RE-ORIENTATING E. M. FORSTER

Texts, Contexts, Receptions

An international anniversary conference

Cambridge, Thursday 2 to Saturday 4 April 2020

Confirmed speakers: Paul Armstrong (Brown), Stefan Collini (Cambridge), Santanu Das (Oxford), Leela Gandhi (Brown), Jane Goldman (Glasgow), Stefania Michelucci (Genoa), Rachel Potter (East Anglia), and David Trotter (Cambridge).

E. M. Forster, one of the major British writers of the twentieth century, died on 7 June 1970.  The fiftieth anniversary of his death affords a special opportunity for a comprehensive re-evaluation of his place and significance in the literary and wider culture of Britain and beyond.  This conference, to be held at the Cambridge University Faculty of English and King’s College – where Forster was an undergraduate and where he later resided for many years as an Honorary Fellow – invites a wide-ranging exploration of his life and work, while focusing attention on two broad areas: (a) Forster in his historical and cultural context; (b) receptions of Forster since 1970.  A central aim is to facilitate a productive dialogue between these two perspectives, with a view to defamiliarizing dominant perceptions of Forster and his work, exposing what has been occluded, and identifying new directions of travel in Forster studies.

For more information – and to submit a proposal – please visit the conference website: https://emforster2020.home.blog/call-for-papers/