British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Reclaiming Literature

The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH

6.30 - 8.00pm, Thursday 27 June 2002

This public discussion meeting aims to examine (and to try to improve) the relationship between academic literary criticism and criticism in the media. The event is part of the British Academy?s public understanding programme. It is open to everybody but tickets must be purchased in advance.

Speakers:
Martin Amis (Author)
Jonathan Dollimore (Professor of English, University of York)
Geoffrey Wheatcroft (Journalist and Author)
Mary-Kay Wilmers (Editor, London Review Of Books)

Chair: Dame Gillian Beer FBA (King Edward VII Professor of English Literature, Cambridge University and judge for the 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction)

Programme

Each speaker is invited to make an initial brief presentation of no more than 10 minutes.

6.30	Introduction by Professor Dame Gillian Beer
6.35	Presentation by Martin Amis
6.45	Presentation by Jonathan Dollimore
6.55	Presentation by Geoffrey Wheatcroft
7.05	Presentation by Mary-Kay Wilmers
7.15	Panel discussion
7.30	Open to floor
8.00	Finish (delegates invited to go to ICA for drinks)

Aims:
The purpose of the event is to examine the relationship between academic literary criticism and criticism in the media. A chasm of misunderstanding has grown between critics based in universities and critics in the media. The media thinks that academics in literary and cultural studies are irrelevant. According to the media, they are lost in abstruse and faddish theory, waste time on trivia or just have nothing of relevance to say. A decade ago theory was a buzzword, causing great and widespread excitement - but was it just a passing fad?

The academic critics, on the other hand, say that that the media has no interest in new ideas and developments in the understanding of literature and culture, and has made no effort to follow the debates or explain them to a wider public. Academic critics may look with envy at the well-informed science journalists who popularise and explain science stories.

Organised by the ICA, British Academy and Dr Robert Eaglestone, Department of English, Royal Holloway.

Tickets: £8 (£7 concessions) available from the ICA box office: 020 7930 3647