Thursday 6 May 2010

ERF Study Afternoon: 'The Galaxy Reconfigured: Literature and New Media'

The Royal Holloway English Research Forum is pleased to announce details of their next study afternoon, on Thursday 27th May 2010 (2-4pm) in Room 21a at Senate House (WC1).

Marshall McLuhan famously pronounced that 'The medium is the message', but how is our reception of literature of the past conditioned by the channels through which it is experienced? How have writers and readers responded to technological changes in the means of transmission of the word?

The papers on the afternoon will be:

  • Dr Matthew Rubery (QMUL) - 'Close Listening: A Short History of the Audiobook'

  • Zara Dinnen (Birkbeck College) - 'Something borrowed something new? Remediation in Jonathan Lethem's 'The Ecstasy of Influence'

The presentations will be followed by a discussion, and wine and nibbles will be provided.

If you have any further questions or queries, please contact the organisers:

Jonathan Buckmaster (J.Buckmaster@rhul.ac.uk)
Vicky Lefevre (V.F. Le-Fevre@rhul.ac.uk)
Jen Nicholson (J.C. Nicholson@rhul.ac.uk)

Wednesday 17 March 2010

ERF Study Afternoon: Science and Literature


The next ERF Study Afternoon will take place on Tuesday, 27th April 2010, in the boardroom of Royal Holloway's Gower Street building (WC1), from 2-4 pm.

The papers for the afternoon are as follows:

Chris Daley: 'Technology, Ecology, Apocalypse: John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids and John Christopher's The Death of Grass'

Chris Daley is a doctoral student at the University of Westminster. His research project investigates the impact of the Cold War on British Science Fiction between 1945 and 1969.

Peter Johnston: ' "95% of the villages we wiped off the map were never on it": Complex numbers in JM Coetzee's The Vietnam Project and Robert Musil's The Confusions of Young Törless'

Peter Johnston is a final year doctoral student at Royal Holloway, University of London, working on the practical and philosophical resonances between JM Coetzee's parallel work as a literary artist and mathematician.

This event is being organised for the ERF by Peter Johnston [P.Johnston@rhul.ac.uk]. If you have any queries then please contact Peter or one of the ERF committee.

As usual, wine and nibbles will be provided, and we hope to see you there!

Best Wishes,

The ERF Committee

Sunday 21 February 2010

Cora Kaplan

ERF Study Afternoon
Thursday, 11th March 2010, 2-4pm
Room G21a, Senate House (WC1)

All postgraduate students and staff at University of London English Departments (and beyond) are invited to the following event:

Cora Kaplan presents "The Firm of Charles & Charles: Dickens, Darwin and Neo-Victorian Authorship".

Cora Kaplan is an Honorary Professor in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary, and is Professor Emerita of English at Southampton University. Her most recent book is “Victoriana: Histories, Fictions, Criticism” (2007).


This event will provide a great opportunity to pool ideas with fellow researchers, and will also contribute to your research training. The presentation will be followed by a discussion, and wine and nibbles will be provided!

If you have any queries then please get in touch with the organizers:

Chrissie Lees [C.Lees@rhul.ac.uk]
Vicky LeFevre [V.F.Le-Fevre@rhul.ac.uk]
Jonathan Buckmaster [J.Buckmaster@rhul.ac.uk]