Sixteenth International Robert Graves Conference
Robert Graves and the Popular Imagination
St John’s College, Oxford, UK
15 – 18 September 2024
Organised by the Robert Graves Society
Programme
Registration
(i) Main Porters’ Lodge for room keys and checking into accommodation;
(ii) Garden Quad Auditorium Foyer for registration
Welcome to Participants (Garden Quad Auditorium)
Charles Mundye, President of the Robert Graves Society
Opening Address
Jean Moorcroft Wilson: ‘When the Musing Had to Stop’ (Garden Quad Auditorium)
Welcome Reception, Book Launch and Reading (Garden Quad Reception and Auditorium)
Dunstan Ward, Gregory Leadbetter, Nicola Nathan, Paul O’Prey
Dinner (own arrangements)
Breakfast (Dining Hall)
Panel 1 (Garden Quad Auditorium)
Adrianna Marinelli: ‘Popularising Classics: Robert Graves’s Representation of Ancient Rome in I, Claudius between historical accuracy and fictional creativity
Philip Ward: ‘Robert Graves and the Music of the 1960s’
Refreshments
In Conversation (Garden Quad Auditorium)
Sean O’Brien with Patrick McGuinness
Break
Panel 2 (Garden Quad Auditorium)
Julia Simonne: ‘“Troublesome Fame”: a personal look at Graves and his friendships with other writers and artists from the late 1950s to mid-1970s’
Kirsten Norrie: ‘Robert Graves: Traveller of the Celtic Alphabet of Trees’
Lunch
Panel 3 (Garden Quad Auditorium)
Elena Theodorakopoulos: ‘Not (a)muse(d): misogyny and melodrama in The Laureate’
Mark Jacobs: ‘Laura Riding and Robert Graves – Literary Mayhem: Selected Letters 1971-1980’
Break
Performance (Garden Quad Auditorium)
Alan Cox: ‘Graves’s Traces’
Break
Robert Graves Society Talk (Garden Quad Auditorium)
Charles Mundye: ‘Olympic Graves’
Reading and Book Launch: (St Anne’s College, Woodstock Road. Please note, this is a 10-15-minute walk from St John’s College)
MacGillivray, Patrick McGuinness, Sean O’Brien
Dinner (own arrangements)
Breakfast (Dining Hall)
Panel 4 (Garden Quad Auditorium): ‘Robert Graves for Children’
Neil Philip: ‘Children if You Dare’
Joseph T. Thomas Jr: ‘I found the strings were painted’: Poetry, Childhood, and The Penny Fiddle
Michael Joseph: ‘Robert Graves’s The Big Green Book’
Refreshments
Panel 5 (Garden Quad Auditorium)
William Graves: ‘Update on the letters project’
Philip Graves: ‘…There is no olive harvest this year’
Joseph Bailey: ‘“To Basil and Kathleen with Love on New Year 1945”: Letters between Robert Graves and Basil and Kathleen Liddell-Hart near the End of World War Two’
Lunch (own arrangements)
Panel 6 (Garden Quad Auditorium)
Tanja Cvetković: ‘In the Eyes of His Readers: Robert Graves and the Critical Imagination’
Joan Rodriguez-Amat: ‘Graves in the News’
Break
Panel 7 (Garden Quad Auditorium)
Susan Vincent: ‘Robert Graves and T.E. Lawrence: friendship and personality’
Richard A. Kaye: ‘Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, and the Hidden Anxieties of Post-War Homoerotic Public Revelation’
Break
Lecture-recital (Garden Quad Auditorium)
‘“Song-Enchanted Fellows”: Robert Graves and Musical Imagination’
April Fredrick (soprano)
Eric McElroy (pianist and speaker)
Conference Dinner (Dining Hall)
Breakfast (Dining Hall)
Robert Graves Society Talk (Garden Quad Auditorium)
Patrick McGuinness: ‘Robert Graves, and the Real Oxford’
Refreshments
Closing Address (Garden Quad Auditorium)
Gregory Leadbetter: ‘Which Flowers to Choose? Robert Graves and the Dilemmas of Anthologising’
Biennial General Meeting of the Robert Graves Society (Garden Quad Auditorium)