[ecrea] LitPop: Writing and Popular Music

> LitPop: Writing and Popular Music
> Friday 24th June 2011, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne
>
> Going beyond well-rehearsed comparisons between 
> Dylan and Keats, this conference aims to bring 
> fresh perspectives to debates about the forms 
> and functions of popular music in relation to 
> literature, exploring connections and conflicts 
> between writing(fiction and non-fiction, past 
> and present), and popular music (modern, 
> contemporary or otherwise).  Where cultural 
> value was once sought for popular music through 
> analogy with literature, or popular music and 
> literary texts were seen as incompatible, 
> writers and critics now borrow the demotic idioms of pop.  Why?
> Keynote speakers include:
> ·         Paul Farley (Professor of Poetry, 
> Lancaster University, award-winning author of 
> The Ice Age and Tramp in Flames, and The Electric Polyolbion)
> ·         Gerry Smyth (Reader in Cultural 
> History, Liverpool John Moores University, 
> author of Music in Contemporary British Fiction: Listening to the Novel)
> ·         Sheila Whiteley (Professor Emeritus, 
> University of Salford, editor of Sexing the Groove:Popular Music and Gender)
> The organisers invite scholars and students 
> working in literary and cultural studies, music, 
> film, creative writing, history, philosophy, and 
> related disciplines to submit 200-wordabstracts 
> for 20 minute papers relating to any of the 
> following themes and questions by 1 February 
> 2011.  Contributors are free to interpret and 
> address these as broadly as they deem appropriate:
> Making LitPop
> ·         Howhas writing past and present been 
> influenced by popular music, and vice 
> versa?  How have ?literary? texts appropriated 
> the sounds and idioms ofpopular music?  How have 
> popular musicians invoked ?literary? texts, imagery and motifs in their work?
> ·         Howdoes writing construct or represent 
> popular music cultures (fans, collectors, 
> consumers, subcultures), industries (performers, 
> moguls, producers), or histories and mythologies 
> (through nostalgia, pastiche and memory)?
> ·         What happens when a popular musician 
> becomes a novelist or poet (or vice versa)?
> Thinking LitPop
> ·         What critical frameworks are 
> appropriate for the analysis of popular music and fiction or non-fiction?
> ·         Canwe categorise writing in terms of 
> the genres of popular music?  Is there such a 
> thing as a ?jazz?, ?hip-hop?, or ?punk?novel or poem?
> ·         Howdo different genres of writing 
> represent popular music differently?  What is 
> the function of the ?literary soundtrack? 
> (charts and ?mixtapes? in novels, for 
> example)?  Are music criticism, journalism and 
> biography ?literary??  Can we speak of a 
> ?narratology? of music biography, music 
> journalism, blogging, fanzines or fan 
> fiction?  Should we listen to popular songs as ?texts??
> ·         Howdo class-based, sexualised, 
> gendered and racialized identities inform ?litpop??
> Consuming LitPop
> ·         In what ways have adaptations of 
> literary texts in film or elsewhere employed 
> popular music?  How have representations of 
> popular music (in music videos, for example) 
> referenced literary forms? And how do songs, 
> compilations or soundtracks brand writers and their work?
> ·         Does relating popular music and 
> literature confirm or disturb ideas of cultural hierarchy and status?
>
> ·         To what extent are the politics and 
> poetics of ?literature? and popular music complementary or conflicted?
>
> ·         Given technological innovations, do 
> writing and popular music share equally 
> compromised or empowering modes of production and reception?
>
> The conference organisers ­ Rachel Carroll 
> (Teesside University), Adam Hansen (Northumbria 
> University), and Mel Waters (Northumbria 
> University) ­ will be submitting an edited 
> collection of selected papers for publication to 
> the Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series.
> Please submit 200-word abstracts for 20 minute 
> papers plus a 50-word author profile to: 
> (az.litpop2011 /at/ northumbria.ac.uk)<mailto:(az.litpop2011 /at/ northumbria.ac.uk)> 
> by 1 February 2011.

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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Studies on Media and Culture (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.56
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.36.84
Office: 5B.401a
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European Communication Research and Education Association
Web: http://www.ecrea.eu
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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