Gossip & Tales, February - March 2017

The Newsletter of the

Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy Feb 2017 - Mar 2018

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Contents

Events at the Sussex Centre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

‘Jews on Quests!', Farah Mendlesohn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Zoe Gilbert's Folk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

'Lewis Carroll and George MacDonald: An Influential Friendship’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Events around the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Gramarye issue 12 e-book out now. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

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Events at the Sussex Centre

‘Jews on Quests! Challenging the ur-texts of genre fantasy’, Farah Mendlesohn Thursday 8 February 2018, 6:30–8 p.m., Cloisters, Bishop Otter Campus In Rhetorics of Fantasy, historian and SFF critic Farah Mendlesohn argued that most genre fantasy was fundamentally Christian in its understanding of the world.

This led her to wonder what was Jewish about genre fantasy by Jewish writers.

In this talk she explores works by authors of huge large world fantasies such as those from Jane Yolen and Peter Davidson, and Guy Gavriel Kay, and quieter, more whimsical offerings from authors such as Peter Beagle, Sandra Unerman and Lisa Goldstein, to argue that these texts challenge the Christian ur-texts that are so much a part of the Anglo-American fantasy tradition.

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ADDITIONAL EVENT ‘Robert Heinlein: His Lasting Legacy?’

4:30-5:30 SF & Coffee, Academic Block 2.01 Please join us for an informal conversation with Farah Mendlesohn about her forthcoming critical study of the ‘Dean of Science Fiction’, Robert Heinlein (Unbound Books). A cultural relativist, a libertarian who famously practised nudism, and a writer who invested SF with literary themes and treatment, Heinlein was a giant of the field and a maverick figure whose ideas remain controversial today.

Fans and newbies welcome!

Both events are free and open to the public.

Farah’s visit is part-sponsored by the Chaplaincy.

FOLK, Zoe Gilbert Monday, 26 March 2018, 6.00 - 7:30 p.m. room tbc, Bishop Otter Campus Zoe Gilbert will read from her first novel, Folk, published by Bloomsbury in February 2018. Zoe is currently completing a PhD in creative writing at the University of Chichester, focusing on folk tales in contemporary short stories. Her own stories have been published in anthologies from Comma 4

Press and Cinnamon press, and in journals worldwide including Mechanics’ Institute Review and The Stinging Fly. Her work has won prizes including the Costa Short Story Award.

She teaches and mentors creative writers at London Lit Lab, and for organisations including the British Library and Arvon Foundation.

CfP ‘Lewis Carroll and George MacDonald: An Influential Friendship’ Saturday, 3 November 2018 “While Dodgson, the … mathematician who hated inaccuracy, loved to question the very multiplication table’s veracity, my father, the poet, who hated any touch of irreverence, could laugh till tears ran at his friend’s ridicule of smug formalism and copy-book maxims.”

Greville MacDonald, George MacDonald and his Wife, 1924.

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The works of both the Scottish author, poet and minister, George MacDonald, and the English polymath Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) have been among the strongest of influences on writers of fantasy for the past 150 years. The relationship between these two Victorians is both deep and fascinating and a close examination of that friendship reveals the significant influence they had on each other’s work.

This one-day symposium will examine the life and works of the two writers with particular reference to that friendship, which began in Hastings, and their interests in folklore, fairy tales and fantasy.

We invite proposals for 20-minute presentations on topics including, but not restricted to: • The authors’ shared views on folklore, fairy tales and fantasy • Overlapping themes in their literature • Hastings / Sussex influences and connections • Lewis Carroll’s photographs of the MacDonald family • The author’s influence on other writers, e.g., C.S. Lewis, Tolkien.

Please submit an abstract of approximately 200 words, together with a biographical note (up to 100 words) by 30 April 2018 to info@sussexcentre.org. We will respond to all submissions by Thursday 31 May 2018.

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Other events around the world

The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales 6-10 February 2018, Chichester Festival Theatre https://www.cft.org.uk/whats-on/event/the-little-matchgirl Zsófia Jakab's “Beckoning” 19 January - 8 February, Leeds Exploring spiders and fairy-tale spinning. https://www.leeds-art.ac.uk/newsevents/events-exhibitions/zsofiajakab-beckoning/ Secret Tunnels - Underground Folklore of England Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Libraries (London) Thu 15 February 2018, 6.30-7.45 p.m.

Antony Clayton uncovers unusual underground folklore across England, including the mysterious Green Children of Woolpit, the Knockers of Cornish mining folklore, fiddlers vanishing underground, buried treasure and treacle mines. h t t p s : / / w w w. e ve n t b r i t e . c o. u k / e / s e c re t - t u n n e l s underground-folklore-of-england-tickets-40051766913 7

'The Remarkable Tale of Robert Desnos' Friday 16 February 2018, 7.30 p.m., London The Crick Crack Club presents fairy tales for grown-ups. https://www.richmix.org.uk/events/theatre/remarkabletale-robert-desnos The Devil, the Tsar and the Three Dry Biscuits Friday 16 Feb, Kings Place (London), 2 p.m.

