Janice Bland 'Story as patterned cognitive play explored in Brian Selznick’s graphic narrative: "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" '

This term I am delighted to welcome Dr Janice Bland from the University of Vechta (Germany) to CLOC. Janice will be speaking on Friday May 16th, 4pm.

Story as patterned cognitive play explored in Brian Selznick’s graphic narrative:

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

‘A work of art acts like a playground for the mind, a swing or slide or a merry-go-round of visual or aural or social pattern’ (Boyd 2009).

This paper will suggest that The Invention of Hugo Cabret demonstrates how art, in this case a new kind of graphic narrative, can generate confidence – confidence that the reader/viewer can make changes and actually modify life events through craft and creativity. The emphasis will be on the woven and intertextual nature of storytelling, as realised for example in silent movies and The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I will illustrate how story can simulate the multimodal nature of experience and creatively rework it to engender new options – as a dress rehearsal for the future (Cron 2012).

Tea and coffee will be served after the talk.
St Cross Room, St Cross College, St Giles, OX1 3LZ

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

Karín Lesnik-Oberstein ‘Children’s Literature, Literature and Neuroscience: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose’

This term I am delighted to welcome Prof Karín Lesnik-Oberstein from the University of Reading to CLOC. Karín will be speaking on Friday February 7^th, 4pm. Her talk is entitled ‘Children’s Literature, Literature and Neuroscience: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose’ and she will discuss a range of critical and scientific papers on neuroscience and children’s literature, including sections from the original scientific papers on ‘mirror neurons’ by Rizzolatti et al, from papers on ideas of child language development and evolutionary psychology by David S. Miall and Ellen Dissanayake and by Jonathan Gottschall, and sections of children’s literature criticism. 

Tea and Coffee will be served after the talk.
St Cross Room, St Cross College, St Giles, OX1 3LZ 


RSVP cara dot bartels-bland at stx dot ox dot ac dot uk

Hilary 2014 Term Card: Children’s Literature and Neuroscience

Friday Feb 7^th, 4pm: Prof Karín Lesnik-Oberstein (University of Reading) ‘Children’s Literature, Literature and Neuroscience: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose’

St Cross Room, St Cross College, St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LZ

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

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.