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Past Events
Fairy Encounters in Medieval England: Landscape, Folklore and the Supernatural
Jeremy Harte Monday 21 October 2024, Cloisters Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Whether manifesting as fairies, revenants, local saints or fiends, medieval fairies came in stock types: goblins, lovers, hunters, pygmies, dogs, indescribable shape-shifting objects. Just as they had preferred forms, so they appeared in particular places. The tradition of English supernatural place-names, never before gathered into a corpus, matches the medieval texts to show what places were haunted and why. The dark pools into which otherworldly things were exorcised, the paths on which they led travellers astray, the hills onto which they descended in search of people to command and seduce, and the meadows where they danced – all these can be found on the cognitive map of the peasantry.Fairy God(s) Mother? The Virgin Mary and the Fairy Godmother in Western Fairy Tales
Dr Paul Quinn Monday 13th May 2024, 5 p.m., AB 2.01 / online As part of on-going research on the relationship between Christianity and the fairy tale, Paul Quinn will examine the role of the Virgin Mary, and Marian-like figures, in a range of Western fairy tales Discussing work by figures including Charles Perrault, Catherine d’Aulnoy, the Brothers Grimm, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien, the paper will question the use of the figure of the fairy godmother as a substitute for the Virgin Mary and will consider the degree to which the Virgin Mary is constructed as a type of fairy godmother in accounts of Marian apparitions.The Lost Princess: Women Writers and the History of Classic Fairy Tales
An online talk by Anne E. Duggan Wednesday 28 February 2024, 6–7 p.m. GMT When people think of fairy tales, Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Walt Disney immediately come to mind. But, as Anne E. Duggan makes distinctly clear, women writers and storytellers, and especially Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, impacted the shape of classic fairy tales through the present day. The Lost Princess seeks to restore the voices of these female writers and storytellers, who shaped and contributed to fairy-tale canons, both past and present.Keeping Myths, Legends and Folk Tales Alive
An online talk by Rosalind Kerven Tuesday 23 April 2024, 7-8 p.m. online Folktales, fairy tales, myths and legends are vital aspects of folklore studies. Are they simply historical curiosities, or living, organic entities which are still being developed today? What is the difference between folktales, fairy tales, myths and legends? How can researchers / storytellers identify the most ‘authentic’ versions of such stories? How can storytellers adapt ‘original’ versions for modern audiences? What are the ethical aspects of retelling traditional tales? Rosalind Kerven has written 70 books on world myths, legends and folktales and will address these questions in this online talk.J.R.R Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Doctor Who Peculiarly British fairy tales
Monday 11 December 2023, room AB1.01, 6.15 to 7.30 p.m., Bishop Otter Campus, University of ChichesterTo mark the 50th anniversary of the death J.R.R Tolkien, the 60th anniversary of the death of C.S. Lewis, and the 60th anniversary of the first broadcast of Doctor Who, Paul Quinn will be giving a lecture about fairy tales in the work of Tolkien and Lewis, demonstrating how the types of ‘fairy tales’ found in Middle Earth and Narnia, and fairy tales in general, impact upon Doctor Who.
Giambattista Basile: The Other Fairy Godfather
Conference: Saturday 24 June 2023 online (Teams)Alongside Francesco Straparola, Giambattista Basile is the most significant early author of fairy tales in Western Europe. Described by Jack Zipes as ‘the most talented and innovative of the fairy-tale writers in Europe’, Basile’s Lo cunto de li cunti is a seminal text, the influence of which – although contested – is immeasurable. It is also an important product of the Italian Renaissance, and Neapolitan culture in particular. To mark the significance of Basile, the Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction will hold this one-day conference to discuss Basile, his work, and the wider world of which he was a product.
The Robot at 100: Culture, society, politics, and the future
Saturday 18 June 2022. Cloisters, Bishop Otter Campus / hybrid event On Saturday 18 June the Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction will host ‘The Robot at 100: Culture, society, politics, and the future’ at the University of Chichester, an international, interdisciplinary conference to mark the centenary of the first staging in English of Karel Čapek’s seminal play R.U.R. Čapek’s play saw the first appearance of the term robot, which comes from the Czech word robota meaning ‘forced labour’, which has its roots in the Proto-Slavic word for 'slave'. The conference will be opened by the University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor Simeon Keates, who is known widely for his research into artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, and building robots, which led to his competing in the hit BBC show Robot Wars. The event’s organiser and Director of the Chichester Centre, Dr Paul Quinn, said “The subject of robots bridges the artificial gap between the humanities and the sciences and we’re looking forward to some very interesting panels on R.U.R, robots in literature, television and film, and the cultural and social implications of robots in relation to politics, work and sex.” See the current draft programme at here. Tickets are now on sale from our online store.Angela Carter: A Radical Prescience?
