Constructions of Creativity: hosted by St. Chad's College in Association with the English Department, Durham University.

Call for Papers: This 2-day graduate conference (Sept 7-8) aims to stimulate discussion of English literary creativity as this has been perceived in all periods and cultures, and across all genres and forms.

From the earliest epochs of our literary history, authors and their critics and audiences have preoccupied themselves with questions as to the origins, nature, functions and purposes of creativity. These engagements have given rise to a multiplicity of definitions and interpretations, which it will be our purpose to explore, compare and contrast.

Speakers are encouraged to make as free and broad interpretations of the conference theme as may suggest themselves. Topics of papers could include – but need in no way be confined to:
• Authorial processes and practices;
• Literary identities and self-fashioning;
• Metaphors and analogues for the creative and inspirational processes where these provide the forms or contents of authors’ writings (i.e. dream vision, forgery);
• Cultural, economic and material contexts, e.g. issues of copyright law; the social or political roles of the author; the literary marketplace; patronage; public perceptions of authorship; the impacts and influences of critics and reviewers;
• Editorial practice and the establishment of authorship;
• Theoretical formulations and interpretations of imagination and creativity. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent via email: english.conference@durham.ac.uk by 31 May 2005. For more information see our website: http://www.dur.ac.uk/english.conference/Constructions%20of%20Creativity2.htm