From July 2000

BULWER-LYTTON 2000

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH STUDIES SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY

BULWER-LYTTON 2000 AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON (1803 - 1873)

5, 6 & 7th July 2000 at Senate House, University of London and Knebworth House, Edward Bulwer-Lytton s ancestral home in Hertfordshire

SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS

'Think of a great moment in the evolution of Victorian fiction and Lytton was there ... He can plausibly claim to be the father of the English detective novel, science fiction, the fantasy novel, the thriller and the domestic realistic novel."

John Sutherland

Professor Warwick Gould
Director
Institute of English Studies
Senate House
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HU

Despite Bulwer-Lytton s importance as an eminent Victorian, whose literary reputation in his day surpassed that of Dickens, he has been neglected. This conference will therefore reappraise Edward Bulwer-Lytton as a novelist, dramatist, social commentator, occultist and dandy. The genres in which he wrote include historical fiction, the silver fork novel, gothic literature, the ghost story, the Newgate novel, the aristocratic romance and die metaphysical novel.

A Liberal member of the great Reform Parliament who became Secretary of State for the Colonies in a Tory government, Bulwer-Lytton s political life was as eventful as his private life was scandalous. His turbulent marriage to the Irish beauty, Rosina Doyle Wheeler, was followed by forty years of acrimonious separation. In addition, his fascination with the paranormal, orientalism, opium smoking and German metaphysics show how he personified the contradictions and controversies of the Victorian age.

An impressive range of papers have already been offered, and these will be reviewed at the end of the Summer Term 1999. The deadline for submission of papers is 1 June 1999.

Themes to be considered will include:

During the conference there will be opportunities to explore Bulwer-Lytton s home Knebworth House, the gothic fantasy he created which still bears the stamp of his personality and is cherished by his descendants.

The conference is under the academic direction of Professor John Sutherland, Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature, University College London.

Speakers invited to the conference already include:

Lord Blake, FBA
Andrew Brown, Cambridge University Press
Allan Christensen, John Cabot University
Jerome J Mc Gann, University of Virginia
Marie Mulvey-Roberts, University of the West of England
Michael Slater, Birkbeck College
Helen Small, Pembroke College
Oxford Professor Andrew Sanders, University of Durham

Timeline
Biography
Bibliography

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