Symposium: Saturday 5 March 2022 The symposium will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Angela Carter, whose reputation as a leading British writer of fantastical literature remains undiminished three decades after her untimely passing. Its theme also reflects the new decolonial and multi-genre direction of the Centre. In face-to-face and online events, we will highlight, celebrate and interrogate Angela Carter’s legacy, wrestle with her angels and demons, and pickpocket im/pertinent answers to a wealth of questions. See the current draft of the programme here. Tickets on sale now from our online store.Terry Nation’s Survivors: The Good Life in a global pandemic
A conversation between Alwyn Turner and Paul Quinn.Terry Nation’s Survivors: The Good Life in a global pandemic
A conversation between Alwyn Turner and Paul Quinn. Tuesday, 9 November 2021, 6.00 - 7:30 p.m., room E124, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Dr Alwyn Turner, author of many books including The Man Who Invented the Daleks: The Strange Worlds of Terry Nation, will discuss Terry Nation’s long television career, with a special focus on Survivors, Nation’s post-apocalyptic pandemic drama. This event is free and open to all.The Fabled Coast conference
Saturday 27 April 2019, 9 a.m. - 5.40 p.m., Cloisters, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Taking its name from Sophia Kingshill’s and Jennifer Westwood’s seminal book The Fabled Coast, this conference seeks to explore the abundance of folktales, legends, myths, songs and re-imaginings associated with coastal areas and maritime traditions and practices around the world. The full programme can be downloaded here and a list of local accommodation here.Fabled Coast Tour and Creative Writing Workshop
Sunday 28 April 2019, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., Gunwharf, Portsmouth A Creative Writing workshop with Victoria Lesia and Sophia Kingshill in collaboration with our partner, Portsmouth University, inspired by a fabled coast guided tour led by Dr Karl Bell.‘A stock whip wand and a cabbage tree hat: Australian identity in Australian fairy tales’, Dr Robyn Kellock Floyd
Thursday 22 November, 5.30-7 p.m., free and open to all. Room E124, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester European fairy folk were transported to Australia in the imaginations of emigrants, but on arrival they cast aside the trappings of the old world and adapted to their new environs. This lecture will examine how fairy-tale motifs and structures were interpreted and transformed to reflect cultural attitudes and the influence of the bush environment in the Australian colonies. Robyn has kindly given us the paper of her talk to share. Robyn Kellock Floyd lectures at Swinburne University of Technology and is also the Deputy Head of a Victorian primary school. Her dissertation focussed on early Australian children’s literature, early literary Australian fairy tales and author Olga Ernst. Robyn is interested in early Australian fairy tales (pre-Federation) and the placement of European fairies in the Australian bush environment. She is a Foundation member of the Australian Fairy tale Society. Kindly sponsored by the Australian High Commission.‘Lewis Carroll and George MacDonald: An Influential Friendship’
Saturday, 1 September 2018, University of Chichester Talks included: Mark Richards, Introduction Daniel Brown, ‘MacDonald, Carroll and the Mathematical Imagination’ Franziska Kohlt, ‘A Common denominator: Reassessing the Carroll-MacDonald friendship through their science’ Hayley Flynn, ‘“Is Life Itself a Dream, I Wonder?” – Dream in the work of Lewis Carroll and George MacDonald’ Fernando Soto, ‘The Mandrake: Botanical folklore in the worlds of MacDonald and Carroll’ ‘Heaven, hell and fairy land: F. D. Maurice and the fantasies of Lewis Carroll and George MacDonald’, Bethan Carney Religious crisis in Arundel’, Paul Quinn Adam Paxman, ‘The Rainbow’s Egg: A Practice-led Illustrative Research Dossier Investigating Thematic and Theological Correlations within the Works of Lewis Carroll and George MacDonald’ Kindly sponsored by Elinor Kapp, author of Tales from Turnaround Cottage: Fairy Stories for an Older Generation. ISBN 978-0-244-62531-3. Obtainable by order from bookshops and Amazon online. THRESHOLDS International Short Story Forum and the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy present ...'FOLK', Zoe Gilbert
Monday, 26 March 2018, 6.00 - 7:15 p.m., Cloisters, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Zoe Gilbert’s first novel, Folk, was published by Bloomsbury in February 2018. She is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, focusing on folk tales in contemporary short stories. Her own stories have been published in anthologies from Comma Press and Cinnamon press, and in journals worldwide including Mechanics’ Institute Review and The Stinging Fly. Her work has won prizes including the Costa Short Story Award. She teaches and mentors creative writers at London Lit Lab, and for organisations including the British Library and Arvon Foundation. “I was thoroughly absorbed. Zoe Gilbert’s invented folk-world is sensuous and dangerous and thick with magic” – Tessa Hadley An “extraordinary debut novel” – Financial Times “A powerful sense of mythology” – Guardian “That rare thing: genuinely unique. It’s part-myth, part-allegory, wholly wonderful” –‘The Best Fiction of 2018’, Observer‘Jews on Quests! Challenging the ur-texts of genre fantasy’, Farah Mendlesohn
8 February 2018, 6:30–8 p.m., Cloisters, University of Chichester In Rhetorics of Fantasy, historian and SFF critic Farah Mendlesohn argued that most genre fantasy was fundamentally Christian in its understanding of the world. This led her to wonder what was Jewish about genre fantasy by Jewish writers. In this talk she explores works by authors of huge large-world fantasies such as those from Jane Yolen and Peter Davidson, and Guy Gavriel Kay, and quieter, more whimsical offerings from authors such as Peter Beagle, Sandra Unerman and Lisa Goldstein, to argue that these texts challenge the Christian ur-texts that are so much a part of the Anglo-American fantasy tradition.ADDITIONAL EVENT: ‘Robert Heinlein: His Lasting Legacy?’
