In November and December 1997, Thomas Cooper Library will host a major loan-exhibition from the Joseph M. Bruccoli Great War Collection. The collection was established at the University of Virginia by Matthew J. Bruccoli in honor of his father, a WWI veteran. It includes not only novels and poetry from the Great War but memoirs, posters, military newspapers, cartoons, music, and materials relating to WWI movies. The collection now totals many thousand items. 1997 is the 80th anniversary of the United States' entry into the war.
The opening symposium, to be held on Armistice Day, November 11, 1997, will feature a variety of short research presentations by scholars from around the country, as well as lectures in the afternoon aimed at a broader audience. Speakers will include both well-known writers on the Great War and younger scholars. We expect interest in both parts of the program from colleges around the state and region, and additional campus and community interest in the afternoon lectures.
Alongside the major exhibition and symposium will be a commemoration of the University's own role in the Great War, with an exhibit about alumni participants based on the Univesity archives.
Conference hotel and travel arrangements:
A limited number of rooms have been provisionally reserved for the conference at the Clarion Town House, 1614 Gervais Street, Columbia, SC 29201. To ensure a room and the special coference room rate ($65 per night, plus tax), phone the hotel direct as soon as possible (too-free at 1-800-277-8711), asking for a room for the "USC Great War Conference."
Columbia Metropolitan Airport is served by several major airlines, notably Delta (usually through Atlanta) and USAir (usually through Charlotte). It is also on three interstates: I-77, I-20, and I-26. The hotel provides limo service from the airport.
Symposium sponsors:
Sponsors of the Symposium include Thomas Cooper Library, the College of Liberal Arts, the Departments of English and History, the Thomas Cooper Society, and Dr. and Mrs. Matthew J. Bruccoli. Because of the sponsorship, there is no fee for conference participation, and the conference lunch should not exceed $15.
Contact address:
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Patrick Scott
Special Collections
Thomas Cooper Library
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
Tel.: (803) 777-3847
Fax: (803) 777-4661
Draft Program for Symposium
Monday, November 10, 1997 |
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| Informal evening welcome for speakers/participants (approx. 7:00-8:00) | ||
Tuesday, November 11, 1997 |
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| Coffee available from 8:30 | ||
| Session I (9:00-10:30): How contemporaries saw the Great War | ||
| Chair: Patrick Scott | Thomas Cooper Library, University of South Carolina | |
| Patrick Quinn | Nene University/St. John's College, Oxford author of The Great War and the Missing Muse, co-editor of the Robert Graves papers |
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| Opening keynote: "Fictions from the German Invasion" | ||
| Brief break | ||
| Mark Dollar | Department of English, Purdue University | |
| "The Grotesque and the Great War in O'Casey's The Silver Tassle" | ||
| James P. Haughey | Department of English, Southern Wesleyan University | |
| "'Our dead enigma': Francis Ledwidge, Ireland's Soldier-Poet" | ||
| Break | ||
| Session 2 (10:45-12:15): Recent perspectives on the Great War | ||
| Chair: George L. Geckle |
Department of English, University of South Carolina |
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| Andrew J. Kunka | Department of English, Purdue University | |
| "'The duty to run mad': Shell-shock Narratives in WWI Britain" | ||
| Jimmy Dean Smith | Department of English, Newberry College | |
| "You Make Us Shells: Siegfried Sassoon's Assault on Motherhood" | ||
| Sarah Cole | Department of English, Ohio University | |
| "Modernism, Male Intimacy, and the Great War" | ||
| Cheryl Mares | Department of English, Sweetbriar College | |
| "Beauty and the Beast: Assessing Pat Barker's Great War Trilogy" | ||
| Lunch | ||
| Session 3 (1.45-3.00): | ||
| Chair: TBA | ||
| Mark W. Van Wienen | Department of English, Augustana College, SD | |
| "The Black Soldier and the Great War: The Crisis in African American Representation" | ||
| Charles E. Bailey | Department of History, Adirondack Community College, NY | |
| "The Entente Cordiale's Horror of the Hun: Europe's Protestant Theologians During the Kulturkrieg, 1914-1918" | ||
| David C. Dougherty | Department of English, Loyola University of Maryland | |
| "A Triple Dose of Disillusionment and Incentive to Radical Writing: John Dos Passos and the War to End All Wars" | ||
| Session 4 (3:15-4:50): The Great War and Modern Misunderstanding | ||
| Chair: S. Paul Mackenzie |
Department of History, University of South Carolina |
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| Peter Liddle | Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds First World War Historian |
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| "Myths and Misunderstandings About British Personal Experience in the Great War" | ||
| Brief break | ||
| Hugh Cecil | Department of History, University of Leeds author of The Flower of Battle, coeditor of Facing Armageddon |
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| "On the Track of Forgotten Great War Writers" | ||
| Exhibition Opening and Concluding Reception (5:00-6:00) | ||
| Matthew J. Bruccoli | Department of English, University of South Carolina | |
| "The Joseph M. Bruccoli Great War Collection" | ||
| Reception sponsored by the Thomas Cooper Society | ||
This library is a congressionaly designated depository for U.S. government documents. Public access to the government documents collections is guaranteed by public law.