CFP: Wilfred Owen and Beyond

26th to 29th October 2018

The Oxford Centre for Life Writing, in partnership with the Western Front Association and the Wilfred Owen Association, is pleased to be hosting a conference to mark the centenary of Wilfred Owen’s death.

Papers should relate to the theme of Wilfred Owen’s legacy. Proposals are invited and should take the form of an abstract not exceeding 250 words for a paper of 20 minutes duration.

Owen’s life was tragically short. Any study of his life is by definition overshadowed by his death and the bitter irony of its timing, at the very end of the war. Unlike some of his lesser discussed contemporaries, such as Ivor Gurney and Isaac Rosenberg, Owen’s poetry has been appreciated and analysed by many scholars in previous decades. It remains enduringly popular, and has lost little of its capacity to move and shock its readers. It is taught across the country as part of the National Curriculum, and has become the lens through which we view what, with Owen’s help, has been dubbed the most literary war in history.

This conference is concerned with Owen’s afterlife. How has his work been received, and how has it changed our view of the war? What effect has his verse had on writers, composers and other intellectuals, and how has Owen himself been portrayed, appropriated and discussed posthumously?

Please send a 250 word abstract and a mini-biography (50 – 100 words) to Dr Kate Kennedy at oclw@wolfson.ox.ac.uk Please note that this email address is only for the submission of proposals for papers.

All other queries about the conference, including registration of interest in attending, should be sent to vivien@vivienwhelpton.co.uk

Notification of acceptance of proposals will be communicated by the opening date for conference registration in January 2018. All submissions will be read and adjudicated by a panel consisting of Dr Kate Kennedy and Dr Santanu Das.

The Call for papers is also available to download as a pdf.