8 February 2018, 4:30-5:30 SF & Coffee, Academic Block 2.01 Please join us for an informal conversation with Farah Mendlesohn about her forthcoming critical study of the ‘Dean of Science Fiction’, Robert Heinlein (Unbound Books). A cultural relativist, a libertarian who famously practised nudism, and a writer who invested SF with literary themes and treatment, Heinlein was a giant of the field and a maverick figure whose ideas remain controversial today. Fans and newbies welcome! Both events are free and open to the public. Farah’s visit is part-sponsored by the Chaplaincy.'Midwinter Myths', Dr Steven O’Brien
Tuesday 5 December 2017, 5.30-7 p.m., Cloisters, University of Chichester Steven O’Brien will read an unpublished new tale inspired by Yuletide mythology, as well as reading from his latest book Britannic Myths, a collection of creative retellings of British and Irish myths illustrated by Joe Machine. Steven is the editor of the London Magazine (Britain’s oldest literary journal), and is well known for his fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. Free and open to all.Arthur Rackham in Sussex: A 150th Birthday Celebration
Exhibition, 8 September - 29 October 2017, Bateman's, East Sussex
19 September 2017 marks the 150th anniversary of Arthur Rackham’s birth. Rackham (1867-1939) was one of the leading illustrators in Britain’s ‘Golden Age’ of book illustration, and his works are still hugely popular today. He is linked to Bateman’s, Rudyard Kipling’s home in Burwash, East Sussex, through his illustrations of Puck of Pook’s Hill, a tale Kipling based on the house and gardens, and to Sussex in general through a number of locations. To celebrate, the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy presents this exhibition of Arthur Rackham’s works inspired by Sussex at National Trust Bateman’s, alongside research-led responses to them by Fine Art MA student Emma Martin. The exhibition will draw connections between illustration, fine art and fairy tales, and the history of the three within Sussex, England and globally.
With thanks to the National Trust, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Chris Beetles Gallery, Brighton Royal Pavilion and Museums, the East Sussex Arts Partnership, the Arthur Rackham Society, the Rudyard Kipling Society, Pook Press and Burwash Parish Council.
Arthur Rackham in Sussex: A 150th Birthday Symposium
Research Symposium, Saturday 16 September 2017, Friends Meeting House, Priory Rd, PO19 1NX, 9.30 a.m.-4.30 p.m. Entry £25/£20 concessions. Buy tickets from the University's online store. Symposium Programme, Chichester 9.30 a.m. Registration with teas and coffees at the Quaker Meeting House, Chichester 10.00 a.m. Opening talks Victoria Leslie, Introduction Selwyn Goodacre, Keynote – ‘Arthur Rackham: An Overview’ 11.00 a.m. Panel 1: The Rackham Method Sarah Dunnigan, ‘“I hae been to the wild wood”: Scottish ballad tradition and Rackham’s visual imagination’ Simon Poe, ‘Puck of Pook’s Hill: Comparing Arthur Rackham and H.R. Millar’s illustrations’ Adam Paxman, ‘Arthur Rackham, Alchemist of the Golden Age of Illustration, Unbound’ 12.00 p.m. Lunch 1.00 Lunchtime concert at Chichester Council Assembly Rooms ‘Undine – in music, words and illustration’ Buy tickets to the concert only from the University's online store. 2.15 p.m. Panel 2: Creating Fantastic Landscapes Valentina Polcini, ‘Arthur Rackham and Dino Buzzati: Transmediality and Cross-Cultural Intertextuality’ Alexandra Gushurst-Moore, ‘Between Worlds: Arthur Rackham and the Liminal Fantastic Space’ 3.00 p.m. Tea break 3.30 p.m. Panel 3: Rackham Resurrected Emma Martin, ‘Contemporary Responses: Echoes of Arthur Rackham in the 21st Century’ Steve O’Brien, ‘An imaginative journey through ‘Rackham Land’ 4.30 p.m. Close Download the full programme, with venue, accommodation and transport information, plus all abstracts and speaker biographies, here.Lunchtime Concert: Undine – in words, music and illustration
Saturday 16 September 2017, Chichester Assembly Rooms, 82 North Street, PO19 1LQ, 1-2 p.m. Tickets £7. A one-off musical performance of Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué’s Undine. The story of the romance between a water-sprite Undine and the Knight Huldbrand had a profound influence on the 19th century, inspiring operas, ballets and adaptations, including Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid and Dvorák’s Rusalka, as well the imagination of Arthur Rackham. This concert performance will retell the narrative of Undine, interspersed with some of the most iconic musical versions of the story, all set against Arthur Rackham definitive illustrations, as part of a one-day research symposium devoted to Arthur Rackham’s extraordinary legacy. Please feel free to bring food and drink to this lunchtime performance. Buy tickets from the University's online store.Dr Steven O'Brien, 'Britannic Myths'
Thursday 27th April 2017, 5.30-7 p.m., Academic Building 1.01
Reading and book signing.
