"Modernism and the Pleasures of Coterie Literature," St Hilda's College Principal's Research Seminar
er since they first emerged in the drawing rooms, clubs, and country houses of the early 20th century, modernist coteries have inspired widespread fascination: they wrote, joked, partied and painted in legendary cliques that included the likes of Virginia Woolf and Richard Bruce Nugent, T. S. Eliot and Djuna Barnes. Yet those socio-literary groups evoke an equal measure of scholarly vexation. Despite their sometimes radical artistic and intellectual work, their gossipy exclusivity strikes us as snobby at best, and retrograde or even reactionary at worst. What can we learn about the purpose and politics of these groups by reading their privately circulated and privately performed texts? A long history of coterie sociality connects modernist coterie writers to writers from the 16th – 18th centuries, like John Donne and Alexander Pope. How does this broader context help us to place modernist coteries not only in their own cultural landscape — in relation to the institutions of literary production, study, and criticism that are the period’s legacy to our literary present — but to understand coterie culture and practice transhistorically and transnationally?
Date: 24 May 2023, 17:30
Venue: St Hilda's College, Cowley Place OX4 1DY
Venue Details: The Pavilion, St Hilda's College
Speaker: Michelle A. Taylor
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPkS6dLhWACCpJkt3TprUjhuJUNDRZTEpGTUY1UVNYNFdCQ0o4T1gxNlZaVC4u
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Katy Terry