Hugh MacDiarmid
1923 - 2023
"Hugh MacDiarmid 1923-2023: Visions & Revisions"
International conference, 15-16 June 2023, University of Brest
Organised by Camille Manfredi (HCTI, University of Brest), Philippe Laplace (University of Franche-Comté), Lindsay Blair (University of the Highlands and Islands), Alan Riach (University of Glasgow), Fiona Paterson (University of Glasgow), Monika Szuba (University of GdaÅ„sk)
On the centenary of the publication of Annals of the Five Senses, this international Hugh MacDiarmid conference will examine MacDiarmid’s/Grieve’s achievements, commitments, and the mark he has left on the literary and political landscapes of Scotland and Europe.
Conference venue :
University of Brest, 20 Rue Duquesne - C219
"I'll ha'e nae hauf-way hoose, but aye be whaur
Extremes meet - it's the only way I ken
To dodge the curst conceit o' bein' richt
That damns the vast majority o' men."
A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926)
- Hugh MacDiarmid -
Thursday 15 June
9am to 9.30: registration & welcome speech
9.30: Alan Riach, University of Glasgow:
‘A New Life in Poems and the Ethics of Excess’
10.30: Panel 1 - Chair : Camille Manfredi
10.30: Lindsay Blair, University of the Highlands and Islands:
“Hugh MacDiarmid: Word-Image and Aesthetics”
10.50: Michael H. Whitworth, University of Oxford:
“Scientific Language and Images in A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle”
11.10: Alan Gillis, University of Edinburgh:
“Tam o' the Wilds and the Many-Faced Mystery”
11.30: Monika Szuba, University of Gdańsk:
"'Nature poetry better than Wordsworth:
An Ecocritical Reading of Hugh MacDiarmid’s Poems"
12-1.30: lunch break
1.30: Patrick Crotty, University of Aberdeen:
“Highland Hugh in the Empty Glen: MacDiarmid and the Gaelic World”
2.30: Panel 2 - Chair : Lindsay Blair
2.30: Petra Poncarová, Charles University:
“’Ceòl mòr anns a’ chuimhne’ (big music in the memory):
Derick Thomson’s engagement with Hugh MacDiarmid"
2.50: Peter Mackay, University of St Andrews:
“‘Hurling his poems in the gutter’:
MacLean, MacDiarmid and Gaelic translation”
3.10: Andrew Mitchell:
“Cognitive dissonance and Creativity:
Three Scottish poets and their Creative Development”
Coffee break
4: Panel 3 - Chair : Philippe Laplace
4: James Barrowman, University of Dundee:
“Every Force Evolves a Form:
Hugh MacDiarmid, Guy Davenport and the Shakers”
4.20: Antoine Rumelhart, Université Lumière Lyon 2:
“’A tiny screw loose in the Clever Clock’:
Hugh MacDiarmid through the pen of Willa Muir”
4.40: Paul Robichaud, Albertus Magnus College:
“‘Apprentice Me to Scotland’: W.S. Graham and Hugh MacDiarmid”
6: reading at Dialogues
8: conference dinner
Friday 16 June
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9-10: Panel 4 - Chair: Fiona Paterson
9: Alexander Linklater:
“Antagonist: the life behind Hugh MacDiarmid”
9.20: Callum Irvine, University of St Andrews:
“Kenning what he meant: MacDiarmid afore he deed”
9.40: Giacomo Bianchino, City University of New York:
“Hugh MacDiarmid and the Realism Beneath the Modernist Long Poem”
Coffee break
10.40: Panel 5 - Chair: Monika Szuba
10.40: Arianna Introna, University of Stirling:
“Hugh MacDiarmid’s Antisyzygy: Scottish Eccentricity and ‘the Norm’”
11: Fiona Paterson, University of Glasgow:
"The Never-Yet-Explored:
Early Enquiries into Gendered Language in MacDiarmid’s Prose"
11.20: Paul Malgrati, University of Glasgow:
“‘Antisyzygy’: Escaping MacDiarmid’s Impasse”
1-2.30: lunch break
2.30: Panel 6 : Michelle Bolduc
2.30: Paul Barnaby, University of Edinburgh:
“From Brownsbank to the West End:
MacDiarmid’s Translation of Brecht’s Threepenny Opera”
2.50: Ingibjörg Ágústsdóttir, University of Iceland:
“Hugh MacDiarmid in Iceland: Media Coverage and Translation”
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Coffee break
3.30: Filmpoem
Video
John Corbett, BNU-HKBU United International College:
“‘To think o’ China in Milngavie’: Hugh MacDiarmid’s Orientalism”
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Video
Daisy Li, Macao Polytechnic University:
“From Scots to Mandarin: The Translation and Reception of Hugh MacDiarmid’s Poetry in China”
Conclusion / round table
Informal drinks in town
12: Scott Lyall, Edinburgh Napier University:
“‘The Omnific Word’: Hugh MacDiarmid’s Religious Poetry”