Britannic Myths is a book of eighteen creative retellings of British and Irish myths by mythographer Steven O'Brien alongside new paintings and illustrations by Joe Machine. At this event Steve will present selected readings, accompanied by Joe Machine’s images, followed by a book signing.
£5/£3 concessions (tickets can be used as vouchers for the book). Free to University staff/students.
Children’s Fantasy Literature: An interview with Prof. Farah Mendlesohn
Monday 14 November 2016, 6-7.30 p.m., L04, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Fantasy has been an important and much-loved part of children’s literature for hundreds of years, yet relatively little has been written about it. Farah Mendlesohn, Professor of Literary History at Anglia Ruskin University, recently co-authored Children’s Fantasy Literature: An Introduction, examining the works of Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, C.S. Lewis, Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling and others from across the English-speaking world to place each in its appropriate context within the fantasy tradition. This event will be an interview and discussion of Mendlesohn’s research. Tickets are £5/£3 concessions or free to University staff and students.Jeremy Harte, ‘Subversive or What? Fairy Tradition and Social Order’
Monday 31 October 2016, 6-7.30 p.m., L04, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester For a secret people, the fairies have been surprisingly conspicuous in social protest – administering rough justice in colonial Ireland, leading French forest guerrillas, and pixying JCBs at road protest camps. Are these just casual appropriations of the fairy mask, or do they reveal something about the lore behind it? Jeremy Harte is a researcher into folklore and archaeology, with a particular interest in sacred space and tales of encounters with the supernatural. His book Explore Fairy Traditions won the Folklore Society’s Katharine Briggs Award in 2005. Tickets are £5/£3 concessions or free to University staff and students.Write A Fairy Tale: A Short Story Workshop with Rose Williamson
Wednesday 12 October 2016, 3-5 p.m. or 5.30-7.30 p.m., Room UH4, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Come explore the history and craft of fairy tales by writing your own! Whether you want to subvert the tale of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ or dream up a new story that takes place in a wondrous fairy-tale world, this workshop aims to integrate writing exercises and story planning with an introduction to the genre of fairy tales. This event is sponsored by A Chapter Away, residential creative writing courses in south-west France led by authors, agents and publishers (www.achapteraway.com). Please note this workshop is for adults and some content may not be suitable for children. Places are limited so please book early. £10/£7 concessions or free to University staff and students.Dr Sue Short, 'Fairy Tale and Film'
Monday 18 April 2016, 5.30-6.30 p.m., L04, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Sue Short is a lecturer in film and media, a research fellow, and writer. Her previous works include Fairy Tale and Film: Old Tales with a New Spin, Misfit Sisters: Screen Horror as Female Rites of Passage, Cyborg Cinema and Cult Telefantasy Series. In this public lecture she will examine how fairy-tale tropes have been reworked in contemporary film, from romcoms to horror movies. Tickets are £5/£3 concessions or free to University staff and students.Prof. Andrew Teverson, ‘The Fairy-tale Collections of Andrew Lang and Joseph Jacobs: Empire, Nation and Identity’
Monday 14 March 2016, 5.15-6.30 p.m., Cloisters, University of Chichester Andrew Teverson is Professor of English Literature and Head of Humanities at Kingston University, London. His recent work includes The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Selected Writings of Andrew Lang (2015, co-edited with Alexandra Warwick and Leigh Wilson), shortlisted for the Folklore Society’s Katharine Briggs Folklore Award in 2015, and Fairy Tale for the Routledge New Critical Idiom series (2013). Tickets are £5/£3 concessions or free to University staff and students.Dame Marina Warner, Fly Away Home
Wednesday 3 February 2016, 5.15-6.30 p.m., the Mitre Lecture Theatre, University of Chichester Dame Marina Warner, writer and mythographer, will present short stories tinged with fairy tale from her third collection of short stories, Fly Away Home, followed by a chaired discussion and Q&A with the audience. Warner has written several critical and historical books and essays exploring the history of myth and fairy tale. She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by 11 Universities and was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 2005. In 2015 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to higher education and literary scholarship. Tickets are £5/£3 concessions or free to University staff and students. Prof. Warner will be available to sign copies of Fly Away Home after the event, and ticket prices will be discounted from any books bought at the event.Kate Mosse, 'The Taxidermist's Daughter'
