Messolonghi, Greece Student Byron Conference
2008: 6th International Student Byron Conference
Messolonghi Byron Research Center, Greece
18-25 May 2008
Theme: "Byron's Other Selves"
Throughout his life, Byron defined himself in relation to predecessors he admired and people he knew. Other people in turn, his contemporaries and individuals from subsequent generations alike, defined themselves in relation to him-not just those who admired him, such as the Shelleys, John Clare, Benjamin Disraeli, and Laetitia Landon, but those who felt less positively about him in various straightforward or complicated ways: among others Robert Southey, John Keats, and Caroline Lamb. After Byron's death in 1824, poets, painters, and novelists all through Europe and North America--Tennyson, Delacroix, Hugo, Goethe, Solomos, the Brontes, Pushkin, Poe, Wilde, and many others--continued to find themselves by articulating their relationships with the great British poet, offering variations on his themes, or arraying themselves in modes he introduced. This conference will welcome explorations of Byron's "other selves" in the broadest sense. Studies of Byron and his Augustan models or his post-Regency, Victorian, modern, and postmodern descendants, fans, foes, and portrayers, from Pope to Stoppard and beyond, will be welcome--as will appraisal of Byronic images reflected or distorted in his own literary works and in the various literary, visual, musical and cinematic genres practiced by others. Please send proposals (abstracts of a paragraph or so) or inquiries about them to Professor Peter Graham, Academic Director of the conference, by January 10, 2008. The keynote speaker will be Professor Timothy Webb of Bristol University.
Graduate, postgraduate, and undergraduate students are welcome to apply. Undergraduate student presenters whose proposals are accepted should then send completed drafts of their papers by March 10. The student papers will be supplemented by lectures by Greek and international professors and scholars.
If enrollment requests permit, a limited number of student participants who do not wish to present papers will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
For full information concerning the practical details of the program or the Messolonghi Byron Research Center, please write to Mrs. Rosa Florou
During the conference, English majors from Athens University and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki will come down with their professors to join the group. Then and other times, there will be abundant opportunities to learn about Greek life through first-hand experience. There will be welcoming receptions with dinners, singing and traditional dancing hosted by the Mayor of Messolonghi and the Regional Governor, along with visits to historic and archaeological sites and museums of Messolonghi and its area associated with Byron in particular and more generally with the historical and cultural heritage of Greece.
Participants will also enjoy a wonderful sailing experience and a traditional ouzo-meze at the fishermen's base on the historic lagoon isle of Vassiladi [Agios Sostis], where Byron landed in January 5, 1824 and from whence his remains left on the ship 'Florida" via Zakynthos to England in May 1824.
The conference also will conclude with a two days' [ and two nights'] excursion to the beautiful Ionian island of Zakynthos.
The conference will start on Sunday May 18, with the Opening Ceremony and the keynote lecture on the same afternoon in Messolonghi and will end on Sunday morning May 25, in Zakynthos.
Participants will need to arrange for their own way back to Athens or elsewhere. A bus leaves from Zakynthos bus station [tel. +3026950 42656] to Athens-Kifissos central bus station at 5 am, 7.30 am, 11.00 am, 14.30 pm, and 18.45pm. The trip takes about 6 hours, including the ferryboat time, and costs 30 euros. Anyone wishing to stay on at Zakynthos for additional nights should book early, because this resort island is very popular.
The best way from Athens to Messolonghi is the bus leaving from KIFISSOS, the Athens bus station. The trip takes approximately 3 hours, and buses (very comfortable with air-conditioning) depart Kifissos every day at 6:00 am, 8:00 am, 9:00 am, 10:00 am, 11:00 am, 14:00 pm, 14:30 pm, 17:00 pm, 19:00 pm, and 20:00pm. The cost of a return (round-trip) ticket is 36 euros and for single (one-way) 19.50 euros.
A 650-euro per person conference fee will provide conference registration, 5 nights with half board [breakfast and lunch] at the Theoxenia Hotel by the Messolonghi lagoonside, 2 nights with b/b at a Zakynthos hotel, all visits and excursions. There will be a 100-euro surcharge for single accommodations. Airfare to Greece is additional and should be arranged individually.