The Crick Crack Club, ÂŁ8.50 https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/family/crick-crackclub-presents-devil-tsar-three-dry-biscuits/ Between Worlds: Folklore and Fairy Tales from Northern Britain Palace Green Library, Durham.

14 October 2017 - 25 February 2018.

This new temporary exhibition takes its inspiration from medieval romance, ballads, and collections of folklore compiled between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, which tell of encounters with otherworldly creatures and journeys into mysterious worlds. It presents a forgotten type of fairy tale, very different to those that we are familiar with in today’s popular culture. h t t p s : / / w w w . d u r. a c . u k / l i b r a r y / a s c / e v e n t s / exhibitions/?eventno=36250 8

Harry Potter: A History of Magic 20 October 2017 to 28 February 2018, British Library Unveiling rare books, manuscripts and magical objects from the British Library’s collection, capturing the traditions of folklore and magic which are at the heart of the Harry Potter stories. SOLD OUT. https://www.bl.uk/events/harry-potter-a-history-of-magic William Blake in Sussex: Visions of Albion 13 January - 25 March 2018, Petworth (West Sussex)

A rare opportunity to see original works by Blake inspired by the Sussex coast and countryside re-united for the first time. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/petworth-house-and-park/ features/william-blake-in-sussex---visions-of-albion-exhibition 9

Coraline 27 March – 7 April 2018, Barbican Theatre The opera's world premiere, based on Neil Gaiman’s story. http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/coraline-by-aletta-collins 'Mervyn Peake in Sussex', Miles Leeson, 4 April 2018, 2 p.m. Boxgrove Village Hall, Chichester https://www.chichesterliterarysociety.co.uk/events/ Wonderland 5 April - 7 October 2018, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne Wonderland explores how filmmaking, special effects and technology have reimagined one of the world’s most beloved characters. h t t p s : / / w w w. a c m i . n e t . a u / e v e n t s / wonderland/ Escaping Escapism in Fantasy and the Fantastic: Glasgow International Fantasy Conversations 26th – 27th April 2018, University of Glasgow This two-day symposium seeks to examine and honour the relationship between escapism and the fantastic. https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/ announcements/955200/escaping-escapism-fantasy-and-fantastic 10

Hidden Charms 2: The magical protection of buildings Saturday 21st April 2018, Salisbury http://www.apotropaios.co.uk/conference-2018.html CfP: Working Life: Belief, Custom, Ritual, Narrative 27-9 April 2018, Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading Contributions are invited from scholars across the fields of folklore studies, anthropology, cultural studies, ethnology and other related disciplines. http://folklore-society.com/events/working-life-beliefcustom-ritual-narrative CfP ‘Gardens Of Good and Evil: Growing Life, Plucking Death’ Australian Fairy Tale Society 5th Annual Conference 10 June 2018, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, Australia Accepting proposals for creative readings, academic papers, music performance, displays, dance or other modes. https://australianfair ytalesociety.files.wordpress. com/2017/11/2017-conference-call-out-for-members-2-pages.pdf

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Gramarye issue 12 e-book out now

Gramarye issue 12 is now available as an e-book (pdf or Kindle file) from our online store. This issue’s contents include: • ‘A Walk through Rackham Land’, Steven O’Brien • ‘On Putting Arthur Rackham’s The Sleeping Beauty into Verse’, William Wootten • ‘“That was Sussex – seely Sussex for everlastin’!” Arthur Rackham and H.R. Millar’s illustrations to Rudyard Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill’, Simon Poë • ‘Dollhouse Architecture: Leonora Carrington and Children’s Literature’, Catriona McAra • ‘“Maid Maleen”: A fairy-tale study of trauma’, Katherine Langrish • ‘Herne, the Windsor Bogey’, Simon Young • ‘A Signing Wife’, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by Simon Hughes • ‘My Favourite Story when I was Young’, Diane Purkiss 12

• A review of Thom Burgess and Barney Bodoano's The Eyrie, Emily Jessica Turner • A review of Anna Kerchy's Alice in Transmedia Wonderland, Ida Yoshinaga • A review of Carol Mavor's Aurelia: Art and Literature Through the Mouth of the Fairy Tale, Rose Williamson • A review of Gretchen Schultz and Lewis Seifert (eds), Fairy Tales for the Disillusioned: Enchanted Stories from the French Decadent Tradition, Victoria Leslie The printed edition of Gramarye is only available to pre-ordering customers and subscribers. To guarantee your printed copy of future issues, please subscribe here.

Exclusive offer Gramarye readers are entitled to 20% off Scrivener software, the project management tool for writers. Just visit http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php and enter the coupon code ‘SUSSEXCENTRE’.

The printed edition of Gramarye can also be ordered from: • Atlantis Books (London) • Kims (Chichester) • Treadwells (London)

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If you have any queries or feedback about this newsletter, please contact Heather Robbins at h.robbins@chi.ac.uk

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