The Literary London Reading Group seeks to explore the processes (whether of exploration, appropriation, myth-making, derangement or disavowal) that contribute to creation and destruction of an imagined city and its fictional territories. Throughout the course of the year sessions will aim to foster an enriched understanding of London as a city comprised of a multiplicity of sites out of which narratives are woven and bound. Whether a text is situated in Pall Mall, Eel Pie Island or in an imagined dystopian future, part of the skill of writing urban experience arises from successfully ‘siting’ a narrative and capturing that elusive sense of place that grounds it in a particular setting.
The Literary London Reading Group meets regularly throughout the academic year. Details of upcoming events will be posted on this page, at the IES website, and on our Twitter page, so make sure you keep checking for updates.
Reading for each session, and a record of past sessions, can be found at the Reading Group’s blog at http://literarylondonrg.wordpress.com/
For more information, contact Literary London or get in touch with the group’s organisers directly at literarylondonrg at gmail.com
Schedule
First Session: Tuesday, 8 October 2019 6.00-7.30pm – UCL, Wilkins Building South Wing, IAS Seminar Room 11
Dr Alasdair Bennett (Royal Holloway) — Medieval Foundations: St Erkenwald and the Hidden Histories of St Paul’s Cathedral
Second Session: Tuesday, 26 November 2019, 6.00-7.30pm – UCL, Wilkins Building South Wing, IAS Seminar Room 11
Dr Kennetta Hammond Perry (De Montfort) — Connecting Past and Present: Claudia Jones and Brexit Britain
Third Session: Tuesday, 14 January 2020, 6.00-7.30pm – UCL, Wilkins Building South Wing, IAS Seminar Room 11
Dr Lindsay Crisp (Open University) — Material, Process, Time: The Fragment in Michael Landy’s Break Down
Fourth Session: Tuesday, 11 February 2020, 6.00-7.30pm – Room 239, UCL, Wilkins Building South Wing, IAS Seminar Room 11
Dr Evelyn Heinz (Independent) — ‘Ghetto Poet’: John Rodker’s Pre-War London
Fifth Session: Tuesday 10 March 2020, 6.00-7.30pm – UCL, Wilkins Building South Wing, IAS Seminar Room 11
Dr Christopher Webb (UCL) — ‘Useless, pointless, waste’: The End of the 1960s British Avant-Garde
Sixth Session: Tuesday 12 May 2020, 6.00-7.30pm – UCL, Wilkins Building South Wing, IAS Seminar Room 11
Dr Paul Dobraszczyk (UCL) — From Cesspool to Supersewer: Placing London’s Subterranean Waste