Welcome to BARS

The British Association for Romantic Studies (BARS) was set up in 1989 by academics to promote the study of the cultural history of the Romantic period. Since then, BARS has organised eight International conferences at various locations in the UK, has published the BARS Bulletin and Review twice-yearly, and currently has more than 350 members.

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If you would like to advertise an event of interest to the BARS membership on the BARS website and electronic mailbase (for members only), please send the text by email to Padmini Ray Murray (website) and Neil Ramsey (mailing list).

Events that have been advertised previously on the BARS electronic mailbase can be seen at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/bars/archives.

Current and future events, exhibitons etc:

Oxford Chamber Theatre Reading Shelley’s 'Prometheus Unbound'

Oxford Chamber Theatre will be producing a rehearsed reading by professional actors of Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound in St Margaret’s Church, 19 St Margaret’s Road, Oxford OX2 6RX, on 26 February 2012 at 2.30. Ten actors, experienced verse readers, will read the work, as a concert of voices. David Jones, former leading light in Oxford University music, now studying voice in London, will use the organ of St. Margaret's to create a spacious, sensuous relief for the music of Shelley's verse, which will occasionally turn to song as he sings the choruses. Tickets will be £10/£8, available from www.wegottickets.com or on the door.

Fforwm Undydd Cymru a’r Chwylodro Ffrengig/Wales and The French Revolution, Dydd Sadwrn, 24 Medi 2011/Saturday, 24 September 2011

"Bad Writing": a one-day symposium on genre fiction and value, With Bernice Murphy and Paul Cornell, Friday 30th September 2011

King's College London, Strand Campus 'BAD WRITING' is a free one-day event bringing together scholars and practitioners to discuss the value judgements which accrue around genre fiction. Since the rise of a mass readership, the genre model has remained an obstinately successful and popular method of categorising fiction. Fictional formulas have been embraced by readers and writers alike. They have also faced accusations of laziness and inadequacy. But what claims are we making when we debate the worth of the generic? Is a bad detective novel necessarily a bad novel? Can we speak coherently of 'reading for the plot'? 'Bad Writing' seeks to unpack these tensions and use the idea of 'badness' to explore the richly nuanced interplay of reader, writer, community, and market expectations in genre fiction. For more details, including the full programme, please see http://genrefictionsymposium.co.uk/ - the papers on the Gothic and on Peter Pindar might be of particular interest to members of BARS. To register, please email william.tattersdill@kcl.ac.uk.

Fforwm Undydd Cymru a’r Chwylodro Ffrengig/Wales and The French Revolution, Dydd Sadwrn, 24 Medi 2011/Saturday, 24 September 2011

Cynhelir y fforwm ar 24 Medi 2011 yn y Drwm, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, Aberystwyth. Y dyddiad cau ar gyfer cofrestru yw 16 Medi. The forum will be held on 24 September 2011 in the Drwm, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. The closing date for registration is 16 September. Y ffi gofrestru ar gyfer y fforwm, gan gynnwys coffi yn y bore, cinio a the, yw £20 (heb ginio £12.50). The registration fee for the forum, including morning coffee, lunch and tea, is £20 (without lunch £12.50). More details here

Conference on the Literary Essay at Queen Mary and the London Review Bookshop, July 2-3

This July 2-3, there will be a conference on the literary essay from Montaigne to the present, which will be taking place at Queen Mary and the London Review Bookshop, featuring Adam Phillips, Andrew O'Hagan, Geoff Dyer, Jeremy Treglown, Karl Miller, Hermione Lee, Gillian Beer, Markman Ellis, Peter Howarth, Ophelia Field, Felicity James, Uttara Natarajan, Stefano Evangelista, Adam Piette, Kathryn Murphy, and Sophie Butler. Tickets and details available here.

Wordsworth and Jung: ‘The Sublime and the Numinous'

Sunday June 26th 9.30-4.30, Grasmere

This unique event, hosted by the Wordsworth Trust, in the Jerwood Library, Grasmere, brings together eminent speakers from the Jungian and Romantic Studies communities to consider how Wordsworth’s Sublime may usefully be compared to Jung’s ideas on the Numinous. Both terms may be seen as attempts to capture the ineffable in ways that begin to describe human experiences of the mysterious and the divine, via encounters with the natural (and man-made) world, as well as via inner experience. Speakers confirmed thus far: Ann Casement, Beth Darlington, Rachael Davenhill, Phil Goss, Jeffrey Robinson There will also be plenty of opportunity for discussion. The cost for the day is £80 (concessionary rate information available on request) and includes lunch and refreshments. If you wish to receive further details of the day, including how to book, please contact Phil Goss at: PMGoss@uclan.ac.uk (mob)0789-9797283

International arts events:

The Fool by Edward Bond, at the Cock Tavern Theatre in London (125 Kilburn High Road, NW6 6JH). The production runs 10th - 23rd October 2010, with seven performances on 10th-12th (8pm), 17th-19th (8pm) and 23rd October (1pm). Tickets cost £12 (£10 concessions). More details here.

International arts events:

Exhibition:

Napoléon

Philadelphia USA, at the National Constitution Centre until 7th September. Website: http://www.constitutioncenter.org/Napoleon/

Ballet:

Das Flammende Herz

Das Flammende HerThe Staatsballet Berlin is performing a ballet created in honor of Percy Bysshe Shelley, called Das Flammende Herz, which is part of their repertoire. Some performances will continue in the fall. Website: ballethttp://www.lindenoper.de/spielplan/ballett.php?id_language=2t

 

UK exhibitions

William Blake's 1809 Exhibition 

At Tate Britain, London (room 8) 20 April to 4 October .

The Wordsworth Trust: current exhibitions

DOVE COTTAGE, THE WORDSWORTH MUSEUM & ART GALLERY

Edward Lear the Landscape Artist: tours of Ireland and the English Lakes 1835 and 1836

2 July - 4 October 2009. See Edward Lear the Landscape Artist - Dove Cottage, The Wordsworth Museum & Art Gallery, Cumbria

Tennyson and Wordsworth: two great poems of 1850

16 May - 31 August 2009. See Tennyson and Wordsworth: two great poems of 1850 - Dove Cottage, The Wordsworth Museum & Art Gallery, Cumbria

For general information on events and the Trust see http://www.wordsworth.org.uk/

Wordsworth Winter School 2010 and Preliminary notice of Summer Conference 2010

Details are now available for the Wordsworth Winter School, which takes place at Grasmere,  22-27 February 2007. A preliminary notice of next year's 40th Anniversary Summer Conference draws attention to the availablility of postgraduate and other bursaries. Click here for more information: Wordsworth Winter School and Summer Conference 2010

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