Mar 22, 2014 ... Visit from the Goon Squad, Egan has developed a distinguished body of writing
since the publication of her first book, the story collection ...
Invisible Circus: An International Conference on the Work of Jennifer Egan 21st and 22nd March 2014
With generous support from: Birkbeck, University of London, University of Birmingham, and Constable & Robinson The first academic conference dedicated to the writing of Jennifer Egan. Winner of multiple awards, including the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for the novel A Visit from the Goon Squad, Egan has developed a distinguished body of writing since the publication of her first book, the story collection Emerald City in 1995. Alongside her four major novels Egan has published a substantial amount of non-fiction writing, and won multiple awards for her journalism. The conference will take place on Saturday 22nd March 2014, with a screening of The Sopranos (a series that Jennifer Egan cites as inspiration for A Visit from the Goon Squad) to take place on Friday 21st March. In addition there will be a separate event on Saturday evening, when Jennifer Egan will read from new work. Details below, please email
[email protected] for further information, or follow @jeganconference on twitter. Friday 21st March 2014 Free to attend, but advanced registration compulsory. Email:
[email protected] Birkbeck Cinema, School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD 18.00 – 20.00 Screening of The Sopranos (a selection) with introduction by Jennifer Egan Saturday 22nd March 2014 Free to attend, but advanced registration compulsory. Email:
[email protected] Keynes Library, School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD 09.00 – 18.00 Conference 09.00 – 09.30: Registration 09.30 – 10.30 Keynote Dr Stephen J Burn (University of Glasgow) 10.30 – 11.50 Panel 1 “Stories that Cycle”
Valerie O’Riordan (University of Manchester), “Jennifer Egan's A Visit From The Goon Squad: Time as a Structuring Device in the Short Story Cycle” Mary Holland (SUNY), “Technology, Time and Realism in Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad and “Black Box”” Adam Kelly (University of York), “Fiction in an Age of Artifice: Jennifer Egan’s New Sincerity” Alicia J. Rouverol (University of Manchester), “A Visit from the Goon Squad, Altermodernism, and the Literary Experiment” 11.50 – 12.10: Break 12.10 – 13.30 Panel 2 “Looking at You” Rachael McLennan (University of East Anglia), “Bird-Watching: Age and Ageing in Invisible Circus and A Visit from the Goon Squad” Nathalie Aghoro (Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt), ““Now Just the Pauses”: Voice, Sound, and Silence in Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad” Mark West (University of Glasgow), “Humility and Utopia: The Invisible Circus and Reinhold Niebuhr” David Hering (University of Liverpool), “Replaying History: Experiencing Music in A Visit from the Goon Squad and Eat the Document” 13.30 – 14.20: Lunch 14.20 – 15.40 Panel 3 “Emerald Cities” Ruth Charnock (University of Lincoln), ““Excuse me, did I miss it?”: reliving the event in The Invisible Circus” Tony Venezia (Birkbeck, University of London), “Surrounded by Ghosts: Metafictional Gothic and Jennifer Egan’s The Keep” Kristen Roney (University of North Georgia), “Egan’s Punk Structure in A Visit from the Goon Squad” Martin Eve (University of Lincoln), “Structural Dissatisfaction”: Academics on Safari in Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad” 15.40 – 16.00: Break 16.00 – 17.20 Panel 4 “Unpacking Black Boxes” Pamela Thurschwell (University of Sussex), “Facebook Time, Autism Time: Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad” Dorothy Butchard (University of Edinburgh), “Jennifer Egan’s technological exotic: framing the unfamiliar in Look At Me and Black Box” Rob Lederer (University of Edinburgh), “Egan and the Database” Rex Fergurson (University of Birmingham), “The Application of Identification in Look at Me”
17.20 – 18.00 Jennifer Egan Remarks and Wine Reception Saturday 22nd March 2014 This is a ticketed event (details tba). Email:
[email protected] Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House, London 19.00 – 20.30 Public Reading and Q&A. Jennifer Egan will be reading from new work; followed by a discussion and Q&A chaired by Professor Sarah Churchwell (University of East Anglia)
