Writing on the Edge: Literary Transgression and Resistance around 1900

A two day conference organised by the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies and sponsored by the Beate Schuler Fund.

Please register here.

this symposium aims to explore the edges of literature – in a general as well as concrete, i.e. a literal as well as figural sense – in the long nineteenth century, a period characterised by literary experimentation (e.g., different iterations of realism, the avant gardes, workers’ literature…) and socio-political tensions (e.g., political and military conflicts, social unrest, revolution…). We invite presentations that examine how literature challenged poetic and aesthetic norms, engaged with marginal or outsider positions, and experimented with form and genre to question established modes of representation, cause discomfort and unsettle readers. How did literary works defy conventions, blur boundaries, or disrupt dominant narratives? What strategies did writers employ to push against the limits of genre, authorship, or artistic legitimacy? What affective responses do such texts provoke?
Two keynote speakers will address these questions in their keynote lectures. Prof. dr. Clemens Ruthner will open our discussions with his talk on "Going Borderline: Conceptualizing Margins, Thresholds, and Liminality". Prof. dr. Anne Fuchs (University College Dublin) will deliver a lecture on the margins of literature entitled “From Steel Nib to Pencil: Robert Walser’s Entry into the ‘Bleistiftgebiet’”. Other speakers will explore the concept of 'edginess' through a wide range of topics including authorship and genre; gender, race and queerness; performance and politics.

Please indicate if you have any access requirements, such as ISL/English interpreting, so that we can facilitate you in attending this event. Contact: RYSM@tcd.ie