CfP: The Transitional – George Moore at the Fin de Siècle

The Transitional: George Moore at the Fin de Siècle

Hosted by the Department of English, University of Liverpool, with the George Moore Association | Liverpool, 8th–10th May 2024 

This Liverpool conference will focus on the multiple transitions which coincided with, and characterised, Moore’s life and career. These include transitions between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries; naturalism, realism and modernism; poetry, prose and drama; Catholicism and Protestantism, English and Irish identities; public and private morality. Transitions and related rivalries involved vigorous and often fruitful exchanges with numerous figures including Thomas Hardy, Arthur Symons, Max Beerbohm, Michael Field, Arnold Dolmetsch, the National Vigilance Association, Virginia Woolf, James McNeill Whistler, W. H. Smith & Mudie’s, George Bernard Shaw, W.B. Yeats, and many other contemporaries in the artistic, journalistic, political and social scenes. Transition is also characteristic of the themes of Moore’s writing: between secular and religious; between male and female; between wealth and poverty; between constrained and liberated. Papers may include, but are not limited to, considerations of transitions of all types in relation to George Moore and to his contacts and contemporaries. 

For George Moore, Liverpool was a place of transition. It was a point of arrival and departure for friends, acquaintances and publishers travelling between America and Europe. Most notably, this important location recalls a milestone in Moore family history: it was their landing point on a momentous journey that culminated in a victory for a horse called Coranna. 

The final day of the conference will offer an opportunity to visit Chester racecourse where in 1846  George Moore’s father’s horse won the Chester Cup. This brought G. H. Moore £17,000, enabling him to offer relief to his tenants during the first year of the Famine, and settle his gambling debts. Our visit will coincide with the 200^th running of this famous race.

Conference website: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/english/news/12th-international-george-moore-conference/

Plenary Speaker: Professor Frank Shovlin (University of Liverpool, UK)

Call for Papers 

Following a number of requests, the deadline for submitting abstracts for papers (20 minutes) has been extended until Tuesday 30^th January 2024.

Abstracts should be up to 200 words, should include a title and should be accompanied by a short biographical note of up to 100 words, plus email address and institutional affiliation (if applicable). Abstracts should be sent as email attachments to: GM2024@liverpool.ac.uk.