Publications by Tony Venezia
Programme for Transitions 6 Comica Symposium, 31 October 2015, Birkbeck, University of London. A... more Programme for Transitions 6 Comica Symposium, 31 October 2015, Birkbeck, University of London. Attendance free, registration essential. Email: [email protected]
From 'Twenty-fisrt Century British Fiction, Bianca Leggett, Tony Venezia eds. (Canterbury: Gylphi... more From 'Twenty-fisrt Century British Fiction, Bianca Leggett, Tony Venezia eds. (Canterbury: Gylphi, 2015)
Abstracts and bios for Supposedly Fun Things - Colloquium on the Writing of David Foster Wallace,... more Abstracts and bios for Supposedly Fun Things - Colloquium on the Writing of David Foster Wallace, 7 February 2015
Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK, The British Library, 2 May - 19 August 2014.
(Foundat... more Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK, The British Library, 2 May - 19 August 2014.
(Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, 43.118 (2014): 92-95)
Full schedule for the Transitions 5 conference taking place on October 25 at Birkbeck, University... more Full schedule for the Transitions 5 conference taking place on October 25 at Birkbeck, University of London.
Papers by Tony Venezia
Pornography and comics share a cultural history of being traditionally regarded as ephemeral and ... more Pornography and comics share a cultural history of being traditionally regarded as ephemeral and disposable, relegated to the margins of systems of value and dismissed as 'rubbish'.
We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the forthcoming 5 th Transitions symposium, pr... more We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the forthcoming 5 th Transitions symposium, promoting new research and multi-disciplinary academic study of comics/ comix/ manga/ bande dessinée and other forms of sequential art.
Bad Signals: Collected Essays on the Work of Warren Ellis
Papers are invited for the first academic collection dedicated to the work of comics writer, nove... more Papers are invited for the first academic collection dedicated to the work of comics writer, novelist, and pop culture commentator Warren Ellis. Ellis’ renowned comics career stretches back to anthology comic Deadline, but he has also published two novels. He has written comics for Marvel and DC, as well as a number of independent publishers. He has written for well-known comics such as X-Men, Iron Man, and Hellblazer, he transformed Stormwatch into the post-Watchmen epic The Authority, as well as creating idiosyncratic work such as Transmetropolitan, Planetary, FreakAngels, and Ministry of Space. His two prose novels, Crooked Little Vein and Gun Machine, leans toward noir and were both well received. He maintains an active online presence and is well known for his cultural commentary.
We are seeking proposals for an edited volume as part of the SF Storyworlds: Critical Studies in Science Fiction series at Gylphi (series editor: Dr. Paul March-Russell). We welcome papers on any topic related to Ellis’ writing which might include, but are not limited to:
Formal approaches to comics/graphic novels – case studies of specific texts - science fiction – dystopia/utopia – extropia – post/transhumanism – cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk – superheroes – the influence of pulp fiction – conspiracy theories – noir – accelerationism – steampunk – the ‘British Invasion’ – the city – media technologies – new media – postmodernism/post-postmodernism – contemporary gothic – blogging – online comics etc.
We welcome proposals from any discipline and theoretical perspective. Submissions are welcome from both research students and academics. We particularly welcome submissions on Ellis’ lesser known comics, his prose fiction, and his non-fiction writing.
Essays should be 6,000-8,000 words. Referencing should follow the Chicago style for author-date citation. Please send a title and 300 word abstract along with your name, affiliation and 100 word professional biography in a word document to [email protected] by 31 January 2014. Selected authors will be notified shortly after. Please note that invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee inclusion in the volume.
Editors Hallvard Haug (Birkbeck, University of London) and Tony Venezia (Birkbeck, University of London).
21st Century British Fiction Symposium - 12th May 2012, Birkbeck, University of London. Keynote ... more 21st Century British Fiction Symposium - 12th May 2012, Birkbeck, University of London. Keynote speaker: Professor Robert Eaglestone (Royal Holloway).
Twenty-First Century British Fiction seeks to consider and promote current perspectives on the fiction of British writers in the twenty-first century. Post-millennial writing has proved itself as arguably wide-ranging and innovative as its predecessors. With Granta's next decennial list due in 2013, it seems only fitting and appropriate to survey the twenty-first century’s first decade of British Fiction.
We invite submissions for 20 minute presentations; papers on individual authors and single works are welcome, as are essays on broader trends that explore the cultural, historical and stylistic contexts that have produced twenty-first century British fiction.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words, with brief details of biography and affiliation, to Bianca Leggett and Tony Venezia at [email protected] no later than 15th March 2012. We also welcome proposals for themed panels of three speakers. We are currently in negotiations with an academic publisher interested in publishing a volume based on the proceedings of the symposium. The symposium is sponsored by the School of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London.
