macdonald conference: programme

Earlier this week, I spent too long assembling the programme for George MacDonald Among His Contemporaries, so forgive me if I’m a bit proud of it. Proud enough to post it, I mean. Which I am. We’ve got a tremendous array of speakers, and the whole thing promises to be an insightful conference, with, though I say it who shouldn’t, the potential of becoming a landmark in MacDonald studies.

My only regret is that my lovely co-organizer, Ginger Stelle, won’t be able to present a paper; the world misses an opportunity for the face of MacDonald studies to be redefined. (Don’t worry—her book will do that later.)

The programme I spend however many happy, unpaid hours assembling is below the jump. Please disseminate it as freely as you wish. (Which won’t be as freely as I wish, unless you’re scattering leaflets of it from a bomber, or something.)

George MacDonald Among His Contemporaries: Programme
30 March 2011
Kennedy Hall, School of English
University of St Andrews

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9:30-10:00 Arrival and Registration
Tea and Coffee in the Stephen Boyd Room

10:00-10:15 Welcome and Introductory Remarks

10:15-11:15 Plenary
Lawson Room; Chair: Ginger Stelle

Prof Stephen Prickett (University of Kent, Canterbury):
‘George MacDonald and the Idea of Tradition’

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11:20-12:30 Session 1 Panels

Natural and Supernatural
Lawson Room

· Daniel Gabelman (University of St Andrews): ‘“Divine Alchemy”: MacDonald’s Contribution to the Victorian Discussion of Miracles

· Alison N. Crockford (University of Edinburgh): ‘Sitting on the Doorstep: George MacDonald’s Aesthetic Fantasy Worlds and the Divine Child Figure’

· Elizabeth Andrews (University of St Andrews): ‘Stirring the Senses: Identity and Suspense in George MacDonald’s David Elginbrod’

Social Conscience and Imagination
Garden Room

· Jocie Slepyan (Duke University): ‘“With all sorts of doubts I am familiar”: George MacDonald’s literary response to John Ruskin’s struggles with epistemology and socialism”

· Christine Chettle (University of Leeds): ‘Imaginative Subversions: Social Myths in George MacDonald’s Princess Novels and Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”’

· Jeffrey W. Smith (University of Dundee): ‘Social Reform and the Imagination: A Study of George MacDonald’s The Vicar’s Daughter’

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12:30-13:30 Lunch

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13:30-14:45 Session 2 Panels

George MacDonald in Scotland
Lawson Room

· Dr Alice Lin (National Chung Cheng University): ‘The Good, The Evil, and Salvation: George MacDonald and James Hogg’

· Dr Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson (University of St Andrews): ‘Speaking Matrilineally’

· John Patrick Pazdziora (University of St Andrews): ‘“How the Fairies were not Invited to Court”: Interfacing George MacDonald with Andrew Lang’

Victorian Media
Garden Room

· Tania E. Scott (University of Glasgow): ‘At the Back of the North Wind and the Victorian Periodical Press’

· Dr Helen Sutherland (University of Glasgow): ‘Pictures on a Page: George MacDonald and the Visual Arts’

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14:45-15:15 Tea & Coffee
Stephen Boyd Room

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15:15-16:15 Session 3 Panels

Gothic Romanticism
Lawson Room

· Dr Jennifer Koopman (McGill University): ‘Gothic Degeneration and Romantic Rebirth in Donal Grant’

· David Melville Wingrove (University of Edinburgh): ‘“La Belle Dame”: Lilith and the Romantic Vampire Tradition’

Gendering Authority
Garden Room

· Philip Hickok (University of Aberdeen): ‘God and Gender in Robert Falconer: Deifying the Feminine’

· Jenny Neophytou (Brunel University): ‘Martial Bodies and Masculinity in MacDonald’s “The Broken Swords”’

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16:15-17:15 Plenary
Lawson Room; Chair: Dr Christopher MacLachlan

Dr David Robb (University of Dundee):
‘George MacDonald and the Grave Livers’

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19:00 Conference Dinner
Venue TBA