Date: Friday 6th September
Location: Advanced Research Centre, University of Glasgow.
Download the CfP here.
We are inviting scholars and enthusiasts to the University of Glasgow for a day symposium dedicated to the life, works and legacy of Scots poet Robert Fergusson.
This symposium commemorates 250 years since the death of the influential poet, Robert Fergusson (1750-1774). A key Scottish poet of the eighteenth century, Fergusson’s career was prolific: despite having only six creative years, Fergusson’s output of over one hundred poems and songs is substantial. His poems were written in English and Scots, and often heavily influenced by the reality of his Edinburgh surroundings. His most famous poems include Auld Reikie, ‘The Ghaists: A Kirkyard Eclogue’, ‘Leith Races’, and ‘The Daft-Days’.
This symposium will allow reflection on Fergusson’s works and legacies, and disseminate participants’ ongoing research across a diverse audience. As Fergusson influenced Robert Burns, Hugh MacDiarmid, Sidney Goodsir Smith, Robert Garioch and Edwin Morgan amongst others, the symposium will also allow re-examination of these lines of literary transmission. Fergusson similarly allows analysis of the role of the poet in the emerging public sphere – he was a ‘periodicals poet’, publishing many of his poems in the Edinburgh-based Weekly Magazine, or Edinburgh Amusement. This allowed him to respond to ongoing debates quickly, demonstrating his unique place in Scotland’s public sphere in the 1760s/1770s.
We welcome papers on topics relating to Fergusson and his textual legacies. Topics may include:
- Fergusson’s own writing.
- responses to Fergusson’s work (whether adaptations; creative response including plays, artworks, or poetry; translation, etc.).
- Fergusson’s influence on other key figures (including, but not limited to: Robert Burns; Robert Louis Stevenson; Hugh MacDiarmid; Robert Garioch; Sydney Goodsir Smith; Edwin Morgan; Tom Leonard; Les Murray; Kathleen Jamie, etc.).
- poetry in Scots in and since the eighteenth century.
- the ‘periodicals poet’ and the role of the poet in later periodicals.
We would be thrilled to receive abstracts for individual papers of 250 words, plus a brief speaker biography. Please send all abstracts as a PDF or Word document to Dr Amy Wilcockson at amy.wilcockson@glasgow.ac.uk by Monday 1st July 2024. If you have any questions, please direct them to the same address.
The symposium is free to attend, and organised as part of the Leverhulme Trust-funded Research Project ‘The Works of Robert Fergusson: Reconstructing Textual and Cultural Legacies’. It is supported by the Centre for Robert Burns Studies (CRBS), University of Glasgow.