Tuesday 17 November 2015, 5.15-6.30 p.m., The Mitre Lecture TheatreUniversity of Chichester Inspired by the folklore and mythology of Sussex landscapes and seascape - and a homage to Kate's childhood passion for a museum of taxidermy in Sussex - The Taxidermist's Daughter is a Gothic thriller set in Fishbourne in 1912, as the flood waters are beginning to rise. The Chichester-based best-selling novelist will celebrate paperback publication of her latest No. 1 bestseller by sharing her writing trade secrets: from old legends and ancient Sussex folklore, explaining how her research into taxidermy and bird mythology inspired by novel, and how landscape and Gothic fantasy provide the back drop for creating a novel. A unique event to hear Kate talking in her home town about the novel set in Fishbourne and Chichester. Tickets £5/£3 concessions; free to University staff and students. Ticket prices will be discounted from any books bought at the event.A Celebration of Folklore in Sussex and the South Downs
Saturday 31st October 2015, 2-4 p.m., CloistersUniversity of Chichester To celebrate the release of our illustrated map of folklore in Sussex and the South Downs produced with the kind support of the South Downs National Park, the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy is hosting a special celebration of local folktales and songs. Dr Steve O'Brien will read 'St Dunstan and the Devil', Joanna Gilar will perform 'The Witch of Ditchling' and Cotillion will introduce the audience to a selection of Sussex folk songs for this special Hallowe'en event. With Guest of Honour Jacqueline Simpson, without whom the map could not have been made. Tickets £5/£3 concessions; free to University staff and students.Professor William Gray, 'Why we need Fairy Tales'
Wednesday 7th October 2015, 6 p.m., Mitre Lecture Theatre University of Chichester Professor Bill Gray of the University of Chichester’s Department of English & Creative Writing, and Director of the Sussex Centre of Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy, will be giving a public University Lecture on ‘Why we need fairy tales’. Bill’s role at the Sussex Centre has allowed him to work with many of the world’s top scholars in Fairy-tale Studies, and with a group of exciting young postgraduate scholars. He was Folklore Advisor to the film Snow White and the Huntsman; his forthcoming book is an edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Fables and Fairy Tales. His illustrated talk will cover the following topics: What are fairy tales? Fairy-tale histories Why we don’t need fairy tales Why we do need fairy tales Why fairy tales need us Fairy tales and myth. This event is free of charge. If you would like to book a place please telephone 01243 812155/2171.Networking event for fairy-tale writers/researchers
Friday 18th September, from 5 p.m., Cloisters University of Chichester A free networking event for fairy-tale fiction writers/researchers, open to any fairy-tale fiction writers and researchers who wish to attend. The broad topic of discussion will be 'the enduring elements of fairy tales'. Sherryl Clark, a PhD student from Australia, is visiting the Sussex as part of her research into these elements (what makes fairy tales 'stick', as Zipes puts it). She plans to use these elements in four original fairy-tale picture books and a novel for children. The event has been organised to allow her to discuss her topic with other researchers and writers.Wonderlands exhibition
Prof. Jacqueline Simpson, 'The Folklore of Sussex'
Tuesday 16 June, 5.15-6.30 p.m., room H144, University of Chichester To celebrate Sussex Day 2015 England's foremost living folklorist, former Folklore Adviser to Terry Pratchett and the Sussex Centre's Visiting Professor of Folklore, Jacqueline Simpson will present an introduction to Sussex's folktales. To explore the tales further, a free interactive map of folktales in Sussex and the South Downs will be available to download from today. Tickets £5/£3 concessions; free to University staff and students. This event is part of the Festival of Chichester. Our events for the 2014-15 academic year are kindly sponsored by www.Zharmae.com - get your fiction fix!Wonderlands: Reading/Writing/Telling Fairy Tales and Fantasy
PGR Symposium, 23 May 2015, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this event is primarily aimed at postgraduate students and early career researchers, although other scholars and the general public will be welcome. The day's keynote lectures will be given by Prof. Diane Purkiss, Oxford University, who is also a creative writer of fantasy fiction (under the pseudonym ‘Tobias Druitt’), and world-renowned illustrator Prof. John Vernon Lord, whose own version of Alice was published in 2009. The day will close with a series of performances from writers and storytellers which engage with the theme of wonder lands, led by folkloric poet and creative writing professor Dr Steven O'Brien. The draft programme can be downloaded by clicking here: Wonderlands draft programme‘Tolkien and/or Jackson? Filming Tolkien’s legendarium’, Shaun Gunner
