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Art and Action: The Intersections of Literary Celebrity and PoliticsAuthor: Oxford University
In line with a long literary tradition of the artist as propagandist, who strives to appeal to the political, moral, and social conscience of his/her readership, writers have persistently crossed the divide between art and politics both in their works and in their roles as public intellectuals, cultural critics, and political activists. Moreover, established authors have, with striking regularity, taken advantage of their celebrity status in order to draw attention to specific socio-political agendas, thus demonstrating the convertibility of celebrity capital. The talks in this symposium - hosted by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities on 5 March 2016 - address the complex interplay of authorship, politics, and fame/celebrity within an Anglophone cultural context across historical periods and media, covering a broad spectrum of themes that include literary celebrity and the politics of class, gender, and race; the tension between authorial self-fashioning and media appropriation; and the dual commitment to art and action of writers in political office. Image: Hawthorne Literary Mural, Portland, Oregon, by Jane Brewster (www.janebrewster.com) Language: en Genres: Arts, Books, Education Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Hemingway vs Gellhorn: A Famous D-Day Rivalry
Sunday, 3 April, 2016
Kate McLoughlin offers an intriguing case study of the gendering of writerly fame. Kate McLoughlin (University of Oxford) talks about the textual war between Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn in the pages of Collier's Magazine in July 1944. The story of the magazine's editorial interventions in presenting their D-Day dispatches tells us about authority and ambition in print, how men and women correspondents were valued during World War II, and the premium placed on the eye-witness account of a male 'national treasure'.
