School of Critical Studies

Symposium on Fantasy and the Fantastic

Fantasy is a central element of human culture—framing, shaping, and binding together ways of thinking, doing and being that span the gamut of human expression and action. Today, its manifestations encompass the full range of contemporary narrative, visual, and performing arts including literature, film, TV, comics, theatre, illustration, advertising and gaming. It provides a crucial interdisciplinary space to stimulate fruitful conversations between widely different areas of research and creativity.

 

On Friday May 10th, an ArtsLab-funded Fantasy Symposium brings together researchers, practitioners, and creative industry professionals to discuss theoretical and practical questions raised by using fantasy as a discourse and subject. This is the first step towards establishing a Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at the University of Glasgow.

• We invite 5-minute presentations on the ways in which you engage with fantasy or the fantastic in your own practices, research, and teaching.
• Please send a title and a one-sentence description to arts-fantasy@glasgow.ac.uk by Monday 15^th April 2019 (please use “Fantasy Symposium Presentation” as your e-mail subject)

The symposium will open with a showcase event, in which colleagues will give brief presentations on their engagement with fantasy/the fantastic. A substantial lunch break will allow networking and further conversations. In the afternoon, we will bring together themes arising from the morning session, in order to address questions such as:

• How can we define fantasy and what and how it means?
• How can we work together to serve the fantasy scholarly and creative community in Glasgow and beyond?
• How can a Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic facilitate research and collaboration?

This symposium will address these questions, and begin to frame a collaborative, interdisciplinary manifesto for the affordances of fantasy to scholarship and the arts.

The Symposium will close with a keynote address by Terri Windling, award-winning author, editor, artist, and essayist, whose multi-faceted work on fantasy has been often inspired by myth, folklore, and fairy tales. 

Fantasy Symposium - Schedule (FINAL)

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First published: 3 April 2019