Critical Theory: The Text and the World

Thursday September 17^th 2009, University of Exeter

Keynote Speakers: Professor Colin MacCabe and Professor Robert Eaglestone
with invited guest speaker Sas Mays (University of Westminster)

Critical Theory: The Text and the World is an AHRC supported one-day postgraduate conference designed to provide a venue for students and early-career academics to explore a multitude of critical approaches to literary and filmic texts. This event will provide a collaborative research forum which can direct contemporary debates in critical theory towards concrete socio-political issues. These issues include climate change, the global economic crisis and the war on terror.

This is a deliberately open-ended initiative which places emphasis upon the process rather than the product of the study of literary and filmic texts. Accordingly panels have been themed based on the nature of the theoretical intervention rather than by ostensible subject matter. This is either specific to individual theorists such as Derrida, Deleuze or Badiou, or based on theoretical schools of thought such as Marxism, psychoanalysis or eco-criticism.

Whilst the majority of panels follow the format of three 20-minute papers followed by questions, some of these panels will break with that traditional structure. For this second form of panel, participants will be asked to submit their papers in advance. These will be collated into the conference packs and distributed amongst attendees prior to the event. On the day, these participants are invited to deliver a short commentary on their paper and the floor will be opened for discussion. The aim of this format is to prepare participants in advance thereby fostering active, in-depth and focused debate.

*** Please Note: this conference is full and no further registrations can be accepted. ***

For conference enquiries please contact Graham Matthews at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

**Conference funded by the AHRC ***