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

Sunday 15 September

2.00 – 4.00 pm:

Registration

(i) Main Porters’ Lodge for room keys and checking into accommodation;

(ii) Garden Quad Auditorium Foyer for registration

4.45 – 5.00 pm:

Welcome to Participants (Garden Quad Auditorium)

Charles Mundye, President of the Robert Graves Society

5.00 – 6.00 pm:

Opening Address

Jean Moorcroft Wilson: ‘When the Musing Had to Stop’ (Garden Quad Auditorium)

6.00 pm:

Welcome Reception, Book Launch and Reading (Garden Quad Reception and Auditorium)

Dunstan Ward, Gregory Leadbetter, Nicola Nathan, Paul O’Prey

7:30 pm:

Dinner (own arrangements)

Monday 16 September

8.00 – 9.00 am:

Breakfast (Dining Hall)

9.15 – 10.15 am:

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’

10.15 – 10.45 am:

Refreshments

10.45 – 11.45 am:

In Conversation (Garden Quad Auditorium)

Sean O’Brien with Patrick McGuinness

11.45 am – 12.00 pm:

Break

12.00 – 1.00 pm:

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’

1.00 – 2.00 pm:

Lunch

2.00 – 3.00 pm:

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’

3.00 – 3.15 pm:

Break

3.15 – 4.15 pm:

Performance (Garden Quad Auditorium)

Alan Cox: ‘Graves’s Traces’

4.15 – 4.30 pm:

Break

4.30 – 5.00 pm:

Robert Graves Society Talk (Garden Quad Auditorium)

Charles Mundye: ‘Olympic Graves’

6.00 pm:

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

8:00 pm:

Dinner (own arrangements)

Tuesday 17th September

8.00 – 9.00 am:

Breakfast (Dining Hall)

9.15 – 10.45 am:

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’

10.45 – 11.15 am:

Refreshments

11.15 am – 12.45 pm:

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’

12.45 – 1.45 pm:

Lunch (own arrangements)

1.45 – 2.45 pm:

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’

2.45 – 3.00 pm:

Break

3.00 – 4.00 pm:

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’

4.45 – 5.00 pm:

Break

5.00 – 6.30 pm:

Lecture-recital (Garden Quad Auditorium)

‘“Song-Enchanted Fellows”: Robert Graves and Musical Imagination’

April Fredrick (soprano)

Eric McElroy (pianist and speaker)

7.30 pm:

Conference Dinner (Dining Hall)

Wednesday 18th September

8.00 – 9.00 am:

Breakfast (Dining Hall)

9.30 – 10.15 am:

Robert Graves Society Talk (Garden Quad Auditorium)

Patrick McGuinness: ‘Robert Graves, and the Real Oxford’

10.15 – 10.45 am

Refreshments

10.45 – 11.45 am

Closing Address (Garden Quad Auditorium)

Gregory Leadbetter: ‘Which Flowers to Choose? Robert Graves and the Dilemmas of Anthologising’

12.00 – 12.30 pm

Biennial General Meeting of the Robert Graves Society (Garden Quad Auditorium)

End of conference