Women and Poetry in the 21st Century:
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Two-day conference: 6th and 7th September 2006
University of
the West of England
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About the Conference
* What is signified by terms such as 'woman poet' or 'women's poetry'?
* Under what circumstances and for what reasons do women write poetry? Does it matter? Why?
* Why and how do a woman's poems find their way into publication? When and why do they fall out of print?
* What have the classifications 'Romanticism', 'Modernism', or 'Enlightenment' done for women poets?
* Do women poets use poetic forms to escape or challenge literary/poetic tradition?
NEW - last minute details about the conference
This two-day international conference, hosted by the University of the West
of England and Bath Spa University,
represents a fresh chance to explore, debate and re-understand the literary
outputs of the women who, down the ages, have chosen to express themselves
in the specialised form of poetry. Examining some of the chief developments
marking the burgeoning of critical interest in this developing literary
field, the event will bring commentators and scholars in women's poetry from
the 16th century to the present, together with editors and publishers,
reviewers and contemporary poet-critics.
A full programme of papers, roundtable conversations, interviews and
workshop-seminars is planned, punctuated by readings from leading poets
including Deryn Rees-Jones and Kate Clanchy. One central concern may prove
to be the question of why and how far gender can still be said to affect the
reading, writing, publication and/or performance of poetry from any century.
Other themes which we might expect or hope to explore include:
the lyric voice; class; anthologising women; myth; sexuality; radical / experimental poetics; collaboration; poetry in performance; influence; the long poem; race / ethnicity; the Muse; the politics and economics of (female) poetry publishing