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/arts/news/twenty-first-century-british-fiction-a-symposium
http://c21stsymposium.wordpress.com/
On twitter @C21st_symposium
Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc, 2009), ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-974-9, 353pp... more Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc, 2009), ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-974-9, 353pp., £9.95pb.
Uploads
Publications by Tony Venezia
(Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, 43.118 (2014): 92-95)
Papers by Tony Venezia
We are seeking proposals for an edited volume as part of the SF Storyworlds: Critical Studies in Science Fiction series at Gylphi (series editor: Dr. Paul March-Russell). We welcome papers on any topic related to Ellis’ writing which might include, but are not limited to:
Formal approaches to comics/graphic novels – case studies of specific texts - science fiction – dystopia/utopia – extropia – post/transhumanism – cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk – superheroes – the influence of pulp fiction – conspiracy theories – noir – accelerationism – steampunk – the ‘British Invasion’ – the city – media technologies – new media – postmodernism/post-postmodernism – contemporary gothic – blogging – online comics etc.
We welcome proposals from any discipline and theoretical perspective. Submissions are welcome from both research students and academics. We particularly welcome submissions on Ellis’ lesser known comics, his prose fiction, and his non-fiction writing.
Essays should be 6,000-8,000 words. Referencing should follow the Chicago style for author-date citation. Please send a title and 300 word abstract along with your name, affiliation and 100 word professional biography in a word document to [email protected] by 31 January 2014. Selected authors will be notified shortly after. Please note that invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee inclusion in the volume.
Editors Hallvard Haug (Birkbeck, University of London) and Tony Venezia (Birkbeck, University of London).
Twenty-First Century British Fiction seeks to consider and promote current perspectives on the fiction of British writers in the twenty-first century. Post-millennial writing has proved itself as arguably wide-ranging and innovative as its predecessors. With Granta's next decennial list due in 2013, it seems only fitting and appropriate to survey the twenty-first century’s first decade of British Fiction.
We invite submissions for 20 minute presentations; papers on individual authors and single works are welcome, as are essays on broader trends that explore the cultural, historical and stylistic contexts that have produced twenty-first century British fiction.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words, with brief details of biography and affiliation, to Bianca Leggett and Tony Venezia at [email protected] no later than 15th March 2012. We also welcome proposals for themed panels of three speakers. We are currently in negotiations with an academic publisher interested in publishing a volume based on the proceedings of the symposium. The symposium is sponsored by the School of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London.
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/arts/news/twenty-first-century-british-fiction-a-symposium
http://c21stsymposium.wordpress.com/
On twitter @C21st_symposium
(Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, 43.118 (2014): 92-95)
We are seeking proposals for an edited volume as part of the SF Storyworlds: Critical Studies in Science Fiction series at Gylphi (series editor: Dr. Paul March-Russell). We welcome papers on any topic related to Ellis’ writing which might include, but are not limited to:
Formal approaches to comics/graphic novels – case studies of specific texts - science fiction – dystopia/utopia – extropia – post/transhumanism – cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk – superheroes – the influence of pulp fiction – conspiracy theories – noir – accelerationism – steampunk – the ‘British Invasion’ – the city – media technologies – new media – postmodernism/post-postmodernism – contemporary gothic – blogging – online comics etc.
We welcome proposals from any discipline and theoretical perspective. Submissions are welcome from both research students and academics. We particularly welcome submissions on Ellis’ lesser known comics, his prose fiction, and his non-fiction writing.
Essays should be 6,000-8,000 words. Referencing should follow the Chicago style for author-date citation. Please send a title and 300 word abstract along with your name, affiliation and 100 word professional biography in a word document to [email protected] by 31 January 2014. Selected authors will be notified shortly after. Please note that invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee inclusion in the volume.
Editors Hallvard Haug (Birkbeck, University of London) and Tony Venezia (Birkbeck, University of London).
Twenty-First Century British Fiction seeks to consider and promote current perspectives on the fiction of British writers in the twenty-first century. Post-millennial writing has proved itself as arguably wide-ranging and innovative as its predecessors. With Granta's next decennial list due in 2013, it seems only fitting and appropriate to survey the twenty-first century’s first decade of British Fiction.
