This should be an occasion for productive dialogue between scholars of literary and material culture. Papers on any of literary, theoretical, narrative and material aspects of London and its representation are anticipated. Proposals for comprised panels of three (or four) speakers are also welcome.

This year's special theme is: Liminal London: Country/City, Work/Leisure, Past/Future, and States Between.

However, we encourage proposals on any aspect of the representation of London.

The majority of Greater London consists of areas like Uxbridge; places which once had an independent existence but have been relentlessly consumed by the outward sprawl of the city. As we can see from Cobbett’s observations, even in the first half of the nineteenth century there was no longer a simple boundary between City and Country but something of a twilight zone in which nothing was real. While Cobbett bemoaned the collapse of traditional rural paternalism into the enforced pauperism of wage labour, the zone enabled new forms of living. For Ford, it was precisely the persistence of an almost parodic version of the ‘Country’ in the outer zones which allowed the masses to partake in the cultured leisure pursuits of the gentry as London and Country seasons merged into one daily commute. Thus was the trace of true individualism preserved within modern mass society and, thereby, the possibility of a fulfilling utopian future was kept tantalisingly open. But the transition was never completed: Ford talked of romantic suburbanites doomed to ‘an always tragic death’ and while, less than forty years later, George Orwell thought that he had found ‘the germs of future England’ along the arterial roads ‘in Slough, Barnet, Dagenham, Letchworth, Hayes’, this England has not so much appeared as become part of the landscape of the past. Sinclair talks of West Drayton in this manner as an historical frontier in which ‘Bicycle shops are a nostalgic recollection of the days when H.G. Well’s clerks took to the country roads.’ In Ballard’s Kingdom Come, the implicit utopian nostalgia of the Cross of St George has become the nostalgia for an English fascism that never was and the outer London zone simmers with the threat of millennial meltdown as all the part-digested historical essences ever consumed by the sprawl threaten to spew forth. There may never be a better time to identify the constituent elements of London’s outer zones. This conference welcomes any such attempts as it seeks to map the very liminality of London.

Please note that the headline theme of the event does not exclude other proposals concerning any other aspect relevant to Literary London themes and contexts, which are most welcome, as are complete panels (subject to final approval by the conference organizers). Additionally, while the main focus of the conference will be on literary and cultural representations of London, the organizers actively encourage interdisciplinary contributions relating to film, architecture, geography, theories of urban space, etc.. Papers from postgraduate students are welcome for consideration.

Originally founded in the 1960s expansion of Higher Education in Britain, Brunel’s Uxbridge campus lies four miles and twenty minutes taxi ride from Heathrow Airport, and is a reasonable journey by underground to central London (King’s Cross and Piccadilly approx. 50 minutes; Waterloo approx. 55 minutes; Kew Gardens and Tower of London approx. just over an hour – estimated timings Transport for London). Participants staying longer can avail themselves of various research libraries including the British Library, London’s theatre land and all of the city’s historical and architectural sights, plus its culture. Both Oxford and Cambridge can be visited easily in a day from Uxbridge.

Proposals of approximately 300 word are invited for 20-minute papers which consider any period or genre of English literature about, set in, inspired by, or alluding to central and suburban London and its environs, from the city's roots in Roman times to the present day. Add a brief description (where relevant indicating institutional affiliation and publications in particular) of the proposer, by email only, to both:

Nick Hubble: Nick.Hubble@brunel.ac.uk

Philip Tew: Philip.tew@brunel.ac.uk

Please note that your subject line must include the phrase ‘LITERARY LONDON BRUNEL 2008’ since your message will be initially retrieved and sorted automatically. If you do not do so it may well be lost in this process.

Final deadline for submissions: Monday 28th April 2008.

Notification of early acceptance can be provided for those requiring institutional funding, particularly in the case of international scholars. The conference fee will be posted in due course once the costing has been finalized. There will be discounted rates for postgraduate students, the retired, and additional general discounts for those paying in advance (to be announced).