Tuesday 24th February, 5.15-6.30 p.m., room E124, University of Chichester Shaun Gunner, who is Chairman of The Tolkien Society and runs the Tolkien Gateway website, will give a visual presentation on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, discussing how the films and books compare. Tickets £5/£3 concessions or free to University staff and studentsDr Steve O'Brien, 'British and Irish Folktales'
Wednesday 21st January 2015, 5.15-6.30 p.m., room H144, University of Chichester Editor of the London Magazine, Visiting Fellow of Creative Writing at Chichester, and Senior Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, Steve O'Brien will be presenting his latest work, a retelling of British and Irish folktales. Recent published work includes the poetry collections Dark Hill Dreams and Scrying Stone.Dr Darren Oldridge, 'Fairies, Imps, Goblins and Bogies in Early Modern England'
Thursday 23rd October 2014, 5.15-6.30 p.m., Cloisters, University of Chichester Dr Darren Oldridge teaches History at the University of Worcester. He is a specialist in early modern religious history, with a particular interest in witchcraft and the Devil; his most recent books are The Devil: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press: 2012) and The Devil in Tudor and Stuart England (2nd edition: History Press 2010). At present he is writing a study of the supernatural in early modern England, to be published by Routledge next year.Jacqueline Simpson, 'Folktales of England'
Tuesday 4 November, 3-5 p.m., room H149, University of Chichester England's foremost living folklorist, Folklore Advisor to Terry Pratchett and the Centre's Visiting Professor of Folklore, Jacqueline Simpson will present an introduction to England's folktales. England has rather more folktales than people assume, including many local and migratory legends, though they are mainly Sagen not Märchen.Land Under Wave: Reading the Landscape of Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching books
Tuesday 25 March, Mitre Lecture Theatre University of Chichester 4 – 5pm: Dr Jane Carroll (University of Roehampton), author of Landscape in Children’s Literature (Routledge, 2012) (and formerly Research Assistant at the the Sussex Centre), talks about her research on the role of landscape in children’s fantasy literature, and especially Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching series.The Marvel Comics version of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower
Thursday 13 March, Cloisters University of Chichester 5.15 – 6.30pm: Robin Furth, Personal Assistant to Stephen King for five years, and author of The Dark Tower: A Complete Concordance and The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger: The Journey Begins (Marvel Comics, 2011), speaks about her experience of working with King, and translating his fantasy masterpiece into graphic novel form.The American Fantasy Tradition
Tuesday 25 February, Cloisters University of Chichester 5.15 – 6.30pm: Prof. Tom Shippey, leading expert on Tolkien and modern fantasy (The Road to Middle-earth, J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century and The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories). Tolkien made fantasy mass-market in the 1960s. By doing so he consigned a pre-existing fantasy tradition in the USA, not to oblivion, but to the fringes. Fans know about its great authors – Leiber, de Camp, Anderson, Davidson, Vance – but the wider world of films and TV series has passed them by. This is our loss, for the American tradition was and is distinctive, imaginative, and above all funny. This talk will survey it, and make recommendations for unfamiliar but entertaining reading.Talking of Grimm Girls
22 January 2014, illustrated talk, Otter Gallery, University of Chichester An illustrated talk by Dr Anne Anderson, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Chichester, in conversation with Professor Bill Gray, Director of the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy. Hear how the gallery’s exhibition 'Grimm Girls: Picturing the "Princess"' came about, the themes within it and gain some insights into Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Free of charge but please book in advance – tel. 01243 816098.Grimm Girls: Picturing the ‘Princess’
26 January 2014 - 23 November 2014, exhibition, Otter Gallery, University of Chichester This exhibition will feature the illustrations of six familiar and much-loved fairy-tales – ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Snow White’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Rapunzel’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ – by Grimm, Perrault and other authors. As well as framed pictures, there will also be first edition books and other artefacts of various illustrators, among them Arthur Rackham, Charles Robinson, Mervyn Peake and Mabel Lucie Attwell. ‘Grimm Girls: Picturing the “Princess”’ is curated by Dr Anne Anderson, a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Chichester, in association with the University’s Department of English & Creative Writing and the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy.
