HUMANITIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE
CONFERENCE
Over recent decades there has been a considerable growth of interest in various forms of autobiographical writing. Having been summarily dismissed by the various formalist orthodoxies of the previous century, the autobiographical element now finds itself subject to enquiry from both ends of the critical spectrum: traditionalists, who would seek to reinstate the author at the heart of literary studies, see it as an antidote to impersonality; contemporary theorists find that it exemplifies and problematises issues foregrounded by postmodernist and poststructuralist thinking, issues such as genre instability and the indeterminacy of meaning.
This conference aims to explore diverse aspects of the function of autobiography in literary studies and within particular authors' works.
Speakers will include the authors Alan Sillitoe and Ruth Fainlight and the critics and biographers DJ Taylor and Roger Lewis. There will be a live interview by video-conferencing with the author Martin Amis.