Twenty-first Century Scottish Fiction: Where are we now?

2 September 2014

Ellen Wilkinson Building, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

Keynote Speakers: Dr Aaron Kelly (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Monica Germanà (University of Westminster)

This one-day symposium aims to explore the exciting breadth and diversity of recent Scottish writing, attending to the importance of both tradition and innovation and examining how post-millennial texts negotiate and re-configure the boundaries of Scottish literature.

Questions of Scottishness and of Scottish literature have been of particular interest in the twenty-first century, in part because the start of the new millennium roughly coincides with Scottish devolution in 1999. Exploration of Scottish literature becomes ever more pertinent as the referendum on Scottish independence approaches. This symposium aims to take stock of the critical perspectives on Scottish writing and to explore the questions being raised as discussion about Scottish identity amplifies in anticipation of this new cultural landmark.

We invite abstracts on all aspects of twenty-first century Scottish fiction. Proposals for panels of three interlinked papers are also welcome. Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

• Post-millennial texts by established Scottish authors
• New voices in contemporary Scottish writing
• The diffusion and reception of 21st century Scottish literature in Europe.
• Dis/continuities and the role of tradition in new Scottish writing.
• New developments in Scottish genre fiction
• The 21st century Scottish Gothic
• Hybridity, cosmopolitanism and trans-nationalism in Scottish texts
• Pedagogy and the role of the academy in the formation of the 21st century Scottish canon
• New perspectives on the Scottish canon/what constitutes Scottish literature?
• Spatiality and/or temporality in 21st century Scottish writing
• Gender and nation in post-millennial Scottish texts
• The Scottish political landscape and its role in 21st century Scottish writing
• Queer Scottish writing
• Strangers and strangeness in 21st century Scottish writing

Please email 200-300 word proposals for 20-minute papers and brief biographical notes of 50 words to the conference organisers Jane Stedman and Kate Turner at c21scotfiction@gmail.com  by 14th May.

Conference website: http://www.c21scotfiction.co.uk/