CFP Tradition and Innovation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Conference (4/20/2024; Nancy, France/hybrid 11/21-22/2024)

CFP: Tradition and Innovation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Source: https://medievalisms.org/cfp-tradition-and-innovation-in-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight/

We are pleased to announce a call for papers for an upcoming conference on “Tradition and Innovation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” to be held in Nancy (France) on 21-22 November 2024. This conference will be held in hybrid mode.

Conference Theme: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has captivated readers for centuries with its complex narrative, moral dilemmas, and poetic excellence. The conference seeks to explore the dynamic interplay between tradition and innovation within the text, examining how the poem, but also the works derived from it and the scholarship devoted to it, draw upon established traditions while introducing novel elements.

The first axis of our inquiry focuses on the poem itself. While it is steeped in the traditions of Arthurian romance and Middle English poetry, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight departs from them and frustrates expectations in significant ways, both in terms of its content and its form. This exploration aims to shed light on the creative ways in which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight navigates established literary norms, both adhering to tradition and introducing innovative elements within its narrative structure and thematic content.

The second axis of our inquiry focuses on the many works inspired by Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This includes rewritings, translations, and visual interpretations that grapple with the tension between fidelity to the original and the impulse to reimagine the narrative within contemporary contexts. From modern language adaptations to artistic representations, we seek to understand how the poem’s essence endures through the transformative lens of subsequent generations.

We invite proposals for individual papers (20 minutes). Please submit abstracts (250-300 words) along with a brief bio to Colette.Stevanovitch@univ-lorraine.fr by 20 April. Include your name, institutional affiliation, contact information, and any audiovisual requirements.

Visualizing Arthur April 2024 Events and Flier

Forwarded on behalf of Barbara Tepa Lupack:

Download the flier here. 

Download the postcard here.

◄ For Immediate Release ►

Visualizing Camelot

An Exhibition from the Collection of Drs. Alan Lupack and Barbara Tepa Lupack

At the University of Rochester

Visualizing Camelot, a University of Rochester River Campus Libraries exhibition from the collection of Drs. Alan Lupack and Barbara Tepa Lupack, explores the ongoing appeal of the Arthurian legends in England and America. The exhibition—which opened on March 7, 2024, with remarks from the Lupacks, a reception, and a tour of the exhibition—reveals the diverse ways that the stories of Camelot have been imagined and visualized, both in high culture (paintings, drawings, illustrated books) and in popular culture (film, toys, games, comic books, cartoons, dishware, product names, business logos, etc.). The exhibition, which includes more than 350 items (many of them unique), runs from the first to the fourth floor of Rush Rhees (from the Friedlander Lobby to Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation and to the Robbins Library). Visualizing Camelot is free and open to all, and a wide array of programming relating to the exhibition is planned throughout 2024.

Among the opening week’s events was a presentation by Dr. Kevin Whetter, Acadia University, on “Why Are There So Few Illustrations in Mediaeval English Arthurian Manuscripts? The Non-Visual Camelot.” 

Upcoming spring events include a five-film Arthurian Film Series hosted by the Eastman Museum’s Dryden Theatre in collaboration with the exhibition. That series will include A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949), on April 6; Knights of the Round Table (1953), on April; 11; The Sword in the Stone (1963), on April 19; Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), on April 25; and Excalibur (1983), on May 5. For more information on the series, please go to Dryden Theatre | George Eastman Museum


Upcoming next month is a presentation by Dr. Kevin J. Harty, La Salle University, on April 19. Dr. Harty’s topic is “James Bond, A Grifter, A Video Avatar, and a Shark Walk into King Arthur’s Court: The Ever-Expanding Canon of Cinema Arthuriana.” The presentation will also be livestreamed. If interested, please register at the following link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Lr0nRKZLfJZQl3ynshHWUWiHu1I3o6vG07-fkbaKOgY/edit

(or contact Dr. Anna Siebach-Larsen at annasiebachlarsen@rochester.edu.)

A digital exhibit Visualizing Camelot and an exhibition catalogue will follow by the end of April. A host of other activities and events are scheduled for summer and fall, 2024.

We hope that you will join us, in person or on-line, to tour Visiting Camelot and to participate in some of the exhibition events.

About the Lupacks

Dr. Alan Lupack, a noted Arthurian scholar and former director of the Robbins Library, is author or editor of numerous Arthurian studies, including Arthur, The Greatest King; Arthurian Drama; Modern Arthurian Literature; New Directions in Arthurian Studies; and The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend.

Dr. Barbara Tepa Lupack, the former academic dean at SUNY and New York State Public Scholar (2015-2018), is author or editor of more than 25 books, including The Girl’s King Arthur; King Arthur’s Crown; Adapting the Arthurian Legends for Children; and the recently published The Othering of Women in Silent Film.

The Lupacks have lectured and published widely on Arthurian topics. Together, they created The Camelot Project, a popular and award-winning database of texts, images, and information about the Arthurian legends, and coauthored studies such as Arthurian Literature by Women, Illustrating Camelot, and the award-winning King Arthur in America.

For More Information About the Exhibition: please contact Anna Siebach-Larsen, Director of the Robbins Library, at annasiebachlarsen@rochester.edu.