Fourth International George Gissing Conference
"Gissing's World within the World: Art and the Artist"

Monday 28 to Wednesday 30 March 2011
University of York, UK
With the support of CECILLE Research Centre, University of Lille

CALL FOR PAPERS

The specific focus of the York Gissing Conference will be 
an often-overlooked aspect of Gissing's artistic philosophy. 
While many readers have emphasized Gissing's almost sociological 
engagement with material conditions, Gissing saw himself 
as a more detached devotee of art "pure & simple." In a famous letter 
to his brother Algernon (22 September 1885), he observed 
that the artist should "keep apart, & preserve [his] soul alive" 
because the natural environment of the artist is "the shade," 
where he "can make a world within the world." Papers are 
therefore particularly sought on all aspects of Gissing as an artist, 
notably his engagement with late Victorian aesthetics 
and obsessive "detachment from the vulgarities of the day." 
Topics may also include, but are not limited to the following:

Absorbing non-verbal aesthetics into the fictional constructs: 
the world as picture; ekphrasis; the visual arts in Gissing
Artistic leanings, amateur and professional: representational 
strategies
Gissing and Aestheticism
Exploring generic boundaries: Gissing and the KEstlerroman
Not his line of work? Gissing, drama and poetry
Classical Gissing
Gissing as Critic

This conference will feature a session on "Teaching Gissing 
in the Twenty-first Century." If you are interested in participating 
in this panel, please provide the organiser with a brief description 
of your particular approach to teaching Gissing. You may apply 
both to deliver a paper and to participate in the teaching session.

Please submit abstracts of 300 words for 20-minute papers 
with a brief biographical note and/or applications to be involved 
in the Teaching panel to Nicky Losseff, University of York 
(nl5@york.ac.uk) no later than 15 November 2010. Please include 
the following personal details with your abstract: name 
and institutional affiliation, email address, postal address, 
telephone and mobile phone numbers, and A/V requirements (if any).

Participants will be notified of their acceptance by 15 January 2011 
(or earlier, for those who require official letters of invitation 
for the purpose of obtaining support from their home institutions). 
Further details about registration costs, travel arrangements 
and accommodation (ensuite single bedrooms available on campus) 
will be available on the conference website after the summer:
http://www.york.ac.uk/music/conferences/gissing

Conference highlights:
Conference dinner to be followed by a piano concert (by students 
from the Music Department of the University of York - Gabrielle Fleury repertoire)
An optional excursion to the nearby city of Wakefield, birthplace 
of the author. Anthony Petyt, of The Gissing Trust, will organise 
a visit to the Gissing Centre and a tour of Gissing's Wakefield.
Gissing-related book stalls (notably The Idle Booksellers)

Conference Organiser: Dr Nicky Losseff (University of York)

Advisory Committee: Prof M. D. Allen (University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley); 
Prof Maria-Teresa Chialant (University of Salerno); Prof Pierre Coustillas 
(University of Lille); Prof Constance Harsh (Colgate University); 
Dr Christine Huguet (University of Lille); Dr Simon J. James (Durham University); 
Anthony Petyt (The Gissing Trust, Wakefield); Dr Bouwe Postmus (University 
of Amsterdam).