Exile, Survival, Dissent
On Miracle Ground XX
Chicago • 4–7 July 2018
Wednesday Evening, July 4
180 East Pearson St., Apt 3506, Chicago 60611 🗺
8:00-9:30 – Reception and Fireworks
Hosted by Dr. Grace Austin
Thursday, July 5
Loyola University’s Corboy Law Center, 25 E. Pearson 🗺
8:30-9:15 – Registration and Coffee (room 202)
9:15-9:30 – Welcomes (room 208)
- Grace Austin, “On Miracle Ground XX” Organizer
- James Clawson, President, International Lawrence Durrell Society
9:30-10:20 – Session I
Moderator: James Clawson, Grambling State University
- Ian MacNiven, Former President, International Lawrence Durrell Society
- “Exile in Their Bloodstream: Lawrence Samuel Durrell and Lawrence George Durrell”
10:25-12:00 – Session II
Moderator: Anne Zahlan, Eastern Illinois University
- Richard Hood, Mosheim, TN
- “The Ongoing Moment: Image, Memory and Identity in The Alexandria Quartet”
- Christine M. Costanza, California State University Long Beach
- “The Foundling Heart: Reflections on Incest in Durrell’s Mountolive and Justine”
- Walid Romani, Université du Québec à Montréal
- “Tracking Time: The Fictional Reader in The Alexandria Quartet”
12:00-1:00 – Lunch
1:00-2:35 – Session III
Moderator: David Radavich, Eastern Illinois University
- Linda Stump Rashidi, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
- “‘Who Are These Arabs?’ Construction of Identity: Lawrence Durrell, Freya Stark, and T.E. Lawrence”
- Athanasios Dimakis, Independent Scholar, Athens, Greece
- “Lawrence Durrell’s Heliotropic Rhodian Exile: ‘Orientations in Sunlight’”
- Isabelle Keller-Privat, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès
- “Exile, Survival, and Dissent in the Disjunctive Worlds of Lawrence Durrell’s Cyprus”
2:40-3:20 – ILDS Business Meeting
James Clawson, presiding
Conferrees are encouraged to attend.
In addition to other business, we will be electing new officers. Short bios for nominees are available online.
Thursday Evening
The Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street 🗺
Program available as a PDF
7:00-9:30 – The Poetry of Lawrence Durrell: Readings and Lecture
- Welcome and Introductions
- David Radavich
- “Land” by Katharyn Howd Machan
- (read by David Radavich)
- “She Sails” by Paul Jones
- (read by Paul Jones)
- “I remember” by Malcolm Miller
- (read by Rod Kessler, executor for Malcolm Miller)
- A Few Poems by Lawrence Durrell
- (read by Pamela J. Francis, James Gifford, Linda Stump Rashidi, Don Kaczvinsky)
- Featured Lecture: “Harbouring: Dissenting Forms of Hospitality in the Poetry of Lawrence Durrell”
- Isabelle Keller-Privat, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès
White Mice Poetry Competition Winners (poems)
Friday, July 6
Loyola University’s Corboy Law Center, 25 E. Pearson 🗺
9:00 – Registration and Coffee (room 202)
9:30 – Announcements (room 208)
9:40-10:45 – Session IV
Moderator: James Decker, Illinois Central College
- Nabil M. Abdel-Al, United Nations
- “Exile, Survival, and Dissent: Streaks of Postmodernism in Gerald Durrell’s Marrying Off Mother and Other Stories”
- Finn Jensen, The University of Copenhagen
- “Henry Miller—In Constant Exile”
10:55-12:00 – Session V
Moderator: Anna Lillios, University of Central Florida
- Bartolo Casiraghi, University of Milan, and Luca Barbaglia, University of Milan
- “Scobie’s (Un)Common Usage: Irony and Mythology as Tools of Epistemological Resistance”
- James Gifford, Fairleigh Dickinson University Vancouver
- “Surrealism and Apocalypse: Late Modernism’s Dissent in Durrell”
12:00-1:00 – Lunch
1:00-2:05 – Session VI
Moderator: Paul Lorenz, University of Arkansas Pine Bluff
- Pamela Francis, The Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts
- “A Topopoetics of Exile, Part Two: Lawrence Durrell’s Cities, Plains and People”
- Fiona Tomkinson, Nagoya University
- “Durrell’s Tibetan Exile: Connections Between the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the Theme of Exile in Durrell”
2:10-3:15 – Session VII
Moderator: Don Kaczvinsky, Louisiana Technical University
- James Clawson, Grambling State University
- “Against ‘Serious’: Interrogating Durrell’s Literary and Commercial Fictions”
- David Nigel Lloyd, College of the Siskiyous
- “Seek Me in Vain on Golgotha: The Song Poetry of Robin Williamson”
Friday Evening
Cliff Dwellers Club, 200 South Michigan Avenue 🗺
6:00-9:30 – Cash Bar
7:00-9:30 – Conference Banquet
- Welcome
- James Clawson, President, International Lawrence Durrell Society
William Dring, Cliff Dwellers Club - Introduction of the Speaker
- James Gifford, Fairleigh Dickinson University
- Featured Lecture: “Gertrude Stein’s Plastic Afterlife”
- Melissa Bradshaw, Loyola University Chicago
Saturday, July 7
Scheduled activities
10:00 a.m. – Lecture at the Newberry Library (free)
60 West Walton Street 🗺
Attend a prepared talk by the Newberry Library’s Ikumi Crocoll, with special emphasis on the library’s holdings of works by Durrell. Space is limited to twenty people, so please sign up for this event when picking up your registration packet Thursday morning.
12:00 p.m. – Executive board meeting—Details TBA
The society’s new executive board will meet before leaving Chicago.
Other suggested activities
American Writers Museum
180 N. Michigan Avenue (second floor) 🗺
Take advantage of time in the afternoon to visit the American Writers Museum, which is open from 10 AM until 5 PM. Visit their website for more information.
Architectural boat tour
112 E. Upper Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601🗺
Boat tours leave every thirty minutes, from 9 to 5:30. Please visit their website or call 312-922-8687 to purchase a ticket in advance.
Art Institute of Chicago
111 S. Michigan Ave 🗺
Open 10:30 to 5:30, the Art Institute is one of the country’s premier collections of American and European art. Visit their website for more information.
Museum of Contemporary Art
220 E. Chicago Ave 🗺
Open 10:00 to 5:00 on Saturday, the museum is located near the conference location. Visit their website for more information.
