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Fifth Keats Foundation Bicentenary Conference at Keats House, Hampstead.
May 18, 2018 - May 20, 2018
The Keats Foundation is delighted to announce its fifth bicentenary conference, ‘Shadows, Magnitudes, Tests and Trials: John Keats in 1818’, to be held at Keats House, Hampstead 18-20 May 2018.
1818 was a productive if perilous year for John Keats, beginning with his storm-battered coach journey from London to Exeter, en route to Teignmouth where he completed Isabella; or, the Pot of Basil. Summer 1818 saw him footing slow through the Lake District and South West Scotland, then on into the Highlands and Islands of Scotland’s west coast – Mull, Iona, Staffa and the summit of Ben Nevis. Autumn back at Well Walk, Hampstead, was devoted to caring for his brother Tom, who died on 1 December. Amid all this he wrote wonderful letters and great poetry, and met Fanny Brawne for the first time. He finished the year at a bloody thirty-four round prize-fight between Jack Turner and Ned Randall. Our conference invites explorations of Keats’s life and creativity throughout this remarkable year — and beyond it.
Proposals for twenty-minute papers are now invited on all aspects of ‘Shadows, Magnitudes, Tests and Trials: John Keats in 1818’ — in his poetry, letters, manuscripts, life, and posthumous reputation (myths and memoirs; biographies; critical reception; creative afterlives and legacies – poetry, painting, imagined lives). Papers will also be welcomed in relation to his circle of friends, including (but not limited to) Fanny Brawne, Charles Brown, Lord Byron, Charles Cowden Clarke, William Hazlitt, John and Leigh Hunt, Isabella Jones, the Ollier brothers, John Hamilton Reynolds, Joseph Severn, Percy and Mary Shelley, and John Taylor the publisher.
For obvious reasons, all papers should have a significant Keats dimension.
Lectures and papers will be presented in the spacious Nightingale Room adjacent to Keats House. We anticipate leisurely walks to explore the Keatsian locality, Hampstead Heath, and Leigh Hunt’s Vale of Health. We will also celebrate the launch of John Keats and the Medical Imagination, a groundbreaking collection of essays drawn from papers at the Keats Foundation’s 2015 Conference at Guy’s Hospital. For further information about the Keats Foundation please go to
For Keats House, please visit
Please submit 200-word paper proposals to [email protected]. Please ensure that your proposal is headed with your paper title, your name, institutional affiliation, and an e-mail contact address. Deadline for paper proposals is Monday 5 March 2018, so please send proposals as soon as possible!
Registration will open on Monday 19 March 2018. Our aim has been to keep this as simple as is practically possible. The registration fees set out below are based on the 2017 conference and are unlikely to change much when registration opens; registration covers administrative overheads, teas, coffees, wine reception and so on, for the duration of the conference.
To postgraduate students and unwaged we offer a concession fee. Lunches and dinners will be improvised at local pubs and restaurants, and are not covered by the conference fee. Overnight accommodation during the conference is wholly at the discretion of participants.
Early paper proposals and booking are recommended. If you have significant funding deadlines please alert us to these.
Registration
For attendance at the full conference including the conference dinner on Saturday 18 May the following charges will apply:
Registration fees are likely to be in the region of £110 at the full price for existing Keats Foundation supporters in year 2017-18, and £150 for non-Supporters, including a one-year introductory Supporter’s subscription to the Keats Foundation. These fees include the Conference dinner on Saturday 19 May.
For postgraduates and unwaged, we will offer a concessionary rate likely to be in the region of £45 for existing Keats Foundation Supporters in year 2017-18 and £90 for non-Supporters including a one-year Supporter’s subscription to the Keats Foundation. These fees include the Conference dinner on Saturday 19 May.
Exact costings will be made available closer to the opening of registration in mid-March 2018, and we do not expect to deviate significantly from these prices. Day rates will be available, and these will not include the Conference dinner.
Full details about how to become a Keats Foundation supporter now can be found at https://keatsfoundation.com/support/ Supporter status will not affect consideration or acceptance of paper proposals; the decision of the conference directors will be final.
Please note that all payments via our PayPal account should add to the registration fee £3.00 to cover administration charges. Details of how to pay by PayPal will be released closer to the date of registration. Alternatively, you can pay by sterling cheque only made out to ‘Keats Foundation’, and mailed to John Keats Conference, School of English, University of St Andrews, KY16 9AR Scotland UK.