KNOW THE JOY": SEX AND THE EROTIC IN ENGLISH POETRY

The threat in the title of this conference is taken from a poem that, as
one might expect from its author, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester,
contrives to handle the carpe diem theme with scurrilous directness and
with far less genteel urbanity than his contemporaries Marvell, Herrick
and Waller, although in this case the spattering of four letter words is
avoided. The various expressions of the "gather ye rosebuds" theme is just
one area that may be explored in this conference on sex and the erotic in
english poetry, although it would be fascinating to consider this
particular motive in its various guises in all periods from Chaucer to the
present day. However, it is hoped that contributors will extend their
study of the poetic expression of sexual passion into many other areas of
poetry, some of them not necessarily to be anticipated beforehand. And the
voice to be heard in the poems should not be exclusively that of the
conventional predatory male, since Lady Mary Wroth, Mary Robinson,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Christina Rossetti are just a few of the
women in the past, and there are many more in the present, who, covertly
or explicitly, have given voice to a woman's sense of erotic power.
Although the main focus of the conference will be poetry in English in all
forms and styles, and from all periods, by poets from all over the globe,
papers on poets in other languages or papers dealing with more general or
more theoretical themes will also be considered for inclusion.

          Papers should have a maximum length of thirty minutes; and a
selection of the best papers from the Conference will be published, while
other may be commissioned for publication. Prospective speakers are
invited to submit proposals for papers or articles (a topic and title at
least, and, if possible, a 100-150 word summary) by 1 May 2003 (although
later proposals may still be considered) to the Conference Organizer, Dr
C.C. Barfoot, either by post c/o English Department, Leiden University, PO
Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands, or preferably by email:
c.c.barfoot_at_umail.leidenuniv.nl.

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Received on Thu Mar 20 2003 - 17:26:20 EST