19-20 November 2010
Ever since human beings first began seafaring, they have been fascinated, and haunted, by shipwrecks. For maritime societies especially, shipwreck has been the stuff of nightmares, representing a constant threat not only to individual sailors but also to the community as a whole. Unsurprisingly, therefore, shipwreck is one of the oldest motifs in art and literature, from the second millennium BCE to the modern era. Yet accounts, images and metaphors of shipwreck have taken diverse forms and served various purposes, varying significantly across time and between cultures.
The aim of this symposium, a collaboration between the Centre for Travel Writing Studies, Nottingham Trent University and the National Maritime Museum, is to explore the shifting and multiple semiotics of shipwreck; to trace the evolution of the shipwreck motif over time and across cultures; and to trace the circulation of accounts and representations of specific shipwrecks through culture.
Speakers include: Josiah Blackmore (University of Toronto, Canada); Emma Cocker (Nottingham Trent University); Stephen Donovan (Uppsala University, Sweden); Boris Dunsch (University of Marburg); Jenny Gaschke (National Maritime Museum); Steve Mentz (St John’s University, USA); Robin Miskolcze (Loyola Marymount University, USA); Bill Niven (Nottingham Trent University); Kirsty Reid (University of Bristol); Sarah Shaw (University of Oxford); Carl Thompson (Nottingham Trent University); Michael Titlestad (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa).
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