[ecrea] cfp - Fiction and British Politics

> Call for Papers
> Fiction and British Politics
> Organised by the Centre for British Politics, University of Nottingham
> To be held at the British Academy, Friday 11 December 2009
>
> Since at least Shakespeare?s time, fictions - 
> whether depicted on the screen, stage or page - 
> have addressed a wide variety of political 
> subjects; they have as a consequence helped 
> inform how Britons think about power, those who 
> seek it, exercise it, and are subject to it. 
> Traditionally, fictions were thought to merely 
> reflect wider values; today their constitutive 
> role is often emphasised. Indeed, while in the 
> Cabinet Hazel Blears blamed predominantly 
> negative depictions of politics for discouraging 
> people from being politically engaged; and 
> called for a ?British version? of the West Wing, 
> hoping more optimistic dramatisations would challenge popular cynicism.
>
> There certainly seems to have been a dramatic 
> shift in emphasis in how fictions treat 
> politics. In Can You Forgive Her? (1864), 
> Anthony Trollope wrote that to be an MP was to 
> have done ?that which it most becomes an 
> Englishman to have achieved?; the 2005 film V 
> for Vendetta ended with the Palace of 
> Westminster being blown up by a modern-day Guy 
> Fawkes, to signify the people?s liberation from oppression.
>
> The purpose of this conference is to draw 
> together academics interested in different 
> aspects of the relationship between fiction and 
> British politics, both past and present, as well 
> as those who have written fictions with 
> political themes (amongst whom will number 
> Trevor Griffiths), to assess its significance.
>
> Papers are especially invited on the following topics:
>
> ·          What themes emerge from political fictions?
>
> ·          Has there been a change in emphasis over time?
>
> ·          What has been the role of gender?
>
> ·          Is British political fiction inherently cynical?
>
> ·          What do political fictions say about ?Britishness??
>
> ·          What are the motives of those who write about politics in fiction?
>
> ·          How is politics is tackled in the US and continental Europe?
>
> ·          What is the effect of political fiction on audiences and readers?
>
> ·          What is the relationship between 
> political fiction and political ?reality??
>
> It is intended that selected contributions will 
> be published as part of a special edition of 
> Parliamentary Affairs during 2011.
>
> Those interested in presenting a paper for this 
> conference on Fiction and British Politics should contact
> Professor Steven Fielding of Nottingham 
> University, with a one page abstract: 
> <mailto:(Steven.Fielding /at/ Nottingham.ac.uk)>(Steven.Fielding /at/ Nottingham.ac.uk)
>
> Centre for British Politics website: 
> <http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/politics/cbp/>http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/politics/cbp/

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