Byron on Prozac?
Lord Byron's battle with manic-depression will be considered when scholars from around the world and others interested in the famous 19th-century Romantic poet George Gordon gather for the 27th International Byron Conference, to be held Aug. 4-13, in three locations including the University of Delaware.
Sponsored by the Byron Society of America and UD, in cooperation with the International Council of Byron Societies, which has organizations in 37 countries, the conference will be centered on the theme, "Lord Byron: Heritage and Legacy."
Conference participants will hold academic sessions at the Houghton Library of Harvard University, the New York Public Library, the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York University and UD where several academic sessions are scheduled at Clayton Hall from Aug. 9-13. Other Delaware events are planned at the Delaware Art Museum and Longwood Gardens.
A highlight of the conference, to be held at UD, is a reception, banquet and the second annual Leslie A. Marchand Lecture, entitled "The Moods of Lord Byron" to be delivered by Kay Redfield Jamison, a professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Honorary Professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The public is invited to attend the talk, free of charge, beginning at 9 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 9, in Clayton Hall on the UD campus in Newark.
Jamison is the author of "Touches with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament," which argues that Byron was manic-depressive. She wrote about her own experiences with manic-depressive illness in "An Unquiet Mind" in 1995. That book was a New York Time" bestseller and has been translated into 15 languages.
Other Delaware activities include a reception for Byron Society members at the Delaware Art Museum on Friday, Aug. 10, and another reception for members on Saturday, Aug. 11, at the Peirce-du Pont House at Longwood Gardens. A third reception for members is scheduled on Sunday, Aug. 12, in the Byron Lounge of Memorial Hall, on the UD Mall in Newark, where participants may view the Byron Society Collection. Marsha Manns, a 1971 UD graduate and a former student of Robinson's, who helped found and currently chairs the society, will talk about the collection.
Members of the public wishing to attend any of the other lectures (detailed below) must pre-register by Monday, Aug. 6, and pay a registration fee of $25 per day, which provides morning coffee and lunch. To register, call Gail Lanius, UD conference services, at (302) 831-8590. Anyone wishing further information on the conference may call Robinson at (302) 831-3654 or send e-mail to [[email protected]].
Other lectures include:
Friday, Aug. 10
From 8:45-10:45 a.m.: "Byron and Virgil: 1799-1807," Phil Cardinale, a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford; "Byron's Shakespearean Heritage," Linda Montag, a doctoral candidate at the University of Haifa, Israel; and "Byron Humours," Bernard G. Beatty, a lecturer at Liverpool Universitiy and author and editor of books about Byron;
From 11:15 a.m.-1:15 p.m.: "Byron, Freemasonry and the Carbonari," Jonathan D. Gross, associate professor in the English Department of DePaul University and author and editor of books about Byron; "Leigh Hunt and the free spirit' of Byron," Timothy Webb, Winterstoke Professor of English at the University of Bristol; and "Byronic Anger and the Victorians," Andrew Stauffer, assistant professor of English at Boston University; who has written numerous article on Byron.
Saturday, Aug. 11
From 8:45-10:45 a.m.: "The Beauty of Innuendos: Byron's Aesthetic Legacy," Kainoa K. Harbottle, doctorate candidate at UD; "Heritage and Innovation in Byron's Narrative Stanzas," Catherine Addison, associate professor of English at the University of Zululand in South Africa; and "Byron's and Heine's Transgression of Romanticism," Alexandra M. Bohm, a scholar from the University of Giessen in Germany.
From 11:15 a.m.-1:15 p.m.: "Byron and Wordsworth: Milton's Neo-Classical and Romantic Heirs," Jonathon Shears, a doctoral candidate at the University of Liverpool; "Byron, Darwin and Paley: Interrogating Natural Theology," Christine Kenyon Jones, a lecturer at King's College, London, who has published widely on Byron; and "Childe Harold's Legacy to Stephen in Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," by Allan Gregory, former secretary of the Irish Byron Society.
Sunday, Aug. 12
From 8:45-10:45 a.m.: "From Lamartine to George Sand: The Presence of Lord Byron on the French Literary Stage," Christiane Vigouroux, a teacher and member of the French Byron Society; "Elizabeth Bennet and Childe Harold or the Grim in Harold's Pilgrimage," Shobhana Bhattacharji, a reader at Delhi University; and "The Rise of the Byronic Hero in Recent Adaptations of Austen, Eliot and the Brontes," Sarah Wootton, a teaching fellow at the University of Sheffield.
From 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: "Byron's Influence on 19th-Century Canadian Literature," Tracy Ware, a teacher at Queen's University in Ontario; and "Teaching Byron en Acadie," Paul Curtis, head of the English department at the University of Moncton, New Brunswick.
Monday, Aug. 13
From 9.-11:30 a.m.: "Byron and Three Composers: Tchaikovsky, Berlioz and Schumann," William Biddle, a retired teacher now studying Romantic poetry a the University of Washington; "A Giaour's Ditty: Byron in the Greek Song Tradition," Christina Dokou, a lecturer in English studies at the University of Athens; and "Byron as a Poet of German Song," Suzanne Summerville, a former professor of music and women's studies at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.
The University has strong ties with the Byron Society of America. Charles Robinson, UD professor of English, a noted Byron scholar who has lectured and written extensively about the poet, is executive director of the organization.
The Byron Society was founded in 1972 by Manns and by the late Leslie A. Marchand, a Byron scholar at Rutgers University. The Byron Society of America Collection, which consists of more than 2,000 volumes, 400 pamphlets, letters and other objects ranging from figurines and busts to a lock of Byron's hair, is housed in Memorial Hall.
Contact: John Brennan, (302) 831-2072
Aug. 3,2001
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