…of our next network seminar, The Point of Comparison, tomorrow, Wednesday 22^nd May, 4-6.30, in the Seminar Room, Radcliffe Humanities. See blurb below. Also, reports of the last two meetings of the graduate-led Discussion Group have now been posted on the Discussion Group page: scroll down to the foot of that page under the title ‘Five Thoughts’.

Network Seminar: The Point of Comparison.  A wide-ranging discussion, to be sparked by contributions from Mohamed-Salah Omri on comparative literature and area studies; Elleke Boehmer on postcolonial critical concepts between the anglophone world and the Netherlands; Ben Morgan on comparison in film; Nicola Gardini on comparative literature and rhetoric; and Nick Halmi on comparative Romantic studies. All welcome!

There is much news: of 1. the discussion group; 2. our network seminar; 3. our conference; and 4. some related events – so please read all the way down.

1. Graduate-led Discussion Group

The next meeting is a special event on an unusual day: a discussion with the poet and translator Don Paterson, on Thursday of 4^th week (16^th May), 12-1.30pm, in the Seminar Room, Radcliffe Humanities. All welcome!

Contact: april.pierce@st-annes.ox.ac.uk

Further meetings will be on Friday 31^st May and Friday 14^th June. See our Discussion Group page and https://www.facebook.com/CompCritOxford.

2. Network Seminar: The Point of Comparison

Wednesday 22^nd May, 4-6.30, Seminar Room, Radcliffe Humanities

A wide-ranging discussion, to be sparked by contributions from Mohamed-Salah Omri on comparative literature and area studies; Elleke Boehmer on postcolonial critical concepts between the anglophone world and the Netherlands; Ben Morgan on comparison in film; Nicola Gardini on comparative literature and Renaissance rhetoric; and Nick Halmi on comparative Romantic studies. All are welcome to what cannot but be an engaging and thought-provoking event.

Contact: matthew.reynolds@ell.ox.ac.uk

3. Conference: Comparative Criticism – Histories and Methods

25^th- 26^th September 2013, St Anne’s College

Several members of our network have already pledged papers and other contributions; but  we would like also to open ourselves to the world. So here is a call for papers: please circulate it wherever you think it might usefully go.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Comparative Criticism: Histories and Methods

25^th- 26^th September 2013

St Anne’s College, Oxford

An open meeting of the Oxford University Research Network New Grounds for Comparative Criticism (oxfordcomparativeliterature.com), held in collaboration with the British Comparative Literature Association and funded by The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities, the John Fell Fund, and St Anne’s College.

The way we do comparative criticism affects the histories we tell of it; and the histories we tell affect our practice. Our conference aims to explore this interaction. We will resurrect moments from the history of comparative literature, tracing its relation to national and regional literatures, comparative philology and classical traditions. There will be discussion of the role played by institutions, including Oxford, in shaping the discipline. We will consider the different forms that  comparative study assumes in different locations, and we will explore its connections to translation and area studies, and world literature. Attention will be given to the interplay between the comparative criticism of written texts and that of film, music and visual art. Is ‘comparative criticism’ a distinct formulation that might usefully join ‘comparative literature’, ‘world literature’ and the rest?

The following contributions have been confirmed. Prof Joep Leerssen (Amsterdam) will talk about his work on his soon-to-be-published history of comparative literary study in Britain (Leerssen and Shaffer, Comparative Literature in Britain: National Identities, Transnational Dynamics 1800-2000). Prof Ritchie Robertson (Oxford) will discuss ideas of world literature before Goethe. Prof Mihály Szegedy-Maszák (Budapest and Indiana) will give his view of the challenges of comparative work, and Prof Ahmad Etman (Cairo) will describe the state of the discipline in the Arab world. Members of the Oxford research network will explore matters such as translation and comparison, comparison beyond influence, and metaphors of comparison. Representatives of the BCLA will describe the state of the discipline in Britain today.

We now invite proposals for short papers on the following topics:

- Comparative literature and film, music and the visual arts

- The construction of interpretive contexts in comparative criticism

- Methodological intersections between comparative literature, area studies and world literature

We want to arrange the contributions to prompt constructive debate so please make clear what the methodological interest of your paper will be. Please send a 200 word proposal and a short biog to matthew.reynolds@ell.ox.ac.uk by Friday 14^th June. If you would like to contribute in some other way, for instance in a group presentation or planned discussion, please write to the same address by the same date.

The programme will be finalised in early July, and registration will open thereafter.

Organisers: Elinor Shaffer (BCLA); Matthew Reynolds, Mohamed-Salah Omri, Ben Morgan, Céline Sabiron (Oxford).

