12th international conference of ESSE (European Society for the Study of English),

Košice (Slovakia), 29 August– 2 September 2014

(conference website: http://kaa.ff.upjs.sk/en/event/4/12th-esse-conference)

Call for Papers

for the seminar

Edwin Morgan and the Prospect of Scotland

In Sonnets from Scotland (1984), Edwin Morgan envisioned a national history and potential which has increasingly urgent political application as the referendum on independence approaches in 2014. His poem on the Scottish parliament (2004) stressed connections between literary, cultural and political vitality. This seminar considers the place of poetry in national self-imagining, national self-realisation and continuing critical awareness. We welcome papers examining Morgan’s work in the national context, his relation with his poetic precedent Hugh MacDiarmid, his legacy to contemporary writers, and international connections through his translations from European literatures and through North and South American concrete and postmodern influences.

Seminar conveners:

Alan Riach, University of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom (Alan.Riach@glasgow.ac.uk)

Silke Stroh, University of Muenster, Germany (Silke.Stroh@uni-muenster.de)

Submission guidelines and planning procedures:

Papers should be up to 15 minutes long and should take the form of an oral presentation, rather than mere readings of finished essays.

Abstracts of proposed papers should be submitted to the seminar conveners by 31 March 2014 [new extended deadline].

Abstracts should be c. 200 words in length. Please also submit a short paragraph of biographical information (including your academic affiliation).

The selection process will be completed by 15 April 2014. Once the programme has been finalised, abridged versions of accepted papers will be circulated among all speakers some time before the conference, to facilitate preparation for the seminar discussions.