We invite submissions for 20 minute presentations; papers on individual authors and single works are welcome, as are essays on broader trends that explore the cultural, historical and stylistic contexts that have produced twenty-first century British fiction.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words, with brief details of biography and affiliation, to Bianca Leggett and Tony Venezia at [email protected] no later than 15th March 2012. We also welcome proposals for themed panels of three speakers. We are currently in negotiations with an academic publisher interested in publishing a volume based on the proceedings of the symposium. The symposium is sponsored by the School of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London.
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/arts/news/twenty-first-century-british-fiction-a-symposium
http://c21stsymposium.wordpress.com/
On twitter @C21st_symposium
The gothic and metafiction share a long history. From Horace Walpole’s ersatz manuscript for The Castle of Otranto, to the parodies of Jane Austen and Thomas Love Peacock, Mary Shelley’s and Bram Stoker’s use of the epistolary format, right up to Stephen King’s repeated use of writers as central characters, historically the gothic has often signalled its own textual construction. ‘Gothic metafiction’ would appear then to be tautological. However, I want to argue for a distinction between standard gothic metafiction, where metafiction is an inherent and inherited function of the text, and metafictional gothic in the instance of Egan’s The Keep. As with much (post-)postmodernist literature, The Keep makes metafiction an overt, structuring principle of its narration. I suggest that the metafictional gothic signals a flexible narrative modality, rather than a distinctive genre, and that Egan’s use of this in The Keep has an ethical dimension in transforming the process of creative writing into part of a belated traumatic act.
http://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/events/ies-conferences/JenniferEgan
Joahnnes Birringer (Director, DAP-Lab at Brunel; Artistic Director, AlienNation Co.); Kate Pullinger (Author; Reader in Creative Writing and New Media at DeMontfort); Thomson & Craighead (Artists; Lecturers at Goldsmiths, Slade School of Fine Art); and Tim Wright (Digital Writer; Cross-platform Producer).
For one night only the Contemporary Fiction Seminar (in collaboration with the Birkbeck School of Arts Graduate Lecture Series) brings these speakers together to discuss their creative digital practices and the critical issues that surround their work.
The event will be chaired by Dr Nick Lambert (Lecturer in Digital Art at Birkbeck).
Details:
Thursday 9th December 2010
7.30 - 9pm (followed by wine reception)
Rm 538, main Birkbeck Building, Malet St., WC1 (map)
All are welcome.
If you have any further questions please contact Zara Dinnen or Tony Venezia (co-ordinators of the Contemporary Fiction Seminar).
Hope to see you all there!
We have selected reading for two inaugural seminars, and hope to establish a regular pattern of monthly meetings with other people proposing and leading further future sessions.
For further details and copies of the reading materials contact the convenors, Zara Dinnen ([email protected]) and Tony Venezia ([email protected]), or just turn up on the night. We look forward to seeing you there.
June 8th 2010
Room 103, 30 Russell Square,6-7.30 PM
Tom McCarthy Remainder (chapters 11 & 12)
Roger Luckhurst, ‘Traumaculture’, New Formations, 50 (2003), 28-47
During the session we will also watch a clip from Synecdoche, New York (Kaufman, 2009)
The session will be introduced by Zara Dinnen and Dr. Gill Partington.
July 8th 2010
Room 103, 30 Russell Square, 6-7.30 PM
Special seminar on Jonathan Lethem
The essay ‘The Ecstasy of Influence’ (2007) (also available online http://harpers.org/archive/2007/02/0081387)
The Fortress of Solitude (2003) (extracts tbc)
Short stories ‘The Collector’ and ‘Top 5 Depressed Superheroes’ (available on Lethem’s own website http://www.jonathanlethem.com/the_collector.html)
The seminar will be introduced by Zara Dinnen and Tony Venezia.
Following each seminar we will relocate to the convivial atmosphere of a local public house to continue discussion.
Saturday July 10 2010
School of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London
Room 101, 30 Russell Square, London WC1
1030am-6pm
Jonathan Lethem is the author of the novel 'The Fortress of Solitude', the short story anthology'Men and Cartoons', the essay collection 'The Disappointment Artist', and (with Karl Rusnak and Farel Dalrymple) the revived Marvel comic series 'Omega the Unknown'. As novelist/essayist/fanboy he is an important figure in the field of contemporary literature.
Lethem will attend the whole day, give a reading and participate in a final Q&A.
Admission free. Bring your own coffee.
For more information contact Joe Brooker
[email protected]
http://idisk.me.com/stephentrousse/Public/lethem.pdf
From off the streets of Cleveland comes...
“Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff”
In celebration of Harvey Pekar (1939-2010)
Birkbeck, room 152,1st floor main building,
Torrington Square,
Tuesday August 3rd 2010, 6-8 pm
A short discussion of Pekar’s life & work followed by a screening of the film American Splendor (2003)
Harvey Pekar, comics writer and jazz fan, died suddenly on July 2. Pekar first published his autobiographical comic American Splendor in 1976 in collaboration with Robert Crumb. Subsequently working with a variety of artists, Pekar mined the drama and comedy of everyday life. His dedication to a poetics of commonplace realism was tempered with neurotic introspection, jazzy rhythms, and the immediacy of stand-up comedy. A good introduction, general overview, and prelude to the evening can be found at the online obituary by UCL’s Ernesto Priego.
Fans/artists/scholars will talk briefly about their favourite Pekar pages/moments/stories. Joining Ernesto will be the artists/scholars Sarah Lightman (Glasgow), and Sina Shamsavari (Goldsmiths). Master of Ceremonies is Paul Gravett (journalist/broadcaster, curator of Comica at the ICA). Following the screening we will reconvene for a celebratory wake at the Institute of Education bar.
For more information contact Tony Venezia ([email protected]) or Ernesto Priego ([email protected]).
Or just turn up...
Thursday September 23rd 6-730 pm
Birkbeck, room 633, 6th floor main building, Torrington Square
Session to be led by Sam McBean (Birkbeck MPhil/PhD student)
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel
(Chapter 4, ‘In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower’)
Family Frames: Photography, Narratives, and Postmemory, Marianne Hirsch
(‘Introduction’)
Described as equal parts künstlerroman, psychoanalytic case study, and literary criticism, Fun Home is a queer memoir as graphic novel that draws on the artist/author’s own complicated experiences of growing up a lesbian with a closeted homosexual father. Blurring the line between comics and autobiography, Bechdel folds into the narrative a wealth of allusions from The Addams Family, modernist literature, and classical mythology. The result is a complex meditation on memory, sexuality, and family.
If people have time they might want to also read chapter 3 from Fun Home, ‘That Old Catastrophe’, and check out Bechdel’s website for some of her earlier work. For people who are even keener, we recommend reading the whole book. Fun Home can be picked up in the graphic novel section in Waterstones, Blackwells, and Foyles, and should be available in any good public library. There are also single copies in Birkbeck and KCL libraries.
Post-session drinks and chat as usual in the Institute of Education bar.
For further details contact Zara Dinnen and Tony Venezia ([email protected]/a.venezia.english.bbk.ac.uk) – or visit our group page at http://dandelionnetwork.org/group/contemporaryfictiongroup for copies of the reading materials.
Wednesday 27th October 2010, 6-7.30 pm
Birkbeck, School of Arts
Room 112 (postgraduate common room)
43 Gordon Square
Session to be led by Bianca Leggett (Birkbeck MPhil/PhD student):
Patrick Neate’s Twelve Bar Blues (Excerpts from: 'Prelude: Because stories are forgotten'; 'IV: The chief, the zakulu, the monkey ears'; 'V: To pounce or not to pounce'; 'V: The coffee coloured woman'.)
Andrew Smith, 'Migrancy, hybridity, and post-colonial literary studies' in ed. Neil Lazarus, The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) pp.241-261
Winner of the 2001 Whitbread Novel Award, Twelve Bar Blues spans two centuries, three continents and multiple generations in a story which traces the ripple effect of the African diaspora, culminating in one confused mixed-race Londoner on a mission to trace her roots in the last years of the 20th century. At the novel's core is the triangular relationship between travel, identity and story, themes which engage with postcolonial scholarship's ongoing attempt to theorise the effects of migrancy and cultural hybridity in a globalised world.
Post-session drinks and chat as usual in the Institute of Education bar.
For further details contact Zara Dinnen ([email protected]) and Tony Venezia ([email protected])
Or visit http://dandelionnetwork.org/group/contemporaryfictiongroup
for copies of the reading materials.
We shall give the name chronotope
(literally, “time space”) to the
intrinsic connectedness of temporal
and spatial relationships that are
artistically expressed...
Mikhail Bakhtin
Guides:
‘The Chronotopeand the Generation of Meaning in Novels and Painting’,
Janice Best, Criticism (1994)
‘Lounge Time: PostwarCrises and the Chronotopeof Film Noir’,
Vivian Sobchack, Refiguring American Film Genres: Theory & History
(1998)
For further information contact Terri Mullholland ([email protected])