2010 marks the centenary of the birth of the American poet Charles Olson. As poet, critic and theorist, Olson extended the possibilities of modern writing. From Call Me Ishmael to The Maximus Poems he probed the relation between language, space and community, providing radical resources for the re-imagining of place and politics. Aiming, in Robert Creeley’s terms, to hear all that Olson still provokes at the beginning of the Twenty-First Century, this conference seeks to re-assess the scope of his legacy. It will provide an opportunity to consider Olson’s value through and across a range of disciplines, with particular attention to be given to his influence on British and European writing. Topics to be addressed could include (but won’t be limited to):
- Olson in Europe
- Olson’s Britain
- Olson and foreign policy
- The Olsonian University
- Olson’s Melville
- Olson and women poets
- Poetry and the polis
- Olson and dance
- Olson and the visual arts
- Olson as theorist
- Spacing, prosody, form
- Olson and geology
- vatic Olson
Proposals for papers (title with 300 word abstract) should be sent to David Herd at d.herd@kent.ac.uk by 31 March 2010.
Conference Organizing Committee: Nancy Gaffield, Michael Grant, David Herd, Ben Hickman, Jan Montefiore, Simon Smith, Juha Virtanen.