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4. Related events

Poetics and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Fifth International Conference of Oxford’s Centre for Early-Modern Studies

Thursday 23rd May, 10-6pm

T. S. Eliot Theatre, Merton College

http://www.cems-oxford.org/poetics-and-knowledge

Comparative Innovations: a workshop on comp lit and the digital humanities

Friday, May 24, 2013 – 09:30- 6.00pm

Kings College London

http://www.formsofinnovation.com/events/comparative-innovations

The Ibsen Phenomenon: A Workshop

Monday 10^th June, Radcliffe Humanities

Contact: kirsten.shepherd-barr@ell.ox.ac.uk

Our Seminar last week, on Translation and Comparison, was lively, populous and long. Clive Scott outlined his provocative view of translation as a phenomenology of reading, and explored its consequences for comparative literature: should we embrace comp lit as a field in which ‘the scope and dynamic of literary forces’ are continually redefined? Clive Holes spoke incisively about the challenges of translating an oral, dialect poem by Abbas Chechan: what kind of representation does this sort of text demand? Discussion ranged widely and sometimes fiercely around matters such as the boundary between acuity and inventiveness in reading, translations’ tendency to multiply, their relation to time, their utility or otherwise in teaching, and the relationship between a commitment to linguistic expertise and an openness to linguistic possibility.

For a fuller account, go to our Seminar page, where you can read the full text of Clive Scott’s paper, see the associated images, and listen to Clive Holes’s talk and all the ensuing discussion. (NB the audio files don’t agree with some versions of Google Chrome; but they get on fine with other browsers.) Do please continue the discussion in the Comments box if you would like.

Dates for next term

Seminar: Wednesday 22^nd May, 4-7pm, Seminar Room, Radcliffe Humanities. (Possibly also Weds 19^th June, 4-7pm, if we would like).

Discussion Group:  Fridays 3^rd, 17^th, 31^st May & 14^th June, 12.00-1.30pm, Graduate Training Room, Radcliffe Humanities.

Working Group: Tuesdays 23^rd April & 7^th May, 1.15-2.15pm, Graduate Training Room on the 23^rd, Seminar Room on the 7^th May (we also have 21^st May 1.30-2.30 if needed).

The idea for our Seminar on Wednesday 22^nd May is that several members of the network should give 5-10 minute talks about their own practice of comp lit, angled so as to provoke discussion. Perhaps our title should be ‘The Point of Comparison.’ If you have views, or would like to contribute, do get in touch.

A reminder that our first Network Seminar will be on Wednesday 13th March, 4-6.30 pm, in the Philosophy Lecture Theatre, Radcliffe Humanities Building. Topic: Translation and Comparison. Speakers: Prof Clive Scott FBA (UEA) and Prof Clive Holes FBA (Oxford: Oriental Studies). The talks will open onto a discussion about the uses and abuses of translation in the new comparative literature. For more, see the ‘Seminar’ page. Do come!

Our graduate-led Discussion Group meets again tomorrow, Friday 8th March, 10 am, Graduate Training Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building. Texts: Clive Scott, Literary Translation and the Rediscovery of Reading, Intro and Ch. 1, and a selection of translations of Ovid. See the Discussion Group page, where you will also find an account of the last two meetings.

Our Working Group, which is exploring how best to support further comparative critical research and teaching in Oxford, had a productive meeting on Monday 4th March. The next meetings will be on Tue 23rd April, 1.15pm and Tue 7th May, 1.15pm.

The speakers at our Seminar on 13^th March will be Prof Clive Scott (UEA) and Prof. Clive Holes (Oxford). See the Seminar page for details – especially the ‘First Thoughts for Discussion.’

The Seminar will meet again on 22^nd May (5^th week TT) when the suggestion is that several members of the network should speak for a few minutes each on what comparative literature is for them.

There was strong support for the proposal that we should take steps to establish solider structures for comp lit at Oxford. It was suggested that a working group should meet to make plans. The work would be both intellectual – ie getting clear about what comp lit now should be – and pragmatic – ie projecting how best to make it happen at Oxford. If you would like to join this group, please let us know.

We noted that the graduate-led Discussion Group had had a lively and populous first meeting (see its page for details) and that the programme for the conference on 25^th-26^th September is taking shape. The journal Comparative Critical Studies has reserved the first issue of 2015 for papers gathered from this conference and from our seminars.

Present at the meeting on 13^th Feb were: Nicola Gardini, Terence Cave, Stephen Harrison, Helen Slaney, Céline Sabiron, Rosia Lavan, Ben Morgan. Mohamed-Salah Omri, Matthew Reynolds.

Discussion Group: Friday 8^th Feb, 10-11.30 am in the Graduate Training Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building. See the ‘Discussion Group’ page.

Network Planning Meeting:  Wednesday 13^th Feb, 5pm in the Seminar Room, Oxford Research Centre, Radcliffe Humanities Building.

Network Seminar: ‘Translation and Comparison’. Wednesday 13^th March, 4-6.30pm, in the Philosophy Lecture Theatre, Radcliffe Humanities Building. See the ‘Seminar’ page.