Monday 25 November 2013, one-day Symposium of leading fantasy and fairy-tale experts.Kindly sponsored by Scrivener.
Session 1, E124 (4 – 5.30 p.m.), £5/£3 concessions
Maria Nikolajeva, ‘“Iron is stronger than grief, but love is stronger than iron”: Reading fairy-tale emotions through words and illustrations.’
Terri Windling, ‘Into the Woods: One Writer-and-Artist’s Journey into Fairy Tales’.
Session 2, Mitre lecture theatre, (5.45 – 7.30 p.m.), £5/£3 concessions
Jack Zipes, ‘Reinvigorating the Fairy Tale: Radical Visions and Feminist Interpretations in Paintings, Sculptures, and Photography’.
Followed by round-table discussion with all three speakers.
Tickets available from the University’s online store.
About our sponsor:
Scrivener is a content-generation tool that enables users to outline and structure ideas, take notes, view research alongside writing and compose the constituent pieces of a text in isolation or in context. Visit http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php for more information.
Old, New, Borrowed and Blue: A Fairy-Tale Symposium
Tuesday 26 March 2013, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Jack Zipes, Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota and founding father of the academic discipline of Fairy Tale studies, will give a lecture at the University of Chichester. He’ll be preceded by talks by children’s literature expert Nick Tucker and by Jacqueline Simpson, Visiting Professor of Folklore at the University of Chichester. This fairy tale symposium will run as follows 3 p.m. Jacqueline Simpson: ‘Terry Pratchett, Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men’ (in Room 144) 4.15 p.m. Nicholas Tucker: ‘Grimm Parents’ (in Room 144) 6 p.m. Jack Zipes: ‘Once Upon a Time: Changing the World through Storytelling’ (Mitre Lecture Theatre)From Steampunk to Pullman and beyond: Exploring the varieties of ‘punk’
Tuesday 5 March, 4.30 – 6 p.m., Room H144, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Frauke Matz, Lecturer in English at Duisburg-Essen University, Germany, and author of He Simply Went to Pieces, presents this overview of steampunk, cyberpunk, mythpunk, etc. Please note that this event was cancelled due to illness.Storytelling, storywriting, storyprinting: Telling tales and the origins of children’s books
Monday 11 March 2013, 5.15 – 7 pm in the Mitre Lecture Theatre, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Ruth Bottigheimer and Matthew Grenby, Professors at New York and Newcastle respectively, will share the platform at the first ever joint event to be co-hosted by the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy (SCFFF) and the South Coast Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Research Group (SCERRG).Sex, Lies and Videotape: The Brothers Grimm Experience
Wednesday 10 October 2012 5.15pm-6:30pm, Cloisters, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Professional story-teller Janet Dowling presents the story of how the brothers Grimm cleaned up their act for contemporary readers … and what Disney did next.After Grimm: Fairy Tales and the Art of Storytelling
6-8 September 2012, Kingston University 2012 is the bicentenary of the publication of the first volume of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen [Children’s and Household Tales] by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. As this groundbreaking collection moves into its third century, this conference explores the trajectory of the Grimm phenomenon in Britain and the English-speaking world. Examining the varied and colourful reception history of this collection of tales, this conference will discuss the most recent fairy-tale scholarship, as well as looking forward to possible future developments. The Grimm bicentenary will also be celebrated through storytelling events, readings, a creative writing prize, and an exhibition of illustrations. Confirmed Keynote Speakers- Donald Haase
- Neil Philip
- Marina Warner
- Jack Zipes
Grimms’ Fairy Tales Study Day
The Children’s Books History Society is staging a Study Day on Saturday 13 October 2012 to celebrate Two Hundred Years of the Grimm Brothers’ Fairy Tales. The venue is the Church Hall of the Great Crown Court Church of Scotland in London’s Covent Garden. The speakers will be: Brian Alderson on ‘The Making of the Kinder– und Hausmärchen’; Neil Philips on ‘The Influence of the Grimms’; Geoff Fox on ‘There’s Game in the Wind’; Nick Tucker on ‘How grim are the Grimms’ fairy-tale parents?’; David Blaimres on ‘The Role of the Forest in Grimms’ Fairy Tales’; Susan Bailes on ‘The Illustrators of Grimms’ Fairy Tales’. The cost of the day is £20, which includes all refreshments including lunch. Further details and a booking form are available from: Robert Kirkpatrick, 6 Osterley Park View Road, Hanwell, LONDON W7 2HH Tel. 020 8567 4521Postgraduate Symposium at Return of the Ring
Tolkien Society conference 2012 As part of the larger Return of the Ring conference at Loughborough University (16th-20th August 2012), celebrating 75 years of The Hobbit, The Tolkien Society is hosting a dedicated postgraduate symposium on Tolkien studies on Friday 17th August 2012. The interdisciplinary symposium is the first of its kind and serves to map current scholarship inspired by Tolkien by bringing together emerging scholars across disciplines of art, cultural studies, fantasy studies, gaming, linguistics, medieval studies, literature, film studies, fan studies etc. Post-doctoral or other early career stages scholars are also welcome. It is hoped that a selection of papers will be published as an edited collection following the symposium. The symposium is led by an internationally renowned team of academics including Professor Martin Barker (International Lord of the Rings audience survey), Dr Dimitra Fimi (Tolkien, Race and Cultural History) and Professor Corey Olsen (‘the Tolkien Professor’). The format of the symposium is based around panels of postgraduate papers and so presents a unique opportunity to hear and be heard by one’s peers across the full range of Tolkien-related study. A networking lunch and an interactive group session, led by the academic team, complement the interdisciplinary approach and students will also have the opportunity to attend the keynote speech by Tom Shippey that evening. We currently seek proposals for papers (20 mins) on any aspect of Tolkien related research. Proposals relating to gaming, fan films, adaptation, audience cultures etc. are welcome as well as more traditional areas of Tolkien study such as literature, linguistics and fantasy. Students should submit an abstract (max 300 words) and short biography paragraph to: New extended deadline for abstracts: 29th February 2012Tolkien: The Forest and the City
The School of English, Trinity College Dublin, September 21-22, 2012 Keynote Address: Professor Tom Shippey (St Louis University, emeritus): ‘The Goths and the Romans in Tolkien’s Imagination’ Invited Lecturers:Professor Michael D. C. Drout (Wheaton College): ‘The Tower and the Ruin: The Past in Tolkien’Professor Verlyn Flieger (University of Maryland): ‘Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Sentient Landscape in Tolkien’s Fiction.’Professor Thomas Honegger (University of Jena): ‘”Raw Forest” and the “Cooked City” Lévi-Strauss in Middle-earth’Professor Alison Milbank (University of Nottingham): ‘In a Dark Wood: Tolkien and Dante’ Further detailsLaunch of new Sussex Centre journal Gramarye
Tuesday 29 May at 5.15pm in Cloisters, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester. There will be readings by Steve O’Brien (Editor of the London Magazine, poet and Creative Writing Fellow at Chichester University) of new versions of British and Danish folktales. Prof. Bill Gray will also give a short talk about the history of the word gramarye. Entrance free. Copies of Gramarye on sale (£5).'Visual Images in Literary Fairy Tales: in and behind the text', Larisa Prokhorava of Kemerovo State University, Russia
Monday 16 April 2012, 5.15pm-6:30pm, Mitre Lecture Theatre, Bishop Otter Campus, University of ChichesterImages of Witches: History, Fairy Tales, Films
Wednesday 21 March 2012, 5.15pm-6:30pm, Cloisters, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester Willem de Blécourt is Honorary Research Fellow at the Huizinga Institute, Amsterdam, and author of Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe and Werewolves.Folklore and Fantasy Conference
The Folklore Society and the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy are delighted to announce a joint conference on “Folklore and Fantasy” at the University of Chichester on Friday 13th to Sunday 15th April 2012. CALL FOR PAPERS Deadline 27 January 2012 Many folktales are closely related to the fantastic – through subject matter, content and impulse. Folklore often deals with the fantastic, or turns to the supernatural to provide explanations for extraordinary events. Similarly, folklore has long been a major source of inspiration for fantasy literature, from authors like Kevin Crossley-Holland and Angela Carter and graphic novelists like Neil Gaiman and Bill Willingham who take on and re-present traditional stories, to authors like Lloyd Alexander Susan Cooper, Kate Thompson who draw on established tropes, to authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Susanna Clarke and Terry Pratchett who invent their own folk traditions. This three-day conf will explore, investigate and celebrate the relationship between folklore and fantasy. We welcome papers on all aspects of folklore and fantasy from the medieval to the modern and the post-modern. Topics may include but are not limited to:- Folklore of the fantastic
- Invented Folklore in Epic Fantasy
- Graphic novels
- Urban Legends
- Superstitions
- The Gothic Tradition
- Monsters, Bogies and Boggarts
- Real and invented folk history
- Medieval and Modern Travellers’ Tales
- Folklore in Children’s Literature
- World Folklore in American Fantasy
- Celtic folklore in Popular Culture
- Folklore on the Stage or on the Screen
- The Commodification and ‘Disneyfication’ of Traditional Stories
- Folklore in Art