The Shelley Conference: #Shelley200 Launch
And we will talk, until thought's melody
Become too sweet for utterance, and it die
In words, to live again in looks, which dart
With thrilling tone into the voiceless heart,
Harmonizing silence without a sound.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, Epipsychidion (1821)
The Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned at sea aged just 29 on the 8th July 1822. The Shelley Conference will mark his bicentenary, celebrating the poet’s life, works, and afterlives on 8-9th July 2022. In the build-up to the conference, the organisers (Bysshe Inigo Coffey, Amanda Blake Davis, Anna Mercer, and Paul Stephens) are excited to welcome opportunities for scholars and admirers of Shelley and his circle to join public conversations on Shelley’s final years. In the first of a series of pre-conference events, we are delighted to announce a digital celebration marking the bicentenary of the publication of Epipsychidion in 1821.
This free roundtable event, to be held on Zoom on 20th May 2021, will invite Shelley scholars to discuss the poem and its critical legacy. The speakers will include Will Bowers, Stuart Curran, Michael Rossington, and Valentina Varinelli. The audience will be invited to participate in a Q&A session, and the event will also be recorded and shared online, welcoming further discussion. Tickets are available through Eventbrite.
Our call for papers for the 2022 conference will be published following this event (deadline: 1st February 2022). The conference will take place in the UK, and we expect to announce the venue in September 2021. Following the success of the first ‘Shelley Conference’ in 2017 (organised by Anna Mercer and Harrie Neal), the 2022 conference will again seek to provide a scholarly gathering dedicated to Percy Bysshe Shelley, a poet who remains without an annual event. We will share #Shelley200 news online throughout the remainder of 2021 and the first half of 2022 (and beyond – as we continue to celebrate Shelley’s legacy). We welcome invitations for networking opportunities with other commemorative events and posts using that hashtag. We are also following with interest and will share and promote the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association’s ongoing #KeatsShelley200 #KS200 celebrations. Our website will provide a hub for video and text interviews and documentaries from Shelley scholars. The website will not simply be a point of convergence and information for conference delegates, but a valuable and lasting digital resource for Shelley studies. Get in touch and join the #Shelley200 conversations…
Twitter: @ShelleyConf2022
http://www.theshelleyconference.com
www.facebook.com/shelleyconference
shelleyconference2022@gmail.com
Project Team:
Dr Bysshe Inigo Coffey (British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Newcastle University)
Dr Amanda Blake Davis (University of Sheffield)
Dr Anna Mercer (Cardiff University)
Paul Stephens (University of Oxford)
Advisory Board:
Dr Will Bowers (Queen Mary University of London)
Dr Madeleine Callaghan (University of Sheffield)
Professor Kelvin Everest (University of Liverpool)
Professor Sharon Ruston (Lancaster University)