Jenny Bavidge, 'Natural Causes: Urban Nature and Children's Literature’

We are delighted to have Jenny Bavidge (Cambridge) speak at our next seminar. Her talk is entitled  'Natural Causes: Urban Nature and Children's Literature’ and will take place at St Cross College on Friday 22 Nov. at 4pm.

Jenny will be talking about New York City and Central Park stories, and on motifs of childhood in texts about urban nature such as Edgelands by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts.

Please RSVP cara dot bartels-bland at stx dot ox dot ac dot uk to attend.

Jane Suzanne Carroll 'Landscape History for Imagined Worlds'

We are delighted to have Jane Suzanne Carroll (Roehampton) speaking on Susan Cooper, John Masefield and Penelope Lively for our first talk of the term.

Her talk is entitled 'Landscape History for Imagined Worlds' and will take place at St Cross College on Friday 25 Oct. at 4pm.

Please RSVP cara dot bartels-bland at stx dot ox dot ac dot uk to attend.

Alan Garner to talk at Magdalen College

Alan Garner is giving a talk on two occasions this week at Magdalen College, Oxford. His talk is entitled 'A Bull on My Tongue' and accompanies the Bodleian exhibition Magical Books: From the Midde-Ages to middle earth. The first talk, on Wednesday 23 Oct. at 3pm, is open to all members of the University and free of charge. The second is open to all members of the public and will take place on Friday 25 Oct. at 6pm (tickets cost £ 12).

For more information and to book please email conferences@magd.ox.ac.uk.

Michaelmas 2013 Term Card: Children’s Literature and the Environment

We have two terrific speakers lined up for Michaelmas term 2013 on the emerging and thought-provoking research area of Children’s Literature and the Environment:

Friday Oct. 25^th, 4pm: Dr Jane Suzanne Carroll (University of Roehampton) ‘Landscape History for Imagined Worlds'

Friday Nov. 22^nd, 4pm: Dr Jenny Bavidge (University of Cambridge)

‘Natural Causes: Urban Nature and Children's Literature’

The Colloquium will take place at an inspiring new venue: St Cross Room, St Cross College, St Giles, OX1 3LZ, Oxford. As the colloquium will take place at an Oxford College, it is necessary to register for these events. Please do so for the first talk simply by emailing me (cara dot bartels-bland at stx dot ox dot ac dot uk) no later than Wednesday Oct. 23^rd. 

Frances Hardinge Talk

 

Children's author Frances Hardinge will give the keynote address at this year's Oxford English graduate student conference. The talk is at five o'clock on Friday 31 May in Lecture Theatre 2 at the English Faculty. Ms Hardinge will discuss the roles of books and the printing press in her first novel, Fly by Night. All welcome!

Bodleian Summer 2013 Exhibition

The Bodleian's summer exhibition, 'Magical Tales: From the Middle Ages to Middle-earth', opens today and runs until 27 October 2013. In conjunction with the exhibition, which showcases the Bodleian's astonishing children's literature holdings, there will be a series of lunchtime lectures. This term these are as follows:

29 May - 'Once and Future Arthurs: Arthurian Literature for Children' (Dr Anna Caughey, Lecturer in Old and Middle English, Keble College)

12 June - 'Books of Magic' (Dr Diane Purkiss, Fellow and Tutor of English, Keble College)

18 June - 'King Arthur Joins the Boy Scouts: Children and Arthurianism, 1860–1918' (Dr Anna Caughey, Lecturer in Old and Middle English, Keble College)

All talks will take place at Convocation House in the Old Bod. More details here, but in the meantime, check out the exhibition!



An Arthur Rackham illustration for a 1917 abridgement of the Morte Darthur: to hear about King Arthur's immense popularity within children's literature, attend one of Anna Caughey's upcoming lectures.

Cara Bartels-Bland on Prydain

 

We are delighted to have Cara Bartels-Bland (St Cross College, Oxford) speaking on the Newbery Medal-winning author Lloyd Alexander in a week's time.

Cara's title is 'Mapping Boundaries: Otherworlds and Mortal Worlds in Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain', and her talk will take place in the History of the Book Room, Oxford English Faculty, on 11 February 2013 at 5.15pm.