Literature and Politics Day: September 24th

A Study Day on the Politics of Teaching Literature and the Teaching of Political Literature 

Many of the debates which have shaped current literary theory and literature courses belong to the period of the 1960s and 1970s. Structuralism and post-structuralism, modernism and post-modernism, Empire and postcolonialism, women's writing and post-feminism are all concepts which have also shaped the contemporary curriculum. While many current academics in literature departments were trained in a context where the theoretical frame owed much to the work emerging out of the movements of the 1960s, our students have no such history. We are now teaching students for whom the fall of the Berlin wall, the miners' strike, Thatcherism, Reaganism and the women's movement are historical phenomena.

What relevance do the arguments that were once so fierce in literature and cultural studies have in the current climate for academics and students? As educational policy moves towards the teaching of skills sets and research is required to have social 'impact', what are the politics of teaching literature? And how should the curriculum deal with political texts?

Educationalists, policy makers, literature tutors and students are all invited to attend. This study day will approach these questions from a range of different perspectives including:

• What is Literature in the twenty-first century? 
• How has Literature been used in the school curriculum? 
• How can the teaching of Literature have a Green agenda? 
• What was the impact of the Cold War for fiction? 
• Teaching feminism to a post-feminist generation 
• Is class still a valid concept in the teaching of literature? 
• Are identity politics relevant to the Facebook generation? 
• Writing sustainability into the curriculum 

Programme: (subject to alteration) 

Time Theme/Session 

9:15 Coffee and Registration 

9:45 Welcome, Professor Deborah Philips, University of Brighton and Dr Nicole King, English Subject Centre 

10:00 TBC, Professor Stuart Laing, Pro Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs) University of Brighton 

10:30 Literary History 

Panel Presentation & Discussion 

Speaking the Unspeakable: Unlocking Collective memory with Literature 

Zacharoula Christopoulou, University College London (Presentation) 

Teaching the Miner's Strike in the 21st Century 

Katy Shaw, University of Brighton (Presentation) 

Teaching Shakespeare and the BNP 

Dr Adam Hansen, Northumbria University (Presentation) 

12:00 Lunch 

1:00 The Politics of Form 

Panel Presentation & Discussion 

Is the end of the world the end of children's literature? 

David Simpson, University of Brighton 

Engaging students with history, race and gender: teaching Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' 

Gina Wisker, University of Brighton (Presentation) 

2:30 Coffee & Tea 

3:00 Theory/Practice 

Panel Presentation & Discussion 

TBC 

Jess Moriarty, University of Brighton 

The "turn to ethics" or, political commitment "after theory" 

John Wrighton, University of Brighton (Presentation) 

English Literature in Schools - Access All Areas 

Steve Roberts, University of Brighton (Presentation) 

4:00 Keynote Address, Teaching Humanities in the Age of Cameron 

Dr Paddy Maguire, University of Brighton 

4:30 Plenary Discussion, Audience members 

5:00 Close 

To register please complete the online form. http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/events/event_detail.php?event_index=288