[AMS-announce] CONF: Adapting Byron, University of Manchester, Dec 2008

[Announcements for the AMS]

‘Adapting Byron’, 4-5 December 2008 
The Byron Centre, University of Manchester 

Few figures have captured the creative imagination to the extent of Lord Byron. Since the publication of the first instalment of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, virtually every age, nation and art-form has responded to his life and works. This conference will examine a wide range of adaptations of Byron over the past two centuries, interrogating his changing reception and considering how his poetry has been reconceived by being brought into contact with new, non-literary contexts and media. Papers will discuss Byron in relation to, among other things: ballet, German song, Verdi, Mendelssohn, England, France, Italy, television drama and MySpace. Speakers include Shona Allen (Cologne), Bernard Beatty (Liverpool), Lorrie Corano (Missouri), Susan Rutherford (Manchester), Gilles Soubigou (Sorbonne), Michael Sinatra-Eberle (Montréal) and Stephen Zani (Lamar, Texas). The conference will also feature two lunchtime musical recitals on Byron-related themes, and a Byron dinner in Manchester
 ’s ci
ty centre.  

For further information, please contact Dr Laura Tunbridge, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures (Music), Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, University of Manchester, Coupland Street, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK (Laura.Tunbridge at manchester.ac.uk). 

‘Adapting Byron’ is the inaugural conference of The Byron Centre, the University of Manchester’s new interdisciplinary study centre devoted to advancing the study of all aspects of Lord Byron: his life, writings, times, worldwide reception and international influence. Launched in 2007, the Centre offers a wealth of study opportunities at MA and PhD level in the fields of English, European and American Literature, Nineteenth-Century European Music and Italian Literature, History and Culture.

The Centre also has its own major Byron Archive, located at the historic John Rylands Deansgate Library, with substantial holdings of early editions, related publications and material from around the globe relating to Byron’s world-wide reception.

For more information about The Byron Centre, please visit our webpage (given below) or contact the Centre’s Director, Dr Alan Rawes, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures (English and American Studies), Samuel Alexander Building, University of Manchester, Manchester M19 3PL, UK (alan.rawes at manchester.ac.uk).

The Byron Centre: http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/subjectareas/englishamericanstudies/research/